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German Geography
Germany is located in the Central Europe, bordering the
Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland, south
of Denmark. Roughly the size of Montana and situated even farther north,
unified Germany has an area of 356,959 square kilometers. Extending 853
kilometers from its northern border with Denmark to the Alps in the south,
it is the sixth largest country in Europe. At its widest, Germany measures
approximately 650 kilometers from the Belgian-German border in the west
to the Polish frontier in the east.
The territory of the former East Germany (divided into five new Länder
in 1990) accounts for almost one-third of united Germany's territory and
one-fifth of its population. After a close vote, in 1993 the Bundestag,
the lower house of Germany's parliament, voted to transfer the capital
from Bonn in the west to Berlin, a city-state in the east surrounded by
the Land of Brandenburg.
Topography: With its irregular, elongated
shape, Germany provides an excellent example of a recurring sequence of
landforms found the world over. A plain dotted with lakes, moors, marshes,
and heaths retreats from the sea and reaches inland, where it becomes
a landscape of hills crisscrossed by streams, rivers, and valleys. These
hills lead upward, gradually forming high plateaus and woodlands and eventually
climaxing in spectacular mountain ranges.
As of the mid-1990s, about 37 percent of the country's area was arable;
17 percent consisted of meadows and pastures; 30 percent was forests and
woodlands; and 16 percent was devoted to other uses. Geographers often
divide Germany into four distinct topographic regions: the North German
Lowland; the Central German Uplands; Southern Germany; and the Alpine
Foreland and the Alps.
Climate: Cool, continental climate
with abundant rainfall and long overcast season. Lower temperatures with
considerable snowfall in east and south. Prone to rapid weather variations
from merging of Gulf Stream and extreme northeastern climate conditions.
More about climate in Germany...
Administrative Division: 16 states
(Länder): Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen,
Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen,
Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein,
Thueringen.
Population, Area, and Capitals of the Länder, December 31, 1992
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Population |
Land |
Capital |
Area (in square kilometers) |
Total (in thousands) |
Density (persons per square kilometer) |
Baden-Württemberg |
Stuttgart |
35,751 |
10,149 |
284 |
Bavaria |
Munich |
70,554 |
11,770 |
167 |
Berlin |
Berlin |
889 |
3,466 |
3,898 |
Brandenburg |
Potsdam |
29,476 |
2,543 |
86 |
Bremen |
Bremen |
404 |
686 |
1,697 |
Hamburg |
Hamburg |
755 |
1,689 |
2,236 |
Hesse |
Wiesbaden |
21,114 |
5,923 |
281 |
Lower Saxony |
Hanover |
47,348 |
7,578 |
160 |
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania |
Schwerin |
23,421 |
1,865 |
80 |
North Rhine-Westphalia |
Düsseldorf |
34,072 |
17,679 |
519 |
Rhineland-Palatinate |
Mainz |
19,846 |
3,881 |
196 |
Saarland |
Saarbrücken |
2,570 |
1,084 |
422 |
Saxony |
Dresden |
18,408 |
4,641 |
252 |
Saxony-Anhalt |
Magdeburg |
20,443 |
2,797 |
137 |
Schleswig-Holstein |
Kiel |
15,732 |
2,680 |
170 |
Thuringia |
Erfurt |
16,176 |
2,546 |
157 |
TOTAL |
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356,959 |
80,975 |
227 |
- Society (population, religion,
marriage, urbanization, social structure, immigration)
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junior, senior, vocational, higher)
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Miracle, financial system, Bundesbank, business culture)
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navy, air forces, police)
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