Germany

Germany Federal Republic

Germany is a Federal Country which has 16 Federal States. It's on the “heart” of Europe.

Each state has its own constitution, parliament and government.

Brief• It is divided into 403 districts.• 301 rural, 102 urban.• It is a member of UN, NATO, G8, G20,

EU.• Second largest exporter & 3rd largest

importer.

Germany famous for

•Renaissance painters•Berlin wall•Automobile, Beer•Musicians.•Birthday cake & Birthday candles

Germany is the country with the highest population on the European Union (82.5 million inhabitants).

There are a Lot of inmigrantes: 7.3 millón.

Cold winters and cool summers. In the centre temperatures are more extreme but prolonged periods of frost or snow are not common. Rain falls throught the year.

THE CLIMATE

Extremes commonly reach -10°C in winter and 35°C in the summer months.

Natural Heritage Germany receives millions of tourists

every year. Many of them visit the country’s attractive nature reserves.

Attractions In Germany there

are 600 fine arts museums:

WolfsburgArt museum, New Weimar Museum, Folkwang Museum, Ludwig Museum, Bode Museum, etc.

Cuisine• German

people love • cheese and

beer.

Gastronomy (wine)

The German wines grow up in 13 zones.

There are more than 140 varieties.

They are exported to USA, UK, Japan, Norway, Sweden,...

Popular traditions

“Polka” is a very traditional dancing from Austria but it's very popular in the zone of Bavaria(Munich). It's a fast dance which is danced by couples or groups.

Popular traditions

There is an important rock festival called

“Rock am Ring” at Nürburgring.

It is also the track for a

Formula One grand prix.

Populartraditions

Oktoberfest is a festival held each year in Munich, in October. It is the world's largest fair. People drink beer and eat German specialities.

Religion

• Christianity is the largest religion in Germany 73%. Then Islam 4% followed by Buddhism and Judaism.• Protestants are

39%, Catholics are 31%, Orthodox are 4,7%, nonreligious 25%.

• The present pope, Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) is German.

They don't like smiling a lot.

• They are very neat and they like

recycling.

• They are very • hard-working and• very skillful people.

• They have the only female Prime Minister in Europe.Angela Merkel

The Banks

Lake Tegernsee

Berlin: A Modern City…

…with old-world style

Not all of Berlin was so modern, however. There

were still plenty of beautiful, historic buildings

throughout the city.

The Brandenburg GateThe Brandenburg Gate is one of the most famous landmarks of Berlin. It was built in 1791 and

eventually incorporated into the Berlin Wall.

Today it is a major tourist attraction, as you can see

by the photo.

Far left: street musicians near the gate; Left: close-up of the bronze on top of the gate.

The Berlin Wall

A marker has been placed in the roads to remember where

the Wall was.

One of the most famous painted sections of the Wall.

There are two different sections of the Berlin Wall. One had been incorporated into an open-air museum

about the Gestapo (below). The other section we saw had

murals painted all along it.

The Reichstag

The view from the roof.

The glass dome on the roof.There is a ramp inside that people can walk

all the way to the top.

The government building for Germany’s National Parliament,

which has a great view of the entire city.

The meeting room for Parliament.

The BundesratThis is where the Federal

Council (made up of representatives from each of Germany’s 16 states) meets. Each state is represented by

their coat of arms on the wall behind the President’s

podium. The building itself was used for Prussia’s House

of Lords, and was only occupied by the Federal

Council starting in 2000 after moving to Berlin from Bonn.

The AbgeordnetenhausThe Abgeordnetenhaus is the home of the Berlin House of Representatives. There are 169 members, responsible for

electing the Mayor and creating a budget for the State of Berlin.

Inside Parliament.

Room where the Communist Party of East Germany was

founded.

The German flag, the Berlin flag, and the European Union flag.

One of the rooms with its original décor.

The Zwinger (which means “dungeon” in English) was built between 1711 and 1728. It was intended to be used as exhibition and library halls

and as the setting for court festivities. It was destroyed during WWII, but was reconstructed and reopened in 1960. Today it is the home of

more than twelve museums.

The Zwinger

View as you enter the Zwinger.View of the tower.

View inside the courtyard.

The Semper Opera House

The Semper Opera House was built between 1838-41 but burned in 1869. It was rebuilt

from 1871-78 and again destroyed, this time due to WWII. The opera house reopened in

1985 after extensive reconstruction

Even the hallways and their ceilings were elegant and opulent! There was marble and ornate paintings everywhere you looked.

Left: The chandelier in the theater had been lowered for cleaning, so we got an up-close view. Above: The

ceiling of the theater had paintings representing different composers and operas.