Portal:Germany
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Willkommen im Deutschland-Portal!
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Germany (German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north and the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.
Germany includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,578 square kilometres (138,062 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 83 million inhabitants, it is the second most populous state of Europe after Russia, the most populous state lying entirely in Europe, as well as the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is a very decentralised country. Its capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while Frankfurt serves as its financial capital and has the country's busiest airport.
In 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the revolution of 1918–19, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to World War II, and the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, two new German states were founded: West Germany, formed from the American, British, and French occupation zones, and East Germany, formed from the western part of the Soviet occupation zone, reduced by the newly established Oder-Neisse line. Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on 3 October 1990.
Today, Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor. It is a great power with a strong economy. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993. Read more...
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The flag of Germany is a tricolour consisting of three equal horizontal bands displaying the national colours of Germany: black, red and gold.
The black-red-gold tricolour first appeared in the early 19th century and achieved prominence during the 1848 revolution. The short-lived Frankfurt Parliament of 1848–50 proposed the tricolour as a flag for a united and democratic German state. With the formation of the Weimar Republic after World War I, the tricolour was adopted as the national flag of Germany. Following World War II, the tricolour was designated as the flag of both West and East Germany. The two flags were identical until 1959, when socialist symbols were added to the East German flag. Since reunification on 3 October 1990, the black-red-gold tricolour has remained the flag of Germany.
The flag of Germany has not always used black, red and gold as its colours. After the Austro–Prussian War in 1866, the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation adopted a tricolour of black-white-red as its flag. This flag later became the flag of the German Empire, formed following the unification of Germany in 1871, and was used until 1918. Black, white and red were reintroduced as the German national colours with the establishment of Nazi Germany in 1933.
The colour schemes of black-red-gold and black-white-red have played an important role in the history of Germany and have had various meanings. The colours of the modern flag are associated with the republican democracy formed after World War II, and represent German unity and freedom: not only the freedom of Germany, but also the personal freedom of the German people. More...
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Holy Roman Empire (900–1806)
German Empire (1871–1918)
East Germany (1949–1990)
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Anniversaries for May 4
- 1772 - Birth of encyclopedia publisher Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus
- 1900 - 1. FC Nürnberg is founded
- 1904 - FC Schalke 04 is founded in Gelsenkirchen
- 1938 - Death of pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize
- 1956 - Birth of high jumper Ulrike Meyfarth
Did you know...
- ... that Hans Robertson ran a studio in 1920s Berlin where he photographed celebrities such as artist Käthe Kollwitz, boxer Max Schmeling and dancer Gret Palucca (pictured)?
- ... that a reviewer noted that when Leo Hussain conducted Weinberg's Die Passagierin at the Oper Frankfurt, the orchestra excelled in chamber music moments, hard beats and distorted entertainment music? 4 May
- ... that the former German chancellor Bernhard von Bülow called Wilhelm II's 1900 Hun speech the "worst speech of that time and perhaps the most disgraceful speech that Wilhelm II [had] ever given"?
- ... that Klaus Wallrath composed a mass for peace for the 2018 Katholikentag in Münster, performed to an audience of more than 30,000 by a choir, an orchestra, and a dance company?
- ... that in 1776 Abraham Hunt entertained Hessian mercenaries with food and drink to render them incapable for duty the night before George Washington defeated them at Trenton?
- ... that Claus Leusser, a justice of the German Federal Constitutional Court, served for only four months?
- ... that in the twelve-stanza Easter hymn "Ihr Christen, singet hocherfreut", based on a 15th-century hymn in Latin, an angel tells women to not remain at the empty tomb?
- ... that the "Hitler teapot" was offered on eBay for $199?
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- Requests: German Archaeological Institute at Rome , Hans Sauer (inventor) , Jürgen Wieshoff , Torsten Sträter , Werner Sonne , Jan Philipp Burgard , Markus Löning , Dorothea Siems , Anke Plättner , Hennes Bender , Herbert Helmrich , Ingrid Matthäus-Maier , Anton Stark , Christoph Strässer , Hans Wilhelmi , Siegfried Kauder , Matze Knop , Deutsche Familienversicherung , Franz Josef Wagner , Tom Koenigs , Gerd Poppe , Hajo Schumacher , Joseph von Utzschneider
- Unreferenced: Unreferenced BLPs, Bundesautobahn 93, Benjamin Trinks, Steeler (German band), Amelie Beese, Zoologisches Museum in Kiel, Emil Krebs, Prussian semaphore system, Partenstein, Peter Krieg, Porsche 597, Christa Bauch, Curt Cress
- Cleanup: 2011 International German Open – Singles, Oberlichtenau, Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, Potsdamer Platz
- Translate: Articles needing translation from German Wikipedia
- Stubs: Albersdorf, Thuringia, Gabi Zimmer, Ingo Friedrich, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann, Berndt Seite, Federal Social Court,
- Update: Deutsches Wörterbuch
- Portal maintenance: Update News, Did you know, announcements and the todo list
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Orphaned articles in Germany
- Photo: Take/Add requested photographs
- Help assess the quality of 15 unassessed articles
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