Germany
Europe's economic engine at the continent's crossroads
Germany is the most populous nation in the European Union and the powerhouse of the continental economy, a federal republic of about 83.6 million people at the geographic and political heart of Europe. From the North Sea and Baltic coasts to the Bavarian Alps, it spans a landscape as varied as its sixteen states. Famous for engineering, automobiles, philosophy, and music, from Bach and Beethoven to Goethe and Kant, Germany rebuilt itself after the catastrophe of the twentieth century into a stable democracy and the indispensable anchor of European integration.
The land descends from the Alps in the far south, where the Zugspitze reaches 2,962 meters, through the central uplands and forests, the Black Forest, the Harz, the Bavarian highlands, to the broad North German Plain that flattens toward the sea. The Rhine, Elbe, and Danube are its great rivers, the Rhine in particular a historic artery of trade lined with vineyards and castles. A temperate climate prevails. Germany's formidable economy is built on advanced manufacturing, automobiles, machinery, chemicals, and a celebrated network of small and mid-sized industrial champions, the Mittelstand.
Unified only in 1871 from a patchwork of states, Germany became a great power, then plunged Europe into two world wars and perpetrated the Holocaust, a history it confronts with rare openness. Divided between West and East during the Cold War and split by the Berlin Wall, the country reunited in 1990 after the Wall's fall. A founding member of the European communities and the eurozone, Germany today is a parliamentary democracy and a leading voice in the EU, balancing its industrial strength, energy transition, and historical responsibility within a peaceful, federal order centered on Berlin.