People and Society of Germany

Nationality

noun: German(s) adjective: German

Ethnic Groups

German 85.4%, Turkish 1.8%, Ukrainian 1.4%, Syrian 1.1%, Romanian 1%, Poland 1%, other/stateless/unspecified 8.3%

Population

82,282,988

Population (Male / Female)

male: 41,572,702 female: 42,546,398

Population Distribution

second most populous country in Europe; a fairly even distribution throughout most of the country, with urban areas attracting larger and denser populations, particularly in the far western part of the industrial state of North Rhine-Westphalia

Urban Population

urban population: 77.8% of total population rate of urbanization: 0.13% annual rate of change

Population in Major Urban Areas

3.574 million BERLIN (capital), 1.788 million Hamburg, 1.576 million Munich, 1.144 million Cologne, 796,000 Frankfurt

Age Structure

0-14 years: 13.8% (male 5,925,800/female 5,688,603) 15-64 years: 62.5% (male 26,705,657/female 25,875,865) 65 years and over: 23.7% (male 8,941,245/female 10,981,930)

Median Age

total: 46.8 years male: 45.5 years female: 48.3 years

Sex Ratio at Birth

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female 0-14 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female total population: 0.98 male(s)/female

Germany has good medical care and facilities. If you are not a resident of Germany, doctors and hospitals may expect immediate payment in cash. Most doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies do not accept credit cards. Due to Germany's strict customs regulations, generally, you are not allowed to receive prescription medication by mail without special permission. During your trip, you should only carry the amount you plan to use.

Life Expectancy at Birth

total population: 81.9 years male: 79.6 years female: 84.4 years

Infant Mortality Rate

total: 3.1 deaths/1,000 live births male: 3.5 deaths/1,000 live births female: 2.7 deaths/1,000 live births

Drinking Water Source

improved: urban: 100% of population rural: 100% of population total: 100% of population unimproved: urban: 0% of population rural: 0% of population total: 0% of population

Sanitation Facility Access

improved: urban: 100% of population rural: 100% of population total: 100% of population unimproved: urban: 0% of population rural: 0% of population total: 0% of population

Tobacco Use

total: 22% male: 24.1% female: 19.9%

Alcohol Consumption

total: 10.56 liters of pure alcohol beer: 5.57 liters of pure alcohol wine: 3.02 liters of pure alcohol spirits: 1.97 liters of pure alcohol other alcohols: 0 liters of pure alcohol

Literacy Definition

age 15 and over can read and write

Total School Life Expectancy

total: 17 years male: 17 years female: 17 years

Classroom

School buildings themselves may range from classic old buildings with great traditions and heritage to newly constructed buildings with the latest architecture. But they are always kept clean and are viewed as an important part of the local culture. Because of the cultural and governmental support given to schools, educational issues, in general, are not treated lightly. In the classrooms, teachers are highly regarded, but the teacher-student and teacher-parent relationship can be somewhat casual and relaxed. Computers play a big role in German education. Students are expected to use them to do homework, conduct research on the Internet, and may even learn to write their own programs in classes called “Informatics.”

Education Culture

Education is very important in Germany. It was one of the first, if not the very first, countries in the world to provide compulsory, free education to its children, beginning in the 18th century by command of the King of Prussia. Germany has a 99% literacy rate for people over the age of 15. Today, the schools are overseen primarily by the German states, with little federal government influence. Teachers are hired by the Ministry of Education and, once they prove themselves for a given time period, are essentially hired for life. The teachers participate in the administration of each school, and the local town hires the janitorial and secretarial staff. Students help to clean up the classrooms and surrounding grounds. In school, as in much of German culture, cleanliness and order are important. It is interesting to note that in September 2006, Germany disallowed families to home school their children.

Learning

School uniforms are not required for children in Germany. They wear whatever they want, similar to the dress code for most schools in the United States. Kindergarten is available for those who want it for children from age 3 to age 6. Grundschule (elementary school) begins at age 6 and lasts for 4 years. Although private schools are available, most children attend state-sponsored schools because they are free, and private schools require additional tuition and administrative costs. At age 10, a child has one of four basic educational options, depending on aptitude: Hauptschule (the least academic, it goes until grade 9), Realschule (until grade 10), Gymnasium (until grade 12 or 13; this is the primary track for students planning on university studies), or Gesamtschule (until grade 10, with all three of the other “tracks” available). Depending on the state, either the teachers or the parents in consultation with the teachers have the final say on which track each child should follow. After all but Gymnasium, students typically enroll in a vocational school where they are trained using a combination of on-the-job training and two days a week in class. Gymnasium is capped off by taking a test (called Abitur) that determines whether a student may continue on to university studies, which are also free to those who qualify to attend. The school year usually begins around mid-August and is divided into two semesters. Students typically have 12 weeks of holidays—6 in the summer, 2 at Christmastime, and the rest divided between spring (usually around Easter) and autumn (when children were often required to help with the harvest in days gone by). In some states, school is in session six days a week, Sunday being the only free day. School normally starts at 8:00 a.m. and is often finished by noon for the younger classes and by 1:30 for children over the age of ten. There is usually a 5-, 10-, or 15-minute break after each subject (usually taught for 45 minutes), but students do not move to another class for the next subject. Instead, they stay in the same “homeroom,” and the teachers rotate to the students. Some elementary schools begin teaching English as early as the first or second grade. At each secondary school, students usually study English for five years as a basic requirement. Some students will also study another language, depending on the state’s requirements. These other languages include French, Latin, Polish, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and ancient Greek. Because each state controls its own curriculum, moving from one state to another can be very difficult for children. Grading is on a 6-point scale, with 1 being excellent and 6 being failing, or insufficient. Students who get a 6 are often required to repeat the grade level (approximately 5% of the students each year).

To School

Students often walk, ride bikes, or take advantage of the public transportation systems available throughout the country. These include buses, streetcars, and trains.

• Protestant34.0%
• Roman Catholic34.0%
• unaffiliated or other28.3%
• Muslim3.7%

German

German (official); note - Danish, Frisian, Sorbian, and Romani are official minority languages; Low German, Danish, North Frisian, Sater Frisian, Lower Sorbian, Upper Sorbian, and Romani are recognized as regional languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

• German

• Konrad Adenauer

  Other

• Karl Marx

  Reformer

• Hans und Sophie Scholl

  Other

• Willy Brandt

  Other

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Other

• Johannes Gutenberg

  Inventor

• Otto von Bismarck

  Government Leader

• Martin Luther

  Religious Leader · 1483–1546

  Martin Luder, later changed to Luther, was born on November 10, 1483 at Eisleben. He attended Latin school and boarding school as a child. When he was 18 he went to the University of Erfurt and studied liberal arts. He got his Master’s degree in 1505. He was almost struck by lightning and yelled "Help me St. Anne and I’ll become a monk!" He then went to the Black Monastery to become a monk. There he learned of the monk’s life and sacrifice. He doubted his faith and salvation but served as a priest there. He wrote 95 theses of "Disputation on the Power and Efficiency of Indulgences" against the church. On October 31, 1517, he nailed them to the door of the church in Wittingham. The pope also received a copy. Luther had originally wrote them in Latin, but it was then translated into German, and the pope asked "What drunken German wrote these?" He was invited to a meeting concerning the matter and was scared he would die. They were going to arrest him, but he escaped in the night back to Wittingham. The Pope and Luther made a truce, but it was soon broken. Martin was excommunicated on January 3, 1521. Luther died February 18, 1546 where he was born. Those who follow Martin Luther are called "Lutherans", a very popular Protestant church, there are approximately 66 million Lutherans.

• Peter Paul Rubens

  1577

  Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish artist, was born June 29, 1577 in Siegen, Westphalia (Germany).

• George Frideric Handel

  Composer · 1685

  George Frideric Handel, English composer, was born in Halle, Germany on Feb. 23, 1685.

• Johann Sebastian Bach

  Composer · 1685–1750

  Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Thuringia (Now Germany) on March 21, 1685. His father was Johann Ambrosius. His father was a court trumpeter for the Duke of Eisenach. The Bach family was well known for their musical talents. Johann Sebastian was taught to play the violin and harpsicord by his father, and learned the organ from his famous uncle, Johann Christoph. He beacame very good at these instruments at a very young age. When he was eight he went to a Latin language school and was in the choir and was told he had a "uncommonly fine treble voice". When he was nine, his mother died, and nine months later his father died too. Him and one of his brothers went to his other brothers house to live. He then sang in the Michaelis monastery. It was a very wealthy place, but took in Johann for his soprano voice. Once old enough, he left with his friend, Georg Erdmann to sing and travel together. Johann soon lost his soprano voice, but not his musical talent. He played violin in the orchestra. When he was 18, he decided that music was what will get him somewhere so he wanted to pursue a career in the field.He taught music at a church in Arnstandt. The Church Council thought the music he played was strange, but they knew his talent so kept him there. He met a girl, thought to be his cousin, and he soon married her. Her name was Maria Barbra. He was a very succesful writer. He wrote several concertos and performed them personally. His eyes started to fail because he was so used to dark rooms. On July 28, 1750, he woke up and said he could stand the light again. That day died from a stroke. His body remains at St. John’s Church.

• Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm

  Author · 1785

  Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, German collector of fairy tales, was born in Hanau, Germany on Jan 3, 1785.

• 

  Georg Somin Ohm

  Scientist · 1787

  Georg Simon Ohm was born in 1787 in Germany. His father, Johann Wolfgang Ohm, was a locksmith and his mother, Maria Elizabeth Beck, was the daughter of a tailor. Although his parents had not been formally educated, Ohm’s father was a remarkable man who had educated himself and was able to give his sons an excellent education through his own teachings. In 1805, Ohm entered the University of Erlangen and received a doctorate. He wrote elementary geometry books while teaching mathematics at several schools. Ohm began experimental work in a school physics laboratory after he had learned of the discovery of electromagnetism in 1820. In two important papers in 1826, Ohm gave a mathematical description of conduction in circuits modeled on Fourier’s study of heat conduction. These papers continue Ohm’s deduction of results from experimental evidence and, particularly in the second, he was able to propose laws which went a long way to explaining results of others working on galvanic electricity. The basic components of an electrochemical cell are: 1) Electrodes (X and Y) that are made of electrically conductive materials: metals, carbon, composites ... 2) Reference electrodes (A, B, C) that are in electrolytic contact with an electrolyte 3) The cell itself or container that is made of an inert material: glass, Plexiglass, ... and 4) An electrolyte that is the solution containing ions. Using the results of his experiments, Georg Simon Ohm was able to define the fundamental relationship between voltage, current, and resistance. What is now known as Ohm’s law appeared in his most famous work, a book published in 1827 that gave his complete theory of electricity. The equation I = V/R is known as "Ohm’s Law". It states that the amount of steady current through a material is directly proportional to the voltage across the material divided by the electrical resistance of the material. The ohm (R), a unit of electrical resistance, is equal to that of a conductor in which a current (I) of one ampere is produced by a potential of one volt (V) across its terminals. These fundamental relationships represent the true beginning of electrical circuit analysis.

• 

  Nicolaus August Otto

  Inventor · 1832

  Born in 1832 in Germany, Nicolaus August Otto invented the first practical alternative to the steam engine - the first successful four-stroke cycle engine. Otto built his first four-stroke engine in 1861. Then, in partnership with German industrialist Eugen Langen, they improved the design and won a gold medal at the World Exposition in Paris of 1867. In 1876, Otto, then a traveling salesman, chanced upon a newspaper account of the Lenoir internal combustion engine. Before year’s end, Otto had built an internal combustion engine, utilizing a four-stroke piston cycle. Now called the ’Otto cycle’ in his honor, the design called for four strokes of a piston to draw in and compress a gas-air mixture within a cylinder resulting in an internal explosion. He received patent #365,701 for his gas-motor engine. Because of its reliability, efficiency, and relative quietness, more than 30,000 Otto cycle engines were built in the next 10 years. He also developed low-voltage magneto ignition systems for his engines, allowing a much greater ease in starting.

• Johannes Brahms

  Composer · 1833

  Johannes Brahms, German composer, was born in the State of Hamburg, German Confederation. [now Hamburg, Germany] on May 7, 1833.

• Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen

  Inventor · 1845

  Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen, inventor of the x/ray, was born in Remscheid-Lennep, Germany on March 27, 1845.

• 

  Albert Einstein

  Scientist · 1879–1955

  Albert Einstein was born in Germany in 1879. He enjoyed classical music and played the violin. One story Einstein liked to tell about his childhood was of a wonder he saw when he was four or five years old: a magnetic compass. The needle’s invariable northward swing, guided by an invisible force, profoundly impressed the child. The compass convinced him that there had to be "something behind things, something deeply hidden." Even as a small boy Einstein was self-sufficient and thoughtful. According to family legend he was a slow talker, pausing to consider what he would say. His sister remembered the concentration and perseverance with which he would build houses of cards. In 1933, he joined the staff of the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He accepted this position for life, living there until his death. Einstein is probably familiar to most people for his mathematical equation about the nature of energy, . Einstein wrote a paper with a new understanding of the structure of light. He argued that light can act as though it consists of discrete, independent particles of energy, in some ways like the particles of a gas. A few years before, Max Planck’s work had contained the first suggestion of a discreteness in energy, but Einstein went far beyond this. His revolutionary proposal seemed to contradict the universally accepted theory that light consists of smoothly oscillating electromagnetic waves. But Einstein showed that light quanta, as he called the particles of energy, could help to explain phenomena being studied by experimental physicists. For example, he made clear how light ejects electrons from metals. There was a well-known kinetic energy theory that explained heat as an effect of the ceaseless motion of atoms; Einstein proposed a way to put the theory to a new and crucial experimental test. If tiny but visible particles were suspended in a liquid, he said, the irregular bombardment by the liquid’s invisible atoms should cause the suspended particles to carry out a random jittering dance. One should be able to observe this through a microscope, and if the predicted motion were not seen, the whole kinetic theory would be in grave danger. But just such a random dance of microscopic particles had long since been observed. Now the motion was explained in detail. Einstein had reinforced the kinetic theory, and he had created a powerful new tool for studying the movement of atoms.

• Adolf Hitler

  Government Leader · 1889–1945

  Adolf Hitler was born on the 20th of April, 1889 in an Austrian town near the German border. His parents were Alois Hitler and Klara Hitler. Klara and Alois had 5 children, but Adolf and his younger sister Paula were the only ones who survived to be adults. Alois had high expectations for Adolf after one of his other sons was a failure and ended up in prison for theft, so Adolf was beat if he did not do as he was told. He did well in school, with friends, and even in religion. He considered becoming a monk at one point. He moved onto a larger school, and when he was not top of the class, he decided to wuit altogether. His popularity went down too. He hung around some of the younger kids because he could oder them around. His father died when he was only 13. He left secondary school at 15 and got drunk after. He didn’t like it so he never got drunk again and eventually gave up alcohol all together. He moved to Vienna at 18 and was rejected by 2 art schools because he left school. He was devastated and still told his mother he was going to an art school. His mother died in 1907 due to cancer. It effected him badly and he carried a picture of her everywhere he went. He ignored his papers to serve in the Austrian army, but eventually had to get the medical for it. He was rejected because it said he was too weak. Hitler wanted to prove Germany was better. He won 5 medals in World War 1. He was described by other soldiers as an "odd and peculiar man". He was blinded in a mustard gas attack and was sent to a hospital and eventually regained his sight. He went into government and would always act mysterious at his speechs. He wanted to be known as "the New Messiah". He was a great orator and many people joined the party just for him. His beliefs were very bold. He only supported that of "German Blood" and others were below them. He eventually became the leader of the Nazi party. He and two others (after threatening them) commited treason and Hitler rose to power. Hitler and the Nazi party took over Germany slowly and created the genocide of the Jews known as the Holocaust. Jews were sent to concentration camps. They worked and then were gased. Their bodies were burned, buried, and cut to peices. This sparked World War 2. Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were married two days before their deaths. She agreed to commit suicide with him because she would hate a world without him. On April 30th, 1945 they said their farewells and took cyanide pills. Hitler also shot himself in the head and was cremated.

• Anne Frank

  Author · 1929–1945

  Anne Frank, author of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on June 12, 1929. Born Annelies Marie Frank, she was the second child of Otto Frank and Edith Frank. She grew up Jewish in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler. On her 13th birthday, Anne recived a diary as a gift. She wrote in it constantly. As the Jewish genocide in Germany began, Anne, her family, and the Van Pel family go into hiding in the "Secret Annex". It is a room in Otto’s company building that was hidden by a bookshelf. The families were helped by 4 of Otto’s employees, including Miep Gies. In November of 1942, another person joins the hidden. Dentist Fritz Pfeffer. Anne was in hiding for the better part of her life. 2 of her most important years. She had to be quiet during the daylight hours and had to be inside all the time. The hidden hear about many things on the English radio. They hear of the gassing at the Concentration camps and Anne got her hopes up once she heard about the Allies who landed on the beach of Normandy. Anne and her family was betrayed by Victor Kugler on Friday, August 4, 1944. He took three Dutch policeman to the Annex and the hidden were discovered. As they were being taken away, Miep Gies saved the papers of Anne Franks diary. The eight were seperated into different camps and several died. Anne and her older sister, Margot Frank died of Typhus in March of 1945, just a few weeks before the camp was liberated by the British Army.

Crime Information

Violent crime is rare in Germany but can occur, especially in larger cities or high-risk areas such as on large metropolitan subway systems and in train stations, primarily during late night or early morning hours. There have been several reports of aggravated assault against U.S. citizens in higher-risk urban areas. However, most incidents of street crime involve the theft of unattended items and pickpocketing. Take the same precautions that you would in any large city. Don't buy counterfeit and pirated goods, even if they are widely available. Not only are the bootlegs illegal to bring back into the United States, but by purchasing them you could also be breaking local law.

Criminal Penalties

While traveling in Germany, you are subject to its laws, even if you are a U.S. citizen. Foreign laws and legal systems can be vastly different from our own. While you are overseas, U.S. laws do not apply, and if you do something illegal in your host country, your U.S. passport won't help you avoid arrest or prosecution. It is very important to know what is legal and what is not, as criminal penalties vary from country to country. There are also some things that may be legal where you are traveling, but illegal in the United States; for example, if you engage in sexual conduct with children or use or disseminate child pornography in a foreign country, you can be prosecuted in the United States. The Embassy has learned of some incidents of German lawyers, working on behalf of media companies, aggressively identifying individuals who are illegally downloading copyrighted content and then billing those people 1000 Euros or more per incident. If these cases are brought to court, German courts will likely rule in favor of the companies. You are strongly advised not to download media content except from reputable legal sites. Arrest Notifications in Germany: While some countries will automatically notify the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate if a U.S. citizen is detained or arrested in a foreign country that is not the case in Germany. To ensure that the United States is aware of your circumstances, request that the police and prison officials notify the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate as soon as you are arrested or detained.