Germany
Name
| Official name | Federal Republic of Germany — Bundesrepublik Deutschland |
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| Former names | The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (to 1806); the German Confederation (1815–1866); the German Empire (1871–1918); the German Reich of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945); the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990) |
| Demonym | German |
| Meaning of the name | Deutschland, "the land of the people," from diutisc, the folk tongue; Germania from the Romans; Allemagne, Saksa, Niemcy and Tyskland from the neighbors, each naming a different tribe |
| Motto | None official — "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit," unity and justice and freedom, from the anthem, the working motto; on the edge of the two-euro coin |
Quick facts
| Capital | Berlin — the capital of Prussia from 1701, of Germany from 1871 and of the reunited republic since 1990, the seat of government since 1999; about 3.9 million, 6 million in the region; the largest city in the EU |
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| Largest cities | Berlin; Hamburg, about 1.9 million; Munich, 1.6 million; Cologne; Frankfurt am Main; Stuttgart; Düsseldorf; Leipzig; Dortmund; Essen; the Ruhr, about 5 million together |
| Official language | German — by usage; Danish, Frisian, Sorbian and Romani recognized as minority languages, Low German as regional; English the second language of most |
| Currency | Euro — EUR, €; since 1999, the notes from 2002, replacing the Deutsche Mark at 1.95583; the European Central Bank at Frankfurt |
| Time zone | Central European Time, UTC+1; summer time UTC+2 |
| Calling code | +49 |
| Internet domain | .de — the most registered country domain in the world, some 17 million |
| ISO 3166 codes | DE · DEU · 276 |
| Vehicle registration code | D |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and F — the Schuko |
| Founded | The Federal Republic, 23 May 1949; the German Empire, 18 January 1871; reunification, 3 October 1990 |
| National days | 3 October, the Day of German Unity — the one federal holiday; 9 November, the day of 1918, 1938 and 1989, marked and not celebrated; Reformation Day, 31 October, in the Protestant states; the church holidays by state |
| Constitution | 23 May 1949 — the Basic Law, Grundgesetz, drafted as a provisional charter for the west and made the constitution of the whole country in 1990; Article 1, "Human dignity shall be inviolable"; amended some 70 times, the last in March 2025 to exempt defense from the debt brake |
| Population | About 83.6 million (Destatis, 2025) — the census of 2022 counted 82.7 million; the largest population in the EU |
| Area | 357,592 km² (138,067 sq mi) by Destatis — 357,022 km² by the CIA World Factbook, land 348,672 km², water 8,350 km²; the seventh-largest country in Europe |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A horizontal tricolor of black, red and gold — the colors of the Lützow Free Corps of 1813 and of the students at Hambach in 1832, the flag of the revolution of 1848, of the Weimar Republic and, since 23 May 1949, of the Federal Republic, in Article 22 of the Basic Law; the eagle-bearing version the flag of the state.Flag of Germany |
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| Coat of arms | The Bundesadler — a black eagle with red beak and talons on gold, the eagle of the Holy Roman emperors and of the Weimar Republic, redrawn by Tobias Schwab in 1926 and adopted by the Federal Republic on 20 January 1950; the "fat hen" of the Bundestag chamber |
| National anthem | The third stanza of the "Deutschlandlied" — "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" — words by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, 1841, to Joseph Haydn's Kaiserhymne of 1797; the anthem from 1922, the third stanza alone from 1952 and by the exchange of letters of 1991 |
| National colors | Black, red and gold |
| National animal | The eagle — the Bundesadler; the black eagle of the arms |
| National tree | The oak — the German oak of the coins and the poets; widely cited |
| National flower | The cornflower — the Kaiser's flower; widely cited, none designated |
| National dish | None — the sausage in a thousand kinds, the Bratwurst and Currywurst; sauerbraten; the bread, some 3,000 sorts, on UNESCO's list; the beer under the purity law of 1516 |
| Symbol status | The flag by Article 22 of the Basic Law; the arms and anthem by presidential announcement; the tree, flower and dishes widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Central Europe — from the North Sea and the Baltic to the Alps, between France and Poland; nine neighbors, the most of any country in Europe with Russia |
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| Land borders | 3,714 km (2,308 mi) with nine countries — Austria 801, Czechia 704, the Netherlands 575, France 448, Poland 447, Switzerland 348, Denmark 140, Belgium 133, Luxembourg 128 |
| Coastline | 2,389 km (1,484 mi) on the North Sea and the Baltic |
| Highest point | The Zugspitze, 2,962 m (9,718 ft), in the Bavarian Alps |
| Lowest point | Neuendorf-Sachsenbande, Schleswig-Holstein, 3.5 m (11 ft) below sea level |
| Mean elevation | 263 m (863 ft) |
| Major rivers | The Rhine, 865 km of its 1,233 in Germany — the river of the country, from Lake Constance to the Netherlands, with the Lorelei, the Middle Rhine gorge and the Ruhr; the Danube, rising in the Black Forest at Donaueschingen; the Elbe through Dresden and Hamburg; the Weser; the Oder on the Polish border; the Main through Frankfurt; the Moselle; the Neckar |
| Lakes | Lake Constance — the Bodensee — 536 km², shared with Austria and Switzerland; the Müritz, the largest wholly German; the Chiemsee; the Bavarian lakes; the Baltic lagoons |
| Terrain | The North German Plain with the Frisian islands and the moors; the Central Uplands — the Harz, the Rhön, the Black Forest, the Thuringian and Bavarian forests, the Ore Mountains; the Alpine foreland and the Bavarian Alps |
| Climate | Temperate — oceanic in the northwest, continental in the east and south; the Föhn of the Alps; the Rhine valley the warmest |
| Natural hazards | Floods — the Elbe of 2002 and 2013, the Ahr valley of July 2021, 180 dead; storms; the drought summers of the 2010s and 2020s; avalanches |
| Natural resources | Coal, lignite — the largest producer in the world, being wound down; potash and salt; iron ore, once; timber; the wind of the North Sea; natural gas in Lower Saxony |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 48%; forest about 32% |
| National parks | 16 — the Bavarian Forest, the first, 1970; Berchtesgaden; the Wadden Sea of Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein; Jasmund and the Vorpommern lagoons; the Harz; the Saxon Switzerland; the Black Forest, 2014; the Hunsrück-Hochwald |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 55 — from Aachen Cathedral (1978) and Speyer, Würzburg, Wies and Brühl through Cologne Cathedral, the Wartburg, the Bauhaus, the Museum Island of Berlin, the Wadden Sea and the Speicherstadt of Hamburg to the Schwerin residence (2024) and the castles of Ludwig II, Neuschwanstein among them (2025); 52 cultural, 3 natural |
| Administrative divisions | 16 states — Länder — from Bavaria, the largest, to Bremen, the smallest; the city-states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen; the five "new states" of the east; about 11,000 municipalities and 400 districts |
People
| Population | About 83.6 million (Destatis, 2025); 82.7 million at the census of 2022 |
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| Population density | About 234 per km² (606 per sq mi) — the Ruhr and the Rhine dense, Mecklenburg and Brandenburg empty |
| Population growth | About zero to 0.3% by immigration — deaths above births since 1972 |
| Median age | About 46 years — among the oldest populations in the world after Japan and Italy |
| Life expectancy | About 81 years |
| Fertility rate | About 1.4 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 78% |
| Adult literacy | About 99% |
| Origin | About 21 million with a migration background — a quarter of the population; the largest groups from Turkey, Poland, Syria, Romania, Ukraine, Italy, Russia and Kazakhstan; the Turks of the guest-worker years since 1961; the Syrians of 2015–16, about a million; the Ukrainians since 2022, about 1.2 million |
| Languages | German by about 95% — Standard German over the dialects of Bavaria, Swabia, Saxony and the north; Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Polish, Kurdish and Ukrainian among the migrant tongues; English by about 60% |
| Religion | Roman Catholic about 24%; Protestant, the Evangelical Church, about 22% — both under half the population for the first time in 2022; no religion about 44%, most of the east; Muslim about 6%; Orthodox about 2%; Jewish about 0.1%, the third-largest community in western Europe |
| Human Development Index | 0.959 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 5th of 193 |
| Sport | Football — the Nationalmannschaft, world champions in 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014, European champions three times; the Bundesliga, the best-attended league in the world; the Euro of 2024 hosted; handball, the Olympic Games of Berlin 1936 and Munich 1972; Michael Schumacher, Steffi Graf, Boris Becker, Dirk Nowitzki; the Nürburgring; the biathlon and the bobsled |
| Diaspora | About 4 million Germans abroad — in Switzerland, the United States, Austria, Britain, Spain and Poland; some 40 million Americans of German descent, the largest ancestry group in the United States |
Government
| Form of government | Federal parliamentary republic under the Basic Law of 1949 — the chancellor head of government, elected by the Bundestag and removable only by a constructive vote of no confidence; the federal president a ceremonial head of state; sixteen states with their own constitutions, parliaments and police |
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| Chancellor | Friedrich Merz (Christian Democratic Union), since 6 May 2025 — the tenth; leader of the CDU since 2022, a corporate lawyer and the head of BlackRock Germany before politics; born 11 November 1955 at Brilon; elected chancellor on the second ballot, 325 votes, after falling six short on the first — the first failure of a chancellor candidate on the first ballot in the republic's history |
| President | Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democrat), since 19 March 2017 — the twelfth; foreign minister twice, born 5 January 1956 at Detmold; re-elected 13 February 2022; his second term ends 18 March 2027, with the Federal Convention of the Bundestag and the states' delegates electing his successor in February 2027 |
| The government | The Merz cabinet — the CDU/CSU with the Social Democrats, a "grand coalition" of 328 of the 630 seats; Lars Klingbeil of the SPD vice chancellor and finance minister; Boris Pistorius at defense; Johann Wadephul at foreign affairs; Alexander Dobrindt at the interior; the coalition agreement of 9 April 2025 |
| The 2025 election | The Bundestag elected 23 February 2025, seven months early after the collapse of Olaf Scholz's coalition: the CDU/CSU 28.5% and 208 seats; the Alternative for Germany 20.8% and 152, the strongest far-right result since 1945; the Social Democrats 16.4% and 120, their worst since the Empire; the Greens 11.6% and 85; the Left 8.8% and 64; the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance and the Free Democrats out below 5%; turnout 82.5%, the highest since 1987 |
| Parliament | The Bundestag — 630 members since the electoral reform of 2023, elected for four years by mixed-member proportional representation with a 5% threshold, Julia Klöckner its president; the Bundesrat — 69 votes of the sixteen state governments, the second chamber; the Federal Constitutional Court at Karlsruhe |
| The state elections of 2026 | Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate in March; Saxony-Anhalt on 6 September 2026 — the AfD 43.8% and 39 of 83 seats, up 23 points, the first win by a party classed as far right in a German state since 1945, three seats short of a majority, the CDU down to 17.2% from 37.1%, the SPD 9.3%, the Greens 8.9%, the Left 8.6%, the Wagenknecht Alliance 5.3%, turnout 77.8%; the CDU's premier Sven Schulze refusing to govern with the AfD and the arithmetic against every other coalition; Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on 20 September 2026 |
| The AfD | Founded 2013, in the Bundestag since 2017 and the second party since 2025, led by Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla; classed a "confirmed right-wing extremist" organization by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution on 2 May 2025, the finding suspended pending the courts; the Saxony-Anhalt branch so classed since 2023; the firewall — Brandmauer — of the other parties against it holding at the federal level; a ban proceeding debated |
| The next election | The Bundestag election due by 2029; the Federal Convention of February 2027 for the presidency |
| Rearmament | The amendment of 18 March 2025 exempting defense spending above 1% of GDP from the debt brake and creating a €500 billion infrastructure fund; the pledge of 3.5% of GDP on defense by 2029 and 5% with infrastructure under NATO's target; the new military service law of 2025–26, voluntary first with conscription in reserve; the Bundeswehr about 182,000, to grow to 260,000 |
| Legal system | Civil law — the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch of 1900; the Federal Constitutional Court at Karlsruhe, the guardian of the Basic Law; the Federal Court of Justice; the state courts |
| States | 16, each with a minister-president and a Landtag — Bavaria under the CSU since 1957 but for one term; the eastern states where the AfD leads the polls |
| European Union | A founder — the Coal and Steel Community of 1951 and the Treaty of Rome of 1957; the largest net contributor to the budget; the eurozone from 1999; Schengen from 1995; the EU Council presidency last in 2020 |
| NATO | Member since 6 May 1955; the Bundeswehr founded that year; the brigade in Lithuania since 2025, the first permanent deployment abroad since 1945; U.S. bases at Ramstein, Grafenwöhr and Stuttgart |
| United Nations | Member since 18 September 1973, both German states; a Security Council seat six times, the last in 2019–20; the UN campus at Bonn |
| Other memberships | The G7, the G20, the OECD, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the WTO, the Weimar Triangle with France and Poland |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$4.7 trillion (2025, IMF) — the third-largest economy in the world after the United States and China, the largest in Europe |
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| GDP per capita | About US$56,000 (2025) |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$70,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | Contraction in 2023 and 2024, about 0.2% in 2025 and about 1% forecast for 2026 — the longest stagnation since the war; unemployment 6.5% in August 2026; inflation about 2% |
| Economy by sector | Services about 70%, industry about 27% — the highest share of manufacturing among the large Western economies — agriculture under 1% |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) |
| Industry | The cars — Volkswagen, the largest carmaker in Europe, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche, Audi, Bosch; the machines — Siemens, Bosch, the Mittelstand of family firms; the chemicals — BASF, Bayer; SAP, the largest software company in Europe; Allianz, Munich Re, Deutsche Bank; Adidas, Puma; the Hidden Champions of a thousand niches |
| Trade | The third-largest exporter in the world — cars, machinery, chemicals, electrical goods; about US$1.7 trillion of exports; China, the United States, France, the Netherlands and Poland the partners; the surplus among the largest on earth; the U.S. tariffs of 2025 on cars |
| Energy | The Energiewende — the last nuclear plants closed 15 April 2023, renewables about 55% of electricity, wind above all; coal to end by 2038 or sooner; the Russian gas cut off in 2022 and the LNG terminals of the North Sea built in months; the highest industrial electricity prices among the large economies |
| Labor | Unemployment about 6.5%; the co-determination of workers on company boards; the dual apprenticeship system; the shortage of skilled workers as the boomers retire — about 400,000 immigrants a year sought |
| Public finances | Public debt about 65% of GDP — the debt brake of 2009 loosened in 2025 for defense and the €500 billion fund; the pension and health costs of the oldest workforce in Europe |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank); an OECD founder |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Frankfurt — the hub, about 65 million passengers, the largest cargo airport in Europe; Munich; Berlin Brandenburg, opened 2020 after nine years' delay; Düsseldorf; Hamburg |
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| Airline | Lufthansa, founded 1926 and refounded 1953 — the largest airline group in Europe with Swiss, Austrian, Brussels, Eurowings and, since 2025, ITA |
| Main ports | Hamburg, the third container port in Europe, 100 km up the Elbe; Bremerhaven, the car port; Wilhelmshaven, the deep-water port and the LNG terminal; Rostock and Kiel on the Baltic; Duisburg, the largest inland port in the world |
| Railways | About 39,000 km (24,200 mi) — Deutsche Bahn; the ICE since 1991 at up to 300 km/h; the Deutschlandticket of 2023 for all local trains; the punctuality crisis of the 2020s and the rebuilding of the Riedbahn and the corridors |
| Roads | About 830,000 km (516,000 mi); the Autobahn, some 13,200 km, the first in the world from 1932 and the only one without a general speed limit; the Bundesstraßen |
| Waterways | About 7,300 km — the Rhine the busiest river in Europe; the Main–Danube Canal of 1992 joining the North Sea to the Black Sea; the Kiel Canal, the busiest artificial waterway in the world |
History in dates
| 9 | Arminius destroys three Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest |
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| 800 | Charlemagne crowned emperor; the Treaty of Verdun of 843 makes East Francia |
| 962 | Otto I crowned — the Holy Roman Empire |
| c. 1450 | Gutenberg prints with movable type at Mainz |
| 1517 | Luther's ninety-five theses at Wittenberg, 31 October |
| 1618–1648 | The Thirty Years' War; the Peace of Westphalia |
| 1806 | The Holy Roman Empire dissolved |
| 1871 | The German Empire proclaimed at Versailles, 18 January — Bismarck |
| 1914–1918 | The First World War; the Kaiser abdicates, 9 November 1918 |
| 1919 | The Weimar Republic; the Treaty of Versailles |
| 1933 | Hitler chancellor, 30 January |
| 1938 | Kristallnacht, 9 November |
| 1939–1945 | The Second World War; the Holocaust — six million Jews murdered; the surrender, 8 May 1945 |
| 1949 | The Federal Republic, 23 May; the German Democratic Republic, 7 October |
| 1955 | NATO, 6 May; the Bundeswehr |
| 1961 | The Berlin Wall, 13 August |
| 1972 | The Munich Olympics and the massacre |
| 1989 | The Wall falls, 9 November |
| 1990 | Reunification, 3 October |
| 2002 | The euro in the pocket |
| 2005 | Angela Merkel chancellor, 22 November — sixteen years |
| 2015 | The refugees — "Wir schaffen das," 31 August |
| 2021 | Olaf Scholz chancellor, 8 December |
| 2023 | The last nuclear plants closed, 15 April |
| 2025 | The election of 23 February; the debt brake amended, 18 March; Friedrich Merz chancellor, 6 May |
| 2026 | Saxony-Anhalt, 6 September; Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 20 September |
Records & firsts
| The largest economy in Europe | The third in the world |
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| The most populous country in the EU | About 83.6 million |
| The first Autobahn | 1932 — and no speed limit |
| The printing press | Gutenberg, Mainz, about 1450 |
| The automobile | Karl Benz's Patent-Motorwagen, 1886 |
| The most Nobel laureates after the U.S. and Britain | About 115 |
| The beer purity law | The Reinheitsgebot of 1516 |
| The busiest artificial waterway | The Kiel Canal |
| The largest inland port | Duisburg |
| The most registered country domain | .de |
| The best-attended football league | The Bundesliga |
| Four World Cups | 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014 |
| The Wall | 28 years, 1961–1989 |
| Nine neighbors | The most in Europe, with Russia |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Germany?
The Federal Republic of Germany — Bundesrepublik Deutschland — founded on 23 May 1949 with the Basic Law, its constitution, and joined by the five states of the former German Democratic Republic on 3 October 1990. "Germany" is the Roman Germania; the Germans call their country Deutschland, "the land of the people," from the Old High German diutisc, the tongue of the folk rather than Latin; the French say Allemagne for the Alemanni, the Finns Saksa for the Saxons, the Poles Niemcy for "the mute." The German Empire of 1871, the Weimar Republic of 1919 and the Third Reich of 1933 preceded it.
What is the capital of Germany?
Berlin, on the Spree — the capital of Prussia, of the Empire, of the Weimar Republic and the Reich, divided by the Wall from 1961 to 1989 and the capital of the reunited republic since 1990, with the government moved from Bonn in 1999; about 3.9 million people, the largest city in the European Union, and 6 million in its region. Hamburg, the port, is the second city with 1.9 million; Munich the third; Cologne, Frankfurt, the financial center, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Leipzig and Dortmund follow.
How big is Germany, and how many people live there?
About 357,592 km² (138,067 sq mi) by the national count — the seventh-largest country in Europe, a little smaller than Montana, between the North Sea and the Baltic and the Alps. Destatis counted about 83.6 million people in 2025, the largest population in the European Union and the second in Europe after Russia's, held above its aging natural decline only by immigration; about 21 million residents have a migration background, and about 15 percent were born abroad.
What are the highest and lowest points of Germany?
The Zugspitze, 2,962 m (9,718 ft), on the Austrian border in the Bavarian Alps, with a cog railway and cable cars to its summit; and Neuendorf-Sachsenbande in the Wilstermarsch of Schleswig-Holstein, 3.5 m (11 ft) below sea level. The Rhine, the Danube, the Elbe, the Weser and the Oder are the rivers; the Black Forest, the Harz, the Bavarian Forest and the Ore Mountains the uplands; Lake Constance on the Swiss border the largest lake.
What currency does Germany use?
The euro (ISO code EUR, €), since 1 January 1999 as the anchor of the eurozone, with the notes and coins from 2002 replacing the Deutsche Mark at 1.95583 — the mark of 1948 that was the symbol of the economic miracle. The European Central Bank sits in Frankfurt. Clocks keep Central European Time, UTC+1, with summer time.
Who governs Germany?
Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats, head of government since 6 May 2025 — elected on the second ballot of the Bundestag that day after failing on the first, a thing never seen before — at the head of a coalition of the CDU/CSU and the Social Democrats after the election of 23 February 2025; and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the ceremonial head of state since 19 March 2017, whose second term ends on 18 March 2027, when the Federal Convention elects his successor. On 6 September 2026 the Alternative for Germany won the state election in Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8 percent of the vote, the first victory of a party classed as far right in a German state since 1945, three seats short of a majority; Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern vote on 20 September. The next federal election is due in 2029.
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