Background: Germany_first united in 1871_suffered defeats in successive world wars and was occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the beginning of the Cold War and increasing tension between the US and Soviet Union, two German states were formed in 1949:the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The newly democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EU and NATO, while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War cleared the path for the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German re-unification in 1990. Germany has expended considerable funds; roughly $100 billion a year; in subsequent years working to bring eastern productivity and wages up to western standards, with mixed results. Unemployment which in the east is nearly double that in the west; has grown over the last several years, primarily as a result of structural problems like an inflexible labor market.

Map reference: Arctic Region, Europe, Standard Time Zones of the World

Area
Total: 356,910 km²
Land: 349,520 km²

Land boundaries:

Coastline: 2,389 km
Continental shelf: 200 m depth or to depth of exploitation
Exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm
Territorial sea:

Climate: temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm, tropical foehn wind; high relative humidity

Terrain: lowlands in north, uplands in center, Bavarian Alps in south

Natural resources: iron ore, coal, potash, timber, lignite, uranium, copper, natural gas, salt, nickel

Land use
Arable land: 34%
Permanent crops: 1%
Meadows and pastures: 16%
Forest and woodland: 30%
Other: 19%

Irrigated land: 4,800 km² (1989 est.) eastern mountains caused by air pollution and acid rain
Note: strategic location on North European Plain and along the entrance to the Baltic Sea

Population: 80,767,591 (July 1993 est.)
Growth rate: 0.4% (1993 est.)

Nationality
Noun: German(s)
Adjective: German

Ethnic groups:

Languages: German

Religions: Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 37%, unaffiliated or other 18%

Population growth rate: 0.4% (1993 est.)

Birth rate: 11 births/1000 population (1993 est.)

Death rate: 11 deaths/1000 population (1993 est.)

Net migration rate: 4 migrant(s)/1000 population (1993 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 7 deaths/1000 live births (1993 est.)

Life expectancy at birth
Total population: 76 years
Male: 73 years
Female: 79 years (1993 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.4 children born/woman (1993 est.)

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1977 est.)
Total population: 99%
Male: NA%
Female: NA%

Country name
Conventional long form: Federal Republic of Germany
Local long form: Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Local short form: Deutschland

Government type: federal republic

Capital: Berlin

Administrative divisions:

Independence:

National holiday: German Unity Day, 3 October (1990)

Constitution: 23 May 1949, provisional constitution known as Basic Law

Legal system: civil law system with indigenous concepts; judicial review of legislative acts in the Federal Constitutional Court; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Executive branch: president, chancellor, Cabinet

Legislative branch: bicameral parliament (no official name for the two chambers as a whole) consists of an upper chamber or Federal Council (Bundesrat) and a lower chamber or Federal Diet (Bundestag)

Judicial branch: Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht)

International organization participation:

Diplomatic representation
In the us chief of mission: Ambassador Juergen RUHFUS
In the us chancery: 4,645 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC 20,007
In the us telephone: (202) 298-4,000
In the us consulates general:
In the us consulates:
From the us chief of mission: Ambassador Robert M. KIMMITT
From the us embassy: Deichmanns Avenue, 5,300 Bonn 2, Unit 21,701
From the us mailing address: APO AE 9,080
From the us telephone: 49 (228) 3,391
From the us fax: 49 (228) 339-2,663 branch office: Berlin
From the us consulates general: Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, and Stuttgart

Flag description: three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and yellow

Economy overview: With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, prospects seemed bright for a fairly rapid incorporation of East Germany into the highly successful West German economy. The Federal Republic, however, continues to experience difficulties in integrating and modernizing eastern as the Bundesbank set high interest rates to offset the inflationary effects of large government deficits and high wage settlements. Eastern Germany grew by 6.8% in 1992 but this was from a shrunken base. Despite government transfers to the east amounting to nearly $110 billion annually, a self-sustaining economy in the region is still some years away. The bright spots are eastern Germany's construction, transportation, telecommunications, and service sectors, which have experienced strong growth. Western Germany has an advanced market economy and is a world leader in exports. It has a highly urbanized and skilled population that enjoys excellent living standards, abundant leisure time, and comprehensive social welfare benefits. Western Germany is relatively poor in natural resources, coal being the most important mineral. Western Germany's world-class companies manufacture technologically advanced goods. The region's economy is mature: services and manufacturing account for the dominant share of economic activity, and raw materials and semimanufactured goods constitute a large portion of imports. In recent years, manufacturing has accounted for about 31% of GDP, with other sectors contributing lesser amounts. Gross fixed investment in 1992 accounted for about 21.5% of GDP. GDP in the western region is now $20,000 per capita, or 85% of US per capita GDP. Eastern Germany's economy appears to be changing from one anchored on manufacturing into a more service-oriented economy. The German government, however, is intent on maintaining a manufacturing base in the east and is considering a policy for subsidizing industrial cores in the region. Eastern Germany's share of all-German GDP is only 7% and eastern productivity is just 30% that of the west even though eastern wages are at roughly 70% of western levels. The privatization agency for eastern Germany, Treuhand, has privatized more than four-fifths of the almost 12,000 firms under its control and will likely wind down operations in 1994. Private investment in the region continues to be lackluster, resulting primarily from the deepening recession in western Germany and excessively high eastern wages. Eastern Germany has one of the world's largest reserves of low-grade lignite coal but little else in the way of mineral resources. The quality of statistics from eastern Germany is improving, yet many gaps remain; the federal government began producing all-German data for select economic statistics at the start of 1992. The most challenging economic problem is promoting eastern Germany's economic reconstruction - specifically, finding the right mix of fiscal, monetary, regulatory, and tax policies that will spur investment in eastern Germany - without destabilizing western Germany's economy or damaging relations with West European partners. The government hopes a "solidarity pact" among labor unions, business, state governments, and the SPD opposition will provide the right mix of wage restraints, investment incentives, and spending cuts to stimulate eastern recovery. Finally, the homogeneity of the German economic culture has been changed by the admission of large numbers of immigrants. Germany: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $1.398 trillion (1992) western: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $1.294 trillion (1992) eastern: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $104 billion (1992) Germany: 1.5% (1992) western: 0.9% (1992) eastern: 8% (1992) Germany: $17,400 (1992) eastern: $6,500 (1992) western: 4% (1992) eastern: NA% western: 7.1% (1992) eastern: 13.5% (December 1992) western (federal, state, local): revenues $684 billion; expenditures $704 billion, including capital expenditures $NA (1990) eastern: revenues $NA; expenditures $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

Labor force: 36.75 million
By occupation industry: 41%
By occupation agriculture: 6%
By occupation other: 53% (1987)

Fiscal year
Calendar year western: 31,443 km total; 27,421 km government owned, 1.435-meter standard gauge (12,491 km double track, 11,501 km electrified); 4,022 km nongovernment owned, including 3,598 km 1.435-meter standard gauge (214 km electrified) and 424 km 1.000-meter gauge (186 km electrified) eastern: 14,025 km total; 13,750 km 1.435-meter standard gauge, 275 km 1.000-meter or other narrow gauge; 3,830 (est.) km 1.435-meter standard gauge double-track; 3,475 km overhead electrified (1988) western: 466,305 km total; 169,568 km primary, includes 6,435 km autobahn, 32,460 km national highways (Bundesstrassen), 65,425 km state highways (Landesstrassen), 65,248 km county roads (Kreisstrassen); 296,737 km of secondary communal roads (Gemeindestrassen) eastern: 124,604 km total; 47,203 km concrete, asphalt, stone block, of which 1,855 km are autobahn and limited access roads, 11,326 km are trunk roads, and 34,022 km are regional roads; 77,401 km municipal roads (1988) western: 5,222 km, of which almost 70% are usable by craft of 1,000-metric-ton capacity or larger; major rivers include the Rhine and Elbe;
Kiel Canal is an important connection between the Baltic Sea and North Sea eastern: 2,319 km (1988)

Exports: $378.0 billion (f.o.b., 1991)
Commodoties: manufactures 86.6% (including machines and machine tools, chemicals, motor vehicles, iron and steel products), agricultural products 4.9%, raw materials 2.3%, fuels 1.3%
Partners:

Imports: $354.5 billion (f.o.b., 1991)
Commodoties: manufactures 68.5%, agricultural products 12.0%, fuels 9.7%, raw materials 7.1%
Partners:

Exchange rates: deutsche marks (DM) per US$1 - 1.6158 (January 1993), 1.5617 (1992), 1.6595 (1991), 1.6157 (1990), 1.8800 (1989), 1.7562 (1988)

Electricity
Production: 134,000,000 kW capacity; 580,000 million kWh produced, 7,160 kWh per capita (1992) western: among world's largest producers of iron, steel, coal, cement, chemicals, machinery, vehicles, machine tools, electronics; food and beverages eastern: metal fabrication, chemicals, brown coal, shipbuilding, machine building, food and beverages, textiles, petroleum refining western: accounts for about 2% of GDP (including fishing and forestry; diversified crop and livestock farming; principal crops and livestock include potatoes, wheat, barley, sugar beets, fruit, cabbage, cattle, pigs, poultry; net importer of food; fish catch of 202,000 metric tons in 1987 eastern: accounts for about 10% of GDP (including fishing and forestry; principal crops - wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, fruit; livestock products include pork, beef, chicken, milk, hides and skins; net importer of

Airports: 499
With permanentsurface runways: 271
With runways over 3659 m: 5
With runways 2440-3659 m: 59
With runways 1220-2439 m: 67 western: highly developed, modern telecommunication service to all parts of the country; fully adequate in all respects; 40,300,000 telephones; intensively developed, highly redundant cable and microwave radio relay networks, all completely automatic; broadcast stations - 80 AM, 470 FM, 225 (6,000 repeaters) TV; 6 submarine coaxial cables; satellite earth stations - 12 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT antennas, 2 Indian Ocean INTELSAT antennas,
EUTELSAT and domestic systems; 2 HF radiocommunication centers; tropospheric links eastern:

Pipelines: crude oil 3,644 km; petroleum products 3,946 km; natural gas 97,564 km (1988)

Merchant marine:

Disputes international: none

Illicit drugs: source of precursor chemicals for South American cocaine processors western: donor - ODA and OOF commitments (1970-89), $75.5 billion eastern: donor - $4.0 billion extended bilaterally to non-Communist less developed countries (1956-89)