Welcome to the Germany Portal!
Willkommen im Deutschland-Portal!
Germany (German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north and the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.
Germany includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,578 square kilometres (138,062 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 83 million inhabitants, it is the second most populous state of Europe after Russia, the most populous state lying entirely in Europe, as well as the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is a very decentralised country. Its capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while Frankfurt serves as its financial capital and has the country's busiest airport.
In 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the revolution of 1918–19, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to World War II, and the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, two new German states were founded: West Germany, formed from the American, British, and French occupation zones, and East Germany, formed from the western part of the Soviet occupation zone, reduced by the newly established Oder-Neisse line. Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on 3 October 1990.
Today, Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor. It is a great power with a strong economy. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993. Read more...
Selected article
The Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power of Indulgences (Latin: Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum) are a list of propositions for an academic disputation written in 1517 by Martin Luther, professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, Germany, that started the Protestant Reformation, a schism in the Catholic Church which profoundly changed Europe. They advance Luther's positions against what he saw as abusive practices by preachers selling plenary indulgences, which were certificates believed to reduce the temporal punishment for sins committed by the purchasers themselves or their loved ones in purgatory. In the Theses, Luther claimed that the repentance required by Christ in order for sins to be forgiven involves inner spiritual repentance rather than merely external sacramental confession. He argued that indulgences lead Christians to avoid true repentance and sorrow for sin, believing that they can forgo it by purchasing an indulgence. They also, according to Luther, discourage Christians from giving to the poor and performing other acts of mercy, believing that indulgence certificates were more spiritually valuable. Though Luther claimed that his positions on indulgences accorded with those of the pope, the Theses challenge a fourteenth-century papal bull stating that the pope could use the treasury of merit and the good deeds of past saints to forgive temporal punishment for sins. The Theses are framed as propositions to be argued in debate rather than necessarily representing Luther's opinions, but Luther later clarified his views in the Explanations of the Disputation Concerning the Value of Indulgences. More...
Selected picture
Snowed trees on the Brocken
Image credit: Andreas Tille
Related portals
- Parent portals
- Regional
- History
- Holy Roman Empire (900–1806)
- German Empire (1871–1918)
- East Germany (1949–1990)
- Other
- Neighbouring countries
Anniversaries for May 7
- 1523 - Death of knight Franz von Sickingen
- 1617 - Death of astronomer David Fabricius
- 1833 - Birth of composer Johannes Brahms
- 1915 - A German submarine sinks the RMS Lusitania, about 1200 people die
- 1998 - The merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corporation to form DaimlerChrysler is announced
Did you know...
Did you know ...
- ... that Rosa Agthe (pictured) and her future husband performed the roles of Elsa and Telramund, respectively, in the world premiere of Wagner's Lohengrin, conducted by Franz Liszt in Weimar?
- ... that a Financial Times reviewer described Der Mieter (The Tenant), a German opera based on a French novel, as "a journey to the blackest regions of an anguished psyche in a hostile world"?
- ... that after Peggy Knobloch disappeared on the way home from school in 2001, her body was not located until 2016?
- ... that Grischa Huber played Grischa in Under the Pavement Lies the Strand, regarded as "a cult film in the feminist movement"?
- ... that the play Karl Marx in Kalbadevi depicts an imaginary visit by Marx to Kalbadevi, the hyper-capitalist area of Mumbai, India?
- ... that a report by Witold Pilecki, a Polish resistance fighter who infiltrated Auschwitz, was translated into English in 2012 as The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery?
- ... that the Christuskirche, a German Protestant parish church in Paris completed in 1894, has been a venue for performances of Bach's Christmas Oratorio?
- ... that classicist Alfred Klotz wrote a textbook promoting scientific racism that turned out to be a commercial failure?
Selected fare or cuisine
A Bayrisch Kraut (literally Bavarian cabbage) is a traditional Bavarian dish. It is made of shredded cabbage that is cooked in beef stock with pork lard, onion, apples, and seasoned with vinegar. It is typically served with bratwurst or roast pork but it goes well with other dishes too. In the German cuisine it is an alternative to Sauerkraut. (Full article...)
Germany topics
Categories
Things you can do
Here are some tasks you can do. Please remove completed tasks from the list.
- Requests: German Archaeological Institute at Rome , Hans Sauer (inventor) , Richard Vetter , Karl-Heinz Funke , Jürgen Wieshoff , Luisenthal mine disaster , Torsten Sträter , Annette Dittert , Werner Sonne , Jan Philipp Burgard , Dorothea Siems , Julian Reichelt , Anke Plättner , Hennes Bender , Matze Knop , Deutsche Familienversicherung
- Unreferenced: Unreferenced BLPs, Bundesautobahn 93, Benjamin Trinks, Steeler (German band), Amelie Beese, Zoologisches Museum in Kiel, Emil Krebs, Prussian semaphore system, Partenstein, Peter Krieg, Porsche 597, Christa Bauch, Curt Cress
- Cleanup: 2011 International German Open – Singles, Oberlichtenau, Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, Potsdamer Platz
- Translate: Articles needing translation from German Wikipedia
- Stubs: Albersdorf, Thuringia, Gabriele Zimmer, Ingo Friedrich, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann, Berndt Seite, Federal Social Court,
- Update: Deutsches Wörterbuch, Mainaschaff
- Portal maintenance: Update News, Did you know, announcements and the todo list
- Orphans: Orphaned articles in Germany
- Photo: Take/Add requested photographs
- Help assess the quality of 438 unassessed articles
Associated Wikimedia
Portals