With coastlines on both the Baltic Sea and North Seas, Germany is bordered by nine other countries.
The north is characterized by its plains and rolling hills; the south by mountainous terrain.
Being the most populous country in Europe after Russia, it is also the foremost industrial power. Germany remains the world's second biggest exporter behind the Asian industrial giant Japan. |
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Germany was divided into two nations following the defeat of the Nazi regime in 1945. The western two-thirds became a free-market democracy aligned with the west, and the east became a communist state in the Soviet Warsaw Pact.
The collapse of East Germany in 1989 ultimately paved the way for reunification in 1990. Social and economic unification continue to remain elusive, however.
Tension created through disparity of wealth between east and west continues to dominate German domestic politics and economics.
Right-wing political extremism is making an ominous comeback in areas of what was once the former German Democratic Republic. |
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Tourism remains a significant part of Germany's economy, given the skiing in the Bavarian Alps, and touring the historic castles of the Rhine Valley and the Black Forest.
Even before reunification, the city of Berlin attracts many tourists with a rich cultural life despite its wall that seperated capitalist west from the communist east. Unified Berlin is presently receiving unprecedented reconstruction in an effort to revive the splendor of it's old capital city.
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