United States
Germany Travel and Destination Guide
BACKGROUND INFO
Full Name
Federal Republic of Germany
Capital City
Berlin
Area
357,021 sq km
Population
82,398,000
Time Zone
GMT/UTC +1
Daylight Saving Start
last Sunday in March
Daylight Saving End
last Sunday in October
Weights Measures System
Metric
Geography
The lowlands in the north of Germany stretch from the Netherlands eastward to Poland, touching southern Denmark midway up the peninsula that separates the North Sea from the Baltic Sea. The industrialised central belt cinches Belgium and Luxembourg to the Czech Republic's western prong. The Rhine and Main Rivers, long crucial for inland shipping, power through the troughs and gorges which cut through the Central Uplands. To the south, the Danube River drains the Bavarian highlands from the Black Forest, near the French and Swiss borders, to Munich. The southern reaches of the Bavarian Alps give way to Austria.
Languages
• German (official)
People
Predominantly Caucasian, with a significant Turkish minority. Germany has also absorbed many refugees from the former Yugoslavia.
Religion
34% Protestant, 34% Catholic, 4% Muslim, 28% unaffiliated or other. There are at least 105,000 Jews, most of them post-1990 immigrants from the former Soviet Union (the pre-Holocaust figure was over half a million).
Government Type
Federal Republic
Government Leaders
Angela Merkel
Chancellor (head of state)
Horst Köhler
President (head of government)
Country Dialing Code
49
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