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Location: Central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea
and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland,
south of Denmark
Geographic coordinates: 51 00 N, 9 00 E
Map references: Europe
Area:
total: 357,021 sq km
land: 349,223 sq km
water: 7,798 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Montana
Land boundaries:
total: 3,621 km
border countries: Austria 784 km, Belgium 167 km,
Czech Republic 646 km, Denmark 68 km, France 451 km,
Luxembourg 138 km, Netherlands 577 km, Poland 456 km,
Switzerland 334 km
Coastline: 2,389 km
Maritime claims:
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of
exploitation
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters
and summers; occasional warm foehn wind
Terrain: lowlands in north, uplands in center,
Bavarian Alps in south
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Freepsum Lake -2 m
highest point: Zugspitze 2,963 m
Natural resources: iron ore, coal, potash, timber,
lignite, uranium, copper, natural gas, salt, nickel,
arable land
Land use:
arable land: 33%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 15%
forests and woodland: 31%
other: 20% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 4,750 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: flooding
Environment - current issues: emissions from
coal-burning utilities and industries contribute to air
pollution; acid rain, resulting from sulfur dioxide
emissions, is damaging forests; pollution in the Baltic
Sea from raw sewage and industrial effluents from rivers
in eastern Germany; hazardous waste disposal; government
currently attempting to define mechanism for ending the
use of nuclear power; government working to meet EU
commitment to identify nature preservation areas in line
with the EU's Flora, Fauna, and Habitat directive
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen
Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Sulphur
94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty,
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent
Organic Pollutants, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note: strategic location on North
European Plain and along the entrance to the Baltic Sea
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Background:
As
Western Europe's richest and most populous nation, Germany
remains a key member of the continent's economic, political, and
defense organizations. European power struggles immersed the
country in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the
20th century and left the country occupied by the victorious
Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in
1945. With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were
formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)
and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic
FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security
organizations, the EC and NATO, while the communist GDR was on
the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the
USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German unification
in 1990. Since then Germany has expended considerable funds to
bring eastern productivity and wages up to western standards. In
January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries formed a common
European currency, the euro.
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Population: 82,797,408 (July 2000 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 16% (male 6,679,930; female
6,333,110)
15-64 years: 68% (male 28,638,814; female
27,693,630)
65 years and over: 16% (male 5,133,121; female
8,318,803) (2000 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.29% (2000 est.)
Birth rate: 9.35 births/1,000 population (2000
est.)
Death rate: 10.49 deaths/1,000 population (2000
est.)
Net migration rate: 4.01 migrant(s)/1,000
population (2000 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2000 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 4.77 deaths/1,000 live
births (2000 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 77.44 years
male: 74.3 years
female: 80.75 years (2000 est.)
Total fertility rate: 1.38 children born/woman
(2000 est.)
Nationality:
noun: German(s)
adjective: German
Ethnic groups: German 91.5%, Turkish 2.4%, other
6.1% (made up largely of Serbo-Croatian, Italian,
Russian, Greek, Polish, Spanish)
Religions: Protestant 38%, Roman Catholic 34%,
Muslim 1.7%, unaffiliated or other 26.3%
Languages: German
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99% (1977 est.)
male: NA%
female: NA%
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Communications |
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Telephones - main lines in use: NA; 46.5 million
main lines are installed (July 1999)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 15.318 million (April
1999)
Telephone system: Germany has one of the world's
most technologically advanced telecommunications
systems; as a result of intensive capital expenditures
since reunification, the formerly backward system of the
eastern part of the country has been modernized and
integrated with that of the western part
domestic: Germany is served by an extensive
system of automatic telephone exchanges connected by
modern networks of fiber-optic cable, coaxial cable,
microwave radio relay, and a domestic satellite system;
cellular telephone service is widely available and
includes roaming service to many foreign countries
international: satellite earth stations - 14
Intelsat (12 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean), 1
Eutelsat, 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region), 2
Intersputnik (1 Atlantic Ocean region and 1 Indian Ocean
region); 7 submarine cable connections; 2 HF
radiotelephone communication centers; tropospheric
scatter links
Radio broadcast stations: AM 51, FM 767,
shortwave 4 (1998)
Radios: 77.8 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations:
9,513 (including repeaters) (1998)
Televisions: 51.4 million (1998)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 625 (1999)
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Transportation |
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Railways:
total: 40,826 km including at least 14,253 km
electrified and 14,768 km double- or multiple-tracked
(1998)
note: since privatization in 1994, Deutsche Bahn
AG (DBAG) no longer publishes details of the tracks it
owns; in addition to the DBAG system there are 102
privately owned railway companies which own an
approximate 3,000 km to 4,000 km of the total tracks
Highways:
total: 656,140 km
paved: 650,891 km (including 11,400 km of
expressways)
unpaved: 5,249 km (all-weather) (1998 est.)
Waterways: 7,500 km (1999); major rivers include
the Rhine and Elbe; Kiel Canal is an important
connection between the Baltic Sea and North Sea
Pipelines: crude oil 2,500 km (1998)
Ports and harbors: Berlin, Bonn, Brake, Bremen,
Bremerhaven, Cologne, Dresden, Duisburg, Emden, Hamburg,
Karlsruhe, Kiel, Lubeck, Magdeburg, Mannheim, Rostock,
Stuttgart
Merchant marine:
total: 475 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 6,395,990
GRT/8,014,132 DWT
ships by type: bulk 2, cargo 181, chemical tanker 12,
container 239, liquified gas 2, multi-functional large
load carrier 5, passenger 2, petroleum tanker 8, rail
car carrier 2, refrigerated cargo 2, roll-on/roll-off
13, short-sea passenger 7 (1999 est.)
Airports: 615 (1999 est.)
Airports - with paved runways:
total: 320
over 3,047 m: 14
2,438 to 3,047 m: 61
1,524 to 2,437 m: 67
914 to 1,523 m: 56
under 914 m: 122 (1999 est.)
Airports - with unpaved runways:
total: 295
over 3,047 m: 2
2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
914 to 1,523 m: 55
under 914 m: 226 (1999 est.)
Heliports: 59 (1999 est.) |
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