Germany is a democratic federal parliamentary nation, made up of 16 federal states (Länder or, more commonly, Bundesländer), which in certain spheres act independently of the Federation.

The Federal Republic of Germany is a member state of the United Nations, NATO, the G8 and the G4 nations, and is a founding member of what is now the European Union.

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Living in Germany

Climate Germany
The greater part of Germany lies in the cool/temperate climatic zone in which humid westerly winds predominate.

In the north-west and the north the climate is very oceanic and rain falls all the year round. Winters there are relatively mild and summers comparatively cool.

In the east the climate shows clear continental features; winters can be very cold for long periods, and summers can become very warm. Here, too, long dry periods are often recorded.

In the central and the south there is a transitional climate which may be predominantly oceanic or continental, according to the general weather situation.

Germany has many large cities but only four with a population of one million or more: Berlin with 3.4 million, Hamburg with 1.8 million, Munich with 1.4 million, and Cologne with 1.0 million. Thus, the population is much less centralised and oriented towards a single large city than in most other European countries. The largest cities apart from those are Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Essen, Düsseldorf, Bremen, Duisburg and Hanover (Hannover). By far the largest urban conurbation is the Rhine-Ruhr region, including the Düsseldorf-Cologne district.

As of 2004, about 7 million non-citizen residents were living in Germany. By far the largest number came from Turkey, followed by Italy, Greece, Croatia, the Netherlands, Serbia and Montenegro, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Portugal, Vietnam, Morocco, Poland, Macedonia, Lebanon and France. [5] Thanks to German citizenship reform, many of these immigrants are eligible for naturalisation ([6]). 9% of the population is not ethnically German.

Germany is still a primary destination for political and economic refugees from many developing countries, but the number of asylum seekers has been dropping in recent years, reaching about 50,000+ in 2003.

An ethnic Danish minority of about 50,000 people lives in Schleswig, mostly close to the Danish border, in the north; a small number of Slavic people known as the Sorbs lives in the states of Saxony (about 40,000) and Brandenburg (about 20,000). The Frisian language is mother tongue to about 12,000 speakers in Germany. In rural areas of Northern Germany, Low Saxon is widely spoken.

There are also a large number of ethnic German immigrants from the former Soviet Union area (1.7 million), Poland (0.7 million) and Romania (0.3 million) (1980–1999 totals), who are automatically granted German citizenship, and thus do not show up in foreign resident statistics; unlike foreigners, they have been settled by the government almost evenly spread throughout Germany.

In English / In German
State Capital State Capital
1 Baden-Württemberg Stuttgart Baden-Württemberg Stuttgart
2 Bavaria Munich (Freistaat) Bayern München
3 Berlin Berlin Berlin Berlin
4 Brandenburg Potsdam Brandenburg Potsdam
5 Bremen Bremen (Freie Hansestadt) Bremen Bremen
6 Hamburg Hamburg (Freie Hansestadt) Hamburg Hamburg
7 Hessen Wiesbaden Hessen Wiesbaden
8 Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Schwerin Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Schwerin
9 Lower Saxony Hanover Niedersachsen Hannover
10 North Rhine-Westphalia Düsseldorf Nordrhein-Westfalen Düsseldorf
11 Rhineland-Palatinate Mainz Rheinland-Pfalz Mainz
12 Saarland Saarbrücken Saarland Saarbrücken
13 Saxony Dresden (Freistaat) Sachsen Dresden
14 Saxony-Anhalt Magdeburg Sachsen-Anhalt Magdeburg
15 Schleswig-Holstein Kiel Schleswig-Holstein Kiel
16 Thuringia Erfurt (Freistaat) Thüringen Erfurt

Germany is the world's third largest economy measured by gross domestic product, placed behind the United States and Japan. According to the World Trade Organization, Germany is also the world's top exporter, ahead of the United States and China. Its major trading partners include France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands. A major issue of concern remains the persistently high unemployment rate and weak domestic demand which slows down economic growth. However, according to Bert Rürup, head of Germany's Council of Economic Advisers, reunification is to blame for two-thirds of Germany's growth lag compared to its EU neighbours. In particular, eastern Germany lacks a solid base of small and medium-sized companies, which provided the foundation for West Germany's economic prosperity.