Germany is a Western European country with a landscape of forests, rivers, mountain ranges, and the North Sea beaches. It has over 2 millennia of history. Berlin, its capital, is home to art and nightlife scenes, the Brandenburg Gate and many sites relating to WWII. Munich is known for its Oktoberfest and beer halls, including the 16th-century Hofbräuhaus. Frankfurt, with its skyscrapers, houses the European Central Bank.
The North European Plain extends across the northern reaches of the country; this flat, lowland terrain is dissected by numerous bogs, rivers and streams, and is mostly used as farmland. The North Sea coastline is low, marshy wetland, with dikes, mudflats and scattered islands. The Baltic Sea is hillier with some jagged cliffs. Rugen, Germany’s largest island, is forested and rather hilly with steep cliffs and sandy beaches. In the northeast, and then stretching to the south of Berlin, Germany’s land remains sandy and punctuated by dozens of mostly small lakes formed by retreating glaciers during the last Ice Age. The land then rises into the forested uplands of central Germany. Major landforms here include the volcanic in origin Harz Mountains and the thickly wooded Rothaargebirge Mountains. Across Germany a large series of man-made canals join navigable rivers, creating thousands of miles of interconnecting inland waterways. They’re used for commercial and local traffic, and by large fleets of cruising riverboats and charter barges.
Key Cities
Key cities in Germany include Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, and Frankfurt.
Historical, Cultural facts & Religion
Although Germany in that sense is an ancient entity, the German nation in more or less its present form came into being only in the 19th century, when Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck brought together dozens of German-speaking kingdoms, principalities, free cities, bishoprics, and duchies to form the German
German culture has spanned the entire German-speaking world. From its roots, culture in Germany has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular. Historically, Germany has been called Das Land der Dichter und Denker (the country of poets and thinkers).
About 65% to 70% of the population are followers of the Christian religion in Germany. They are more or less evenly split between the mainstream denominations of Lutheran-Protestantism and Calvinism united in the EKD (Evangelical Church in Germany) and the Roman Catholic Church.
Brief Country History
About 55 BC Julius Caesar conquered the Roman province of Gaul. He made the Rhine the frontier of the new province. It was a natural defensive barrier. Later the Romans also chose the Danube as a frontier. They also created a ditch and earth bank with a wooden palisade on top from the Rhine to the Danube. In 9 AD the people who lived beyond the Rhine inflicted a crushing defeat on the Roman army in a battle at the Teutoburg Forest. The Romans lost about 20,000 men and their leader committed suicide. The battle ensured that the Romans never conquered Germany beyond the Rhine. However, the Romans occupied southern and western Germany. They founded a number of towns which still survive (Augsburg, Cologne, Mainz, Regensburg, and Trier).
In the late 5th century a Germanic people called the Franks carved out an empire in what is now France. (They gave the country its name). In 496 Clovis, the leader of the Franks became a Christian and his people followed. In 771 Charlemagne became king of the Franks. In 772 he attacked the Saxons. After a battle in 782 more than 4,000 Saxon captives were beheaded. Charlemagne also annexed Bavaria. In 800 he was crowned emperor. However, Charlemagne’s empire did not long survive his death. In 843 it was divided into three kingdoms, west, middle and east. In time the eastern kingdom, East Francia, was divided further into 5 duchies. In the early 10th century fierce Magyars from Eastern Europe attacked them.
Today Germany is a wealthy country with a high standard of living. In 2005 Angela Merkel became the first woman Chancellor of Germany. The population of Germany is 80 million.
Language (s) Written & Spoken
The official language of Germany is German, with over 95% of the population speaking German as their first language. Minority languages include Sorbian, spoken by 0.09% in the east of Germany and North Frisian spoken in Nordfriesland by around 10,000 people, or 0.01%, who also speak German. The letters in the German alphabet are the same as in English; however, there are four more letters which you will come across in the German language: ä, ö, ü and ß.
Important Types of Commerce in Germany
Germany is dominated by manufacturing industries including automotive, chemicals, metals such as iron and steel, electrical equipment, coal, ships, machine tools, high precision equipment, optics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and plastic goods.
Language Services US and others will provide working with Germany
As a leading manufacturing and exporting economy, Germany relies on professional language translation services between German and English, Chinese, French, and many other languages to facilitate and expand business operations around the globe. In today’s rapidly growing digital economy, fast and accurate German language translations are becoming increasingly important to help foreign companies obtain a competitive edge in the German market. The German market is the strongest in Europe. Businesses planning to expand into German-speaking countries or to negotiate a partnership in Germany, whether dealing with texts, e-commerce websites, documentation, or other content, it needs to be translated between English and German.
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