Germany At a Glance

Quick Facts

Full country name: Federal Republic of Germany

Area: 357,030 sq km

Location: Central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark

Climate: Temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm foehn wind

Natural resources: Iron ore, coal, potash, timber, lignite, uranium, copper, natural gas, salt, nickel, arable land

Population: 82 million
Capital city: Berlin (pop: 3.45 million)
People: Predominantly Caucasian, with significant Turkish minority. Germany has absorbed most of the
refugees from the former Yugoslavia. German 91.5%, Turkish 2.4%, other 6.1% (made up largely of
Serbo-Croatian, Italian, Russian, Greek, Polish, Spanish)
Language: German
Religion:    90% Christian. There are 1.7 million Muslims and about 74,000 Jews (the pre-Holocaust figure was
over half a million).
Government: Federal republic
Chancellor: Gerhard Schröder

Recent History

Germany is Western Europe's richest and most populous nation, and it remains a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles caused the country to go through two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and in 1945 this left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union. With the beginning 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.

Economic Profile

GDP: US $2,040 billion
GDP per head: US$24,900
Annual growth: 2.7%
Inflation: 1%
Major industries: motor vehicles, engineering, chemicals, iron, steel, coal, electronics, environmental technology, food, clothing
Major trading partners: EU (esp. France, Netherlands, Italy, UK, Belgium/Luxembourg, ), USA, Japan
Member of EU: yes
Euro zone participant: yes

Labor force:  40.5 million (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:  10.5% (1999 est.)

Exports:  $610 billion (1999 est.)

Exports – commodities:  machinery, vehicles, chemicals, metals and manufactures, foodstuffs, textiles (1999)

Imports:  $587 billion (1999 est.)

Imports – commodities:  machinery, vehicles, chemicals, foodstuffs, textiles, metals (1999)

Import/Export Statistics

German Imports for 2001(Top 5):

German Exports for 2001(Top 5):

Computers/Software/Telecom would be included in the category shown below. Figures are for 2001.