Germany

federal republicIndependence 18 January 1871 (German Empire unification)

Germany as the 1992 edition of the CIA World Factbook published it: 76 fields, one of 36 editions from 1990 to 2025.

field in that editiontext changed from the edition beforenot in that editionthe open editionEach field below ends in its editions, 1990 to 2025. Point at a year above to follow it down.

CapitalBerlin

Area356,910 km2

Populationas each edition published it

80.39 million July 1992 · 62.17m in 1990

Population growth% a year

Not in this edition 0.4% in 1993

Median ageyears

Not in this edition 41.3 yrs in 2003

Life expectancyyears at birth

Not in this edition 76 yrs in 1993

Fertility ratechildren per woman

1.4 children per woman 1992 · 1.4 in 1990

Infant mortalitydeaths per 1,000 live births

7 deaths per 1,000 live births 1992 · 6 in 1990

GDP per capitaeach edition's own dollars

Not in this edition $17,400 in 1993

GDP real growth% a year

Not in this edition 1.5% in 1993

Geography

13 fields

Total area

356,910km2

Comparative area: slightly smaller than Montana

Coastline

2,389km

Continental shelf: 200 m (depth) or to depth of exploitationExclusive fishing zone: 200 nmTerritorial sea: North Sea and Schleswig-Holstein coast of Baltic Sea - 3 nm (extends, at one point, to 16 nm in the Helgolander Bucht); remainder of Baltic Sea - 12 nm

Land boundaries

3,790km

Austria 784 km, Belgium 167 km, Czechoslovakia 815 km, Denmark 68 km, France 451 km, Luxembourg 138 km, Netherlands 577 km, Poland 456 km, Switzerland 334 km

Land area

349,520 km2; comprises the formerly separate Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and Berlin following formal unification on 3 October 1990

Disputes

the boundaries of Germany were set by the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany signed 12 September 1990 in Moscow by the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union;
this Treaty entered into force on 15 March 1991;
a subsequent Treaty between Germany and Poland, reaffirming the German-Polish boundary, was signed on 14 November 1990 and took effect on 16 January 1992

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%;
includes irrigated 1%

Environment

air and water pollution;
groundwater, lakes, and air quality in eastern Germany are especially bad;
significant deforestation in the eastern mountains caused by air pollution and acid rain

Note

strategic location on North European Plain and along the entrance to the Baltic Sea

People

14 fields

Population

80,387,283

(July 1992), growth rate 0.5% (1992)

Per 1,000 population(1992)

Birth

11Death

11Net migration

Religions

Protestant 45%Roman Catholic 37%unaffiliated or other 18%

Literacy

99%

(male NA%, female NA%) age 15 and over can read and write (1970 est.)

Infant mortality rate

7 deaths/1,000 live births (1992)

Life expectancy at birth

73 years male, 79 years female (1992)

Total fertility rate

1.4 children born/woman (1992)

Nationality

noun - German(s); adjective - German

Ethnic divisions

primarily German; small Danish and Slavic minorities

Languages

German

Labor force

36,750,000; industry 41%, agriculture 6%, other 53% (1987)

Organized labor

47% of labor force (1986 est.)

Government

Federal republic

20 fields

Presidential electionpercent of vote

36.7%

CDU 36.7%SPD 33.5%FDP 11.0%CSU 7.1%Green Party (West Germany) 3.9%PDS 2.4%Republikaner 2.1%Alliance 90/Green Party (East Germany) 1.2%other 2.1%

Long-form name

Federal Republic of Germany

Type

federal republic

Capital

Berlin; note - the shift from Bonn to Berlin will take place over a period of years with Bonn retaining many administrative functions and several ministries

Administrative divisions

16 states (lander, singular - land); Baden-Wurttemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringen

Independence

18 January 1871 (German Empire unification);
divided into four zones of occupation (UK, US, USSR, and later, France) in 1945 following World War II;
Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West Germany) proclaimed 23 May 1949 and included the former UK, US, and French zones;
German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) proclaimed 7 October 1949 and included the former USSR zone;
unification of West Germany and East Germany took place 3 October 1990;
all four power rights formally relinquished 15 March 1991

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

National holiday

German Unity Day, 3 October (1990)

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)

Leaders

Chief of State:: President Dr. Richard von WEIZSACKER (since 1 July 1984)
Head of Government:: Chancellor Dr. Helmut KOHL (since 4 October 1982) *** No entry for this item ***

Political parties and leaders

Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Helmut KOHL, chairman;
Christian Social Union (CSU), Theo WAIGEL;
Free Democratic Party (FDP), Otto Count LAMBSDORFF, chairman;
Social Democratic Party (SPD), Bjoern ENGHOLM, - chairman;
- Green - Party - Ludger VOLMER, Christine WEISKE, co-chairmen (after the 2 December 1990 election the East and West German Green Parties united);
Alliance 90 united to form one party in September 1991, Petra MORAWE, chairwoman;
Republikaner, Franz SCHOENHUBER;
National Democratic Party (NPD), Walter BACHMANN;
Communist Party (DKP), Rolf PRIEMER

Suffrage

universal at age 18

Elections

Federal Diet:: last held 2 December 1990 (next to be held October 1994);
results - CDU 36.7%, SPD 33.5%, FDP 11.0%, CSU 7.1%, Green Party (West Germany) 3.9%, PDS 2.4%, Republikaner 2.1%, Alliance 90/Green Party (East Germany) 1.2%, other 2.1%;
seats - (662 total, 656 statutory with special rules to allow for slight expansion) CDU 268, SPD 239, FDP 79, CSU 51, PDS 17, Alliance 90/Green Party (East Germany) 8;
note - special rules for this election allowed former East German parties to win seats if they received at least 5% of vote in eastern Germany *** No entry for this item ***

Communists

West - about 40,000 members and supporters; East - about 200,000 party members (December 1991)

Other political or pressure groups

expellee, refugee, and veterans groups

Member of

AfDB, AG (observer), AsDB, BDEAC, BIS, CCC, CE, CERN, COCOM, CSCE, EBRD, EC, ECE, EIB, ESA, FAO, G-5, G-7, G-10, GATT, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INMARSAT, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, LORCS, NATO, NEA, OAS (observer), OECD, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNHCR, UPU, WEU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation

Ambassador Dr. Immo STABREIT will become Ambassador in late summer/early fall 1992;
Chancery at 4645 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC 20007;
telephone (202) 298-4000;
there are German Consulates General in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York, and Consulates in Miami and New Orleans

US:: Ambassador Robert M. KIMMITT;
Embassy at Deichmanns Avenue, 5300 Bonn 2 (mailing address is APO AE 09080);
telephone [49] (228) 3391;
there is a US Branch Office in Berlin and US Consulates General in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, and Stuttgart

Flag

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

Economy

17 fields

Overview

The Federal Republic of Germany is making substantial progress in integrating and modernizing eastern Germany, but at a heavy economic cost. Western Germany's growth in 1991 slowed to 3.1% - the lowest rate since 1987 - because of slack world growth and higher interest rates and taxes required by the unification process. While western Germany's economy was in recession in the last half of 1991, eastern Germany's economy bottomed out after a nearly two-year freefall and shows signs of recovery, particularly in the construction, transportation, and service sectors. Eastern Germany could begin a fragile recovery later, concentrated in 1992 in construction, transportation, and services. The two regions remain vastly different, however, despite eastern Germany's progress. 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 1990 accounted for about 21% of GDP. In 1991, GDP in the western region was an estimated $19,200 per capita. In contrast, eastern Germany's economy is shedding the obsolete heavy industries that dominated the economy during the Communist era. Eastern Germany's share of all-German GDP is only about 7%, and eastern productivity is just 30% that of the west. The privatization agency for eastern Germany, the Treuhand, is rapidly selling many of the 11,500 firms under its control. The pace of private investment is starting to pick up, but questions about property rights and environmental liabilities remain. 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 biggest danger is that excessive wage settlements and heavy federal borrowing could fuel inflation and prompt the German Central Bank, the Bundesbank, to keep a tight monetary policy to choke off a wage-price spiral. Meanwhile, the FRG has been providing billions of dollars to help the former Soviet republics and the reformist economies of Eastern Europe.

GDP

purchasing power equivalent - Federal Republic of Germany: $1,331.4 billion, per capita $16,700;
real growth rate 0.7%;
western Germany: $1,235.8 billion, per capita $19,200;
real growth rate 3.1%;
eastern Germany $95.6 billion, per capita $5,870;
real growth rate - 30% (1991 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices)

West - 3.5% (1991); East - NA%

Unemployment rate

West - 6.3% (1991); East - 11% (1991)

Budget

West (federal, state, local) - revenues $684 billion; expenditures $704 billion, including capital expenditures $NA (1990), East - NA

Exports

West - $324.3 billion (f.o.b., 1989); commodities: 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%

Exports

partners: EC 53.3% (France 12.7%, Netherlands 8.3%, Italy 9.1%, UK 8.3%, Belgium-Luxembourg 7.3%), other Western Europe 15.9%, US 7.1%, Eastern Europe 4.1%, OPEC 2.7% (1990)

Imports

West - $346.5 billion (f.o.b., 1989)

commodities:: manufactures 68.5%, agricultural products 12.0%, fuels 9.7%, raw materials 7.1%
partners:: EC 51.7% (France 11.7%, Netherlands 10.1%, Italy 9.3%, UK 6.7%, Belgium-Luxembourg 7.2%), other Western Europe 13.4%, US 6.6%, Eastern Europe 3.8%, OPEC 2.5% (1990)

External debt

West - $500 million (June 1988); East - $20.6 billion (1989)

Industrial production

growth rates, West - 5.4% (1990); East - 30% (1991 est.)

Electricity

133,000,000 kW capacity; 580,000 million kWh produced, 7,390 kWh per capita (1991)

Industries

West - among world's largest producers of iron, steel, coal, cement, chemicals, machinery, vehicles, machine tools, electronics;
food and beverages;
East - metal fabrication, chemicals, brown coal, shipbuilding, machine building, food and beverages, textiles, petroleum refining

Agriculture

West - 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;
East - 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 food;
fish catch of 193,600 metric tons in 1987

Economic aid

West - donor - ODA and OOF commitments (1970-89), $75.5 billion;
East - donor - $4.0 billion extended bilaterally to non-Communist less developed countries (1956-89)

Currency

deutsche mark (plural - deutsche marks); 1 deutsche mark (DM) = 100 pfennige

Exchange rates

deutsche marks (DM) per US$1 - 1.6611 (March 1992), 1.6595 (1991), 1.6157 (1990), 1.8800 (1989), 1.7562 (1988), 1.7974 (1987)

Fiscal year

calendar year

Communications

9 fields

Merchant marine, 607 ships by type

passenger 3short-sea passenger 5cargo 324refrigerated cargo 10container 135roll-on/roll-off cargo 31railcar carrier 5barge carrier 6oil tanker 11chemical tanker 21liquefied gas tanker 22combination ore/oil 5combination bulk 14bulk; note - the German register includes ships of the former East and West Germany; during 1991 the fleet underwent major restructuring as surplus ships were sold off 15607 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 5,210,060 GRT/6,626,333 DWT

Airports, 462 total, 455 usable

permanent-surface runways

242runways | over 3,659 m

4runways 2,440-3,659 m

40runways 1,220-2,439 m

Railroads

West - 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);
East - 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)

Highways

West - 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);
East - 124,604 km total;
47,203 km concrete, asphalt, stone block, of which 1,855 km are autobahn and limited access roads, 11,326 are trunk roads, and 34,022 are regional roads;
77,401 municipal roads (1988)

Inland waterways

West - 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;
East - 2,319 km (1988)

West - 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 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 East - badly needs modernization;
3,970,000 telephones;
broadcast stations - 23 AM, 17 FM, 21 TV (15 Soviet TV repeaters);
6,181,860 TVs;
6,700,000 radios;
1 satellite earth station operating in INTELSAT and Intersputnik systems