The Federal Republic of Germany, also known as Deutschland is located at the convergence of Central and Western Europe. It is surrounded by the Baltic and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south.
Germany shares its land borders with Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south and France, Luxemburg, Belgium and Netherlands to the west.
Germany is a global leader in developing renewable energy and has also earned an international reputation for expertise in technology. The country is also praised for its notable invention in the automobile industry like airbags and according to the 2019 Best Countries global survey, people find automobiles made in Germany as the most reliable.
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and Bavaria is the largest city. Other famous cities in Germany are Munich, Cologne and Hamburg.
Germany is the world's leading book nation as it publishes over 94,000 books every year. Germany also published the world's first magazine in 1663.
Geography
Germany encompasses a wide variety of landforms like sheer mountains to the south, rolling plains to the north, alluvial plain for agriculture to the east and urbanized land to the west.
The highest point is the Zugspitze in the Alps at the height of 2,962, and the lowest point is Neuendorf-Saxhsenbande at 3.54 meters below sea level.
Diverse terrain can be found in Germany including mountains, forested hills, medieval castles, rolling plains and many more picturesque scenes which attracts millions of tourists.
Climate
Germany has a temperate seasonal climate as it's exposed to both cold air masses from Russia and the North Pole and mild air masses from the Atlantic Ocean which keeps the weather fluctuating.
Winter: Germany has extremely cold and cloudy weather from December to February the minimum average temperature falls to 0 degrees Celsius, and even lower, snowfalls are witnessed quite frequently.
Spring: The present spring is from the month of March to May when the temperature rises with an average temperature ranging between 0 - 15 degree Celsius.
Summer: The temperature begins to rise from June to August with a rise in average maximum temperature to 25-degree Celsius, the weather is pleasant with clear skies.
Autumn: Germany has autumn weather from September to November with pleasant temperature, but as the months progress the weather tends to become cold, rainy and misty.
Natural Resources
Germany has relatively few domestic natural resources, and it imports its raw materials from other countries.
Germany is a major producer of brown coal and bituminous coal, basically found in the west of Cologne, east of Halle, southwest of Leipzig.
Other minerals which are found in abundance in Germany are salt and potash mines in Harz Mountains.
The mining of metallic minerals plays an important role in boosting the German economy.
A small reserve of natural gas and oil is also found in northern Germany.
Economy
Germany has the 5th largest economy in the world in different sectors such as exports of machinery, vehicles, equipment and purchasing power parity.
The German economy suffers from low levels of investment, and the government plans to invest 15 billion euros in encouraging private investment. Elements such as domestic consumption, investment, and exports are expected to drive German GDP growth over the next several years, and the country's budget and trade surpluses are most likely to remain high.
In the future, Germany plans to replace nuclear power largely with renewable energy sources. Prior to the shutdown of the nuclear power plants, Germany relied heavily on nuclear power for 23% of its electricity generating capacity.
Demography
Germany is the most populous country of Europe with a population of 82.8 million people, which includes Germans as well as other minority nationalities. Almost 12% of the total population are international migrants, most of whom have come from Turkey, Italy and Poland.
More than 95% of the residents in Germany speak German, with four minority languages being spoken, including Roman, Danish, Sorbian and Frisian.
Around 60-70% of Germans identify themselves with the Christian faith, 29% obeying Catholics. Germany also has a small Muslim minority of 4.4%, and another 36% which do not identify themselves with any religious faith.
On average, women in Germany have an average lifespan of 83 years, while men have a lifespan of 79 years.
