Federal Republic of Germany

B

Political Divisions

Germany is divided into 16 German states (Länder): Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia.

C

Principal Cities

The capital of Germany is Berlin, which has a population of 3,387,800 (2005 estimate). The government, however, still largely resides in the old capital of the former West Germany, Bonn, an old university city on the Rhine with a population of 311,900 (2005 estimate); complete transition to Berlin will not take place until the year 2003. The country’s largest cities, with their population figures, are Hamburg, 1,734,800 (2005 estimate), a major seaport; Munich, 1,249,200 (2005 estimate), a commercial and cultural centre; Cologne, 969,700 (2005 estimate), an industrial city with a famous cathedral; Frankfurt, 646,900 (2005 estimate), a major financial centre and manufacturing city; Essen, 588,100 (2005 estimate), a steel-making centre in the Ruhr; Dortmund, 588,700 (2005 estimate), an industrial centre with nearby coal mines; Stuttgart, 590,700 (2005 estimate), a manufacturing and commercial city; Düsseldorf, 572,700 (2005 estimate), a fashionable industrial and financial city; and Leipzig, 498,500 (2005 estimate), also a manufacturing and commercial centre.

D

Religion

About 35 per cent of Germans are Protestants, the great majority of these being Lutherans. Most of the Protestants live in the north. About 34 per cent of the people are Roman Catholic, concentrated in the Rhineland and Bavaria. About 2 per cent are Muslim. Approximately 40,000 Jews live in Germany today.

E

Language

The official language is German, which is spoken by the majority of the population. Several regional dialects exist, some of which differ substantially from Standard German. Some regional languages are spoken by minorities, such as Eastern and Northern Frisian, Kölsch, Mainfränkisch, Pfaelzisch, and Low Saxon and Upper Saxon, by far the most widely understood of all the regional languages. A significant linguistic minority of about 100,000 Sorbs (also spelled Serbs), descendants of the Slavic peoples called the Wends by the Germans in medieval times, live in the Lusatia region (which includes the cities of Cottbus and Bautzen) and speak Lower and Upper Sorbian, also called “Wendish”. Polish, Danish, Sinte Romani, and Vlax Romani are also mother tongues for certain minorities. At least 40 non-indigenous languages are spoken by immigrant communities, including different types of Arabic, Russian, Croatian, Italian, English, and Chinese.

F

Education

Though the FRG (West Germany) and the GDR (East Germany) shared centuries of cultural history, the GDR was heavily influenced by Soviet values and social systems. Since reunification the educational system in the east has abandoned the Soviet polytechnic model of comprehensive education for all secondary-school students, and returned to the specialized system of the west.

Schooling in Germany is compulsory and free for people between the ages of 6 and 18. Although education is controlled by the individual state governments, national coordinating groups ensure that school systems and requirements are roughly the same throughout the region. Almost all adults in Germany are literate. Around 5 per cent of the country’s gross national product (GNP) was spent on education in 2002–2003.

Children begin their education with four years at a Grundschule (basic school). On completion of the Grundschule at about the age of ten, students are given extensive tests, the results of which largely determine their subsequent schooling. Almost half of the students go on to a Hauptschule (senior school) for five years. They then undertake a three-year vocational training programme, which includes on-the-job experience plus classroom instruction at a Berufsschule (vocational school). Approximately one fifth of the children who finish the Grundschule attend a Realschule, where they take a six-year course emphasizing commercial and business subjects. After the Realschule these students may enter a two-year vocational college (Fachoberschule). About one in four students enters a Gymnasium (academic high school) after the Grundschule. The Gymnasium offers a rigorous nine-year programme that culminates with examinations for the Abitur (diploma), which is necessary for university entrance.

Under reforms introduced in the 1970s, the rigid distinctions between the three types of schooling were loosened, and some students were permitted to change from one kind of school to another during the course of their education. Such mid-course changes were easiest at the small but growing number of comprehensive schools, which offered all three programmes—vocational, commercial, and academic. Schools of continuing education for adults, such as the many Volkshochschulen (people’s universities), offer a variety of courses and have some programmes leading to diplomas. In 1995 Germany had 17,910 primary schools with 3,519,051 pupils and 238,345 teachers, and over 11,000 secondary schools of various types, with 4.2 million pupils and almost 333,000 teachers.

Germany has long been known for the quality of its institutions of higher learning, and one of its universities, the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg (1386), is among the oldest in Europe. Other leading universities in Germany are at Berlin, Bonn, Erlangen, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Göttingen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Marburg an der Lahn, Munich, and Tübingen. Germany also has numerous teacher-training institutions; schools of fine arts, music, and film-making; and schools of theology. In 2002–2003 there were around 2.33 million students at German universities.