Germany Culture
Federal Republic of Germany
- Location: Western Europe neighbouring Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxemburg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark
- Area: 357,104 km2
- Climate: temperate seasonal climate
- Capital City: Berlin
- Population: 82,2 Million (Dec. 07)
- Language: German
- People: German 81 %, around 19 % from foreign or partially foreign descent
- Currency: Euro
- Form of government: federal parliamentary republic
- Administrative demarcations: sixteen states
- States: Baden Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia
Geography
Elevation ranges from the mountains of the Alps (highest point: Zugspitze 2,962 m) in the south to the shores of the North Sea in the north-west and the Baltic Sea in the north-east. Between lie the forested uplands of central Germany and the low-lying lands of northern Germany (lowest point: Wilstermarsch at 3.54 m below sea level), traversed by some of Europe's major rivers such as the Rhine, Danube and Elbe.
Germany Culture
In Germany, culture has different aspects. Germany is often called "Das Land der Dichter und Denker" (the country of poets and philosophers) owing to great authors like Goethe and Schiller. The 20th century Germany has also produced famous and inspiring authors and Nobel Prize Winners like Hermann Hesse and Bertholt Brecht. German culture began long before the rise of Germany as a nation-state and spans the entire German-speaking world.
Many great names in fine arts are at home in Germany, such as Dürer and Beuys, Cranach and Nolde, Caspar David Friedrich und Neo Rauch.
German classical music is unique: Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms are just a few of the great German composers whose music is performed and enjoyed throughout the world. The modern music scene with its numerous jazz clubs, musical theatres and pop- and rock events is part of a vital and variegated cultur of music.
Germany has a unique architecture with fascinating buildings: Roman baths, mediaeval monasteries, gothic cathedrals, baroques palaces, art nouveau villas, industrial buildings of the turn of the century and buildings of the Bauhaus movement as early masterpieces of the modernity. The UNESCO has listed a lot of these buildings as world cultural heritages.
