Location: Central Europe
Area: 357,031 km²
Inhabitants: 82,5 million
Capital city: Berlin
State system: Democratic- parliamentary federal state
Administration: 16 states

Germany (Deutschland ), officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( Bundesrepublik Deutschland ), is a country located in Central Europe and is one of the compactly populated Countries of the world. Germany is a democratic parliamentary federal republic, made up of 16 states (German: Bundesländer), which in certain spheres act independently of the federation.

Territory
Since reunification Germany has resumed its role as a major centre between Scandinavia in the north and the Mediterranean region in the south, as well as between the Atlantic west and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The territory of Germany stretches from the high mountains of the Alps (highest point: the Zugspitze at 2,962 m / 9,718  ft ) in the south to the shores of the North Sea (Nordsee) in the north-west and the Baltic Sea (Ostsee) in the north-east. In between are the forested uplands of central Germany and the low-lying lands of northern Germany (lowest point: Neuendorfer / Wilstermarsch at 3.54 meters (11.6 ft) below sea level), traversed by some of Europe's major rivers such as the Rhine , Danube and Elbe .

Due to its central location, Germany shares borders with more European countries than any other country. Its neighbours are Denmark in the north, Poland and the Czech Republic in the east, Austria and Switzerland in the south, France and Luxembourg in the south-west and Belgium and the Netherlands in the north-west.

Culture
Germany 's contributions to the world's cultural heritage are numerous, and the country is often known as das Land der Dichter und Denker (the land of poets and thinkers). German literature can be traced back to the middle Ages, in particular to such authors as Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach , considered some of the most important poets of medieval Europe . The fairy tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are world famous and the Nibelungenlied , whose author is not known, is also a major contribution to German literature. Theologian Luther , who translated the Bible into German, is widely credited for having set the basis for modern "High German" language. The mostly admired German poets and authors are without doubt Lessing , Goethe , Schiller , Kleist and Hoffmann . Other poets include Friedrich Hölderlin , Heinrich Heine , Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , Theodor Fontane , Rainer Maria Rilke and authors of the 20th century include Nobel Prize winners Thomas Mann , Hermann Hesse , Heinrich Böll , and Günter Grass . Other famous authors are Brecht and Schmidt . Germany's influence on world philosophy was significant as well, as exemplified by Magnus , Leibniz , Kant , Herder , Mendelssohn , Novalis , Fichte , Hegel , Marx , Engels , Feuerbach , Schopenhauer , Schweitzer , Nietzsche , Husserl , Hartmann , Jaspers , Luxemburg , Heidegger , Arendt , Freud, Steiner , Gadamer , and Habermas . In the field of sociology influential German thinkers were Tönnies , Simmel , Weber , Horkheimer , Adorno , and Luhmann .

Many historical figures, though not citizens of Germany in the modern sense, were important and influential figures in German culture, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Franz Kafka , Stefan Zweig , and Nicolaus Copernicus .

Music
In the field of music , Germany's influence is noted through the works of, among others, Bach , Mozart , Händel , Telemann , Schütz , Beethoven , Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Humperdinck , Nicolai , Lortzing , Brahms , Schumann , Wagner , Pachelbel , Offenbach , Furtwängler , Eisler , Reger , Strauss , Hindemith , Orff , Stockhausen , Henze , Lachenmann and Grönemeyer. Germany also has indulged in other types of music such as Hard Rock/Heavy Metal in which Rammstein is leading the way