Amazing Country Facts (Germany)

Germany is a Western European country with a terrain of vast forests, rivers and mountain ranges, and….history. Countries that border Germany include Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, Poland and Switzerland.

Fast Facts about Germany

1. Germany is the most populous European country (apart from Russia), with about a population of 82 million in 2012

2. The name for Germany in the German language is Deutschland.

3. Germany is Europe’s largest economy.

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4. There are 35 dialects of the German language. The official language in Germany is Standard German

5. Germany’s capital centre has shifted around the country – these cities have all at one time or another been capitals of Germany: Aachen, Regensburg, Frankfurt-am-Main, Nuremberg, Berlin, Weimar, Bonn (and East Berlin), and, since 1990, Berlin again.

6. Germany is the fifth largest country in Europe

7. Germany boasts some of world’s most famous inventions – you can thank the Germans for the light bulb, the automated calculator, and the automobile. That’s not all –  the Germans are also credited for the discovery of insulin, the invention of the clarinet, the pocket watch, television (partly), paraffin, petrol/gasoline & Diesel engines, the automobile engine, differential gear and other important devices, the motorcycle, the jet engine, the LCD screen and the Walkman.

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8. About two-thirds of the population are Christian – split evenly between Protestant and Catholic, but you’ll find more Protestants in the north and more Catholics in the south. There are around 4 million Muslims and 100,000 Jews.

9. Germany’s education system produces top performers – students score higher than average on the OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) scale, and 86 percent of adults aged 25–64 have completed at least upper secondary education (equivalent of a high school diploma). That’s well above the EU average of 74.2 percent.

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10. Most of the German main dishes contain either meats, such as pork, beef and veal or fish. Germans often eat potatoes, but pasta dishes are also very popular, especially with the younger generations.