Portal:Germany
Welcome to the Germany Portal!
Willkommen im Deutschland-Portal!
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Germany (German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland), is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.
Germany includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,596 square kilometres (138,069 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With nearly 83 million inhabitants, it is the second most populous state of Europe after Russia, the most populous state lying entirely in Europe, as well as the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is a very decentralized country. Its capital and most populous city is Berlin, while Frankfurt serves as its financial capital and has the country's busiest airport.
In 1871, Germany became a nation-state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the Revolution of 1918–19, the empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to World War II, and the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, two new German states were founded: West Germany, formed from the American, British, and French occupation zones, and East Germany, formed from the western part of the Soviet occupation zone, reduced by the newly established Oder-Neisse line. Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on 3 October 1990.
Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor. It is a great power with a strong economy. As a global leader in several industrial, scientific and technological sectors, it is a major trading nation. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993. Read more...
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Felix Mendelssohn (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.
A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family. He was brought up without religion until the age of seven, when he was baptised as a Reformed Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent.
Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, where he also revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and in his travels throughout Europe. He was particularly well received in Britain as a composer, conductor and soloist, and his ten visits there – during which many of his major works were premiered – form an important part of his adult career. His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Conservatoire (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig), which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook. More...
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Holy Roman Empire (900–1806)
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Anniversaries for April 21

- 1488 - Birth of Imperial Knight and humanist Ulrich von Hutten
- 1864 - Birth of sociologist Max Weber
- 1900 - Birth of Nazi journalist Hans Fritzsche
- 1918 - The Red Baron Manfred von Richthofen is shot down
- 1946 - In the Soviet occupation zone, KPD and SPD are united to form the SED
Did you know...
- ... that Russia funded the building of the Russian Memorial Church in Leipzig (pictured) as a monument to the 22,000 Russians who died in the 1813 Battle of Leipzig against Napoleon?
- ... that Adolf Hitler received more than 300 visitors during his Festungshaft (fortress confinement) in Landsberg Prison?
- ... that the creator of Pop was part of the German techno scene?
- ... that some legal documents in Old Frisian refer to the womb as a "fortress of the bones"?
- ... that two books of photos and drawings by Margot Dias were called "among the best-illustrated anthropological volumes ever produced"?
- ... that more than a quarter of the population of Germany is of migration background?
- ... that Karl Braun and other German scientists played cards with their British colleagues during World War I?
- ... that Rudolf Herzog's novels have been described as characterised by the "sentimentality and harshness, pomp and plainness" of Kaiser Wilhelm II?
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- Requests: German Archaeological Institute at Rome , Deutsche Familienversicherung , Dietlof von Arnim-Boitzenburg , Rolf von Bargen , Hennes Bender , Eduard Georg von Bethusy-Huc , Rolf Brandt (1886–1953), Jan Philipp Burgard , Rudolf Epp , Lisa Feller , Georg Arbogast von und zu Franckenstein , Georg Gafron , Ferdinand Heribert von Galen , Gundula Gause , Wolfgang von Geldern , Karl-Heinz Hagen , Herbert Helmrich , Nils von der Heyde , Monty Jacobs (1875–1945), Siegfried Kauder , Matze Knop , Wolfgang Kryszohn , Claus Larass , Isidor Levy (1852–1929), Markus Löning , Tobias Mann , Mathias Müller von Blumencron ,Günther Nonnenmacher , Günter von Nordenskjöld , Anke Plättner , Hans Heinrich X. Fürst von Pless , Günter Prinz , Ulrich Reitz , Hans Sauer (inventor) , Franz August Schenk von Stauffenberg , Paul Schlesinger (1878-1928), Hajo Schumacher , Otto Theodor von Seydewitz , Christoph Sieber (comedian) , Dorothea Siems , Werner Sonne , Udo zu Stolberg-Wernigerode , Christoph Strässer , Joseph von Utzschneider , Hedda von Wedel , Jürgen Wieshoff , Hans Wilhelmi , Dietmar Wischmeyer , Alexandra Würzbach
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