An assignment to Germany, the heart of central Europe, means living and working in one of the most dynamic, progressive and interesting of European countries. Today, it is an opportunity to witness, and participate in, an important new phase of German and European history. In addition, Germany offers a high standard of living, extensive travel opportunities both within and outside the country, world-class cultural events and recreational facilities for everyone.

Despite its linguistic and cultural affinity and close ties with the U.S., Germany is a distinctly foreign experience and assignment to Germany requires adjusting to a different pace and way of life. As Europeans, for example, Germans are more formal in business and social relationships than Americans. The national culture and its regional variations are shaped by patterns rooted in a long and unique central European history. Although English is a commonplace alternate language in parts of Germany, living in Germany will be more rewarding for those who speak German or who have the interest and initiative to take advantage of the many opportunities to learn the language.

In the 1996–1999 timeframe, Germany’s Government and Parliament and the American Embassy moved back to Berlin, the nation’s historic capital. The immediate postwar era is over. Both Germany and Berlin are whole again. Germany today is the world’s third largest economy and the economic foundation on which the EURO, Europe’s common currency, rests. The years ahead are certain to be filled with exciting new challenges, new issues and new opportunities for partnership with the United States as Germany and Europe reshape themselves for the future.

Unified Germany comprises 16 states (Länder in the plural; singular: Land), of which three (Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg) are city-states.  Berlin, with a population approaching four million, is surrounded by the State of Brandenburg, with the Brandenburg Land capital at Potsdam, a city that adjoins Berlin on the southwest.  Bavaria is Germany’s largest land.  Germany’s population exceeds 82 million and, with a total land area of only 137,800 square miles (slightly smaller than the State of Montana), the nation is one of the most densely populated and urbanized in Europe.

Germany has five distinct geographical areas and widely varying landscapes. From north to south these are:

• the flat north German lowlands;
• the hills and the low mountains of the Mittelgebirge;
• the west and south German plateaus and mountains (including the Black Forest, the Schwarzwald);
• the south German Alpine foothills and lake country; and
• the Bavarian Alps with the Zugspitze (Germany's highest mountain, 9,717 ft.)  near Garmisch.

The most important rivers are the Rhine, the Weser, the Elbe, the Main, the Oder, and the Danube. The first three flow northward, emptying into the North Sea.  The Main is a tributary of the Rhine.  The Danube, starting as a spring in the beautiful, historic town of Donaueschingen in southwest Germany, flows east 1,725 miles to meet the Black Sea in Romania.  Lake Constance (Bodensee), Germany’s largest lake, lies at the border separating Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

Germany is in the Temperate Zone and enjoys frequent weather changes, sometimes daily.  The country has four distinct seasons with rainfall frequent in most months, especially in the autumn.  Winter temperatures and snowfall tend to be more extreme in the southern part of the country where the average elevation is higher, but even low-lying Berlin has snowfalls and winter temperatures which  occasionally dip below 10°F.  Summer temperatures are usually cooler than Washington, D.C., although short summer hot spells are common.

With a population totaling more than 80 million persons, Germany has one-quarter of the population of the European Union.  It is the largest nation in Europe after Russia even though, in size, it is smaller than either France or Spain.  Today, over 85 million people speak German as their mother tongue.

Many Americans call Germany home.  There are thousands of U.S. military men and women including retirees, Government employees, representatives of U.S. businesses, academics and their family members throughout Germany.  Relationships between Germans and Americans are generally very positive.  Many older Germans remember the assistance provided by the U.S. Marshall Plan after World War II and the commitment and aid provided by the Berlin Airlift in 1948.  America’s steadfast support of German democracy, especially during the crises of the Cold War, adds to the generally positive reputation of the U.S. in Germany.  Many Germans travel or have traveled to the U.S. for business or pleasure and many learn English from the earliest years in school.  English is a common second language, especially in the western parts of Germany, although some German-language ability is necessary everywhere for a rewarding living and cultural experience.

Recent History.  The chronology of German events since the end of the Second World War has been dramatic and extraordinarily eventful.  After Germany’s defeat, the country was occupied by the four Allied powers — the U.S., the U.K., France and the Soviet Union.  In 1949, the zones under control of the three western nations united to become the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).  In the same year, the eastern part of the country, under control of German Communist authorities and the Soviet Union, was declared a separate German State and became the GDR.  On October 3, 1990, following the revolutionary changes of late 1989, the Federal Republic and the GDR joined to form a reunified Republic of Germany that extended the constitution and laws of the former West Germany to five new eastern States.

The city of Berlin, surrounded by East Germany, had a special status in the immediate postwar period and was under the military occupation of the four allies under a Four-Power Agreement.  By 1948, Soviet violation of  Four-Power Agreements from the immediate post-war days increasingly had isolated their zone from those parts of Berlin occupied by the Western powers and the division of the city began to take shape.  The Berlin airlift of food and supplies in 1948–49 was an Allied response to Soviet efforts to use their control of overland access to Berlin to force the Western powers from the city.  The Berlin Wall, the infamous dividing line between East and West Berlin, went up almost overnight in August 1961 in an effort to stem the tide of East Germans departing for the West.  The Wall remained in place as a physical and psychological barrier until November 1989 when, under the pressure of  weeks of peaceful protests throughout the GDR and changes in Soviet policy, it suddenly collapsed along with the government that had built it.  One year later, Germany was unified.  In 1991, the German Parliament, the Bundestag, made the historic decision to move the German Government and Parliament back to Berlin from Bonn where it had been located in a “provisional capital” since 1949.

Democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany is founded on the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), which came into force in May 1949.  It provides for a parliamentary democracy and is protected by the Federal Constitutional Court.  The constitution contains strong guarantees of individual rights for all. Matters requiring centralized direction, such as foreign policy, foreign trade, defense, and monetary policy, are reserved to the Federal Government.  Parliament has two Chambers.  The first Chamber of Parliament, the so-called “lower house,” is the Bundestag, which normally comprises 656 members popularly elected every four years.  The “upper house,” the Bundesrat, is composed of 69 deputies appointed by the State or Land governments. This Chamber can approve or veto certain important legislation passed by the Bundestag.

Like the U.S., modern Germany is a highly decentralized nation.  Each of the 16 States, or Länder, in the German republic has its own state government, with a Parliament and separate executive branch led by the head of government, the Minister-President. Education, social services, public order, and police are under Länder control.  The ability of the Federal Government to affect Länder decisions in matters reserved to the states is quite limited, a feature of the German system of government deliberately created as a result of the experiences of the National Socialist period.

The Federal President, whose powers are mostly limited to ceremonial functions as head of state, is elected every five years by the Federal Convention, consisting of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of members elected by the state legislatures.  The Federal Chancellor, Germany’s Prime Minister, is elected by a majority vote of the Bundestag for a four-year term corresponding to the life of the Bundestag.  As chief executive, the Chancellor has a strong position in the German system of government.  The Bundestag can remove the Federal Chancellor by electing a successor with an absolute majority of votes.

The largest national political parties are the Social Democratic Party (SPD), leaders of the governing coalition following Parliamentary elections in 1998, and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) which operates in tandem with the Christian Social Union (CSU) of Bavaria.  The CDU governed Germany during the periods 1949-69 and 1982-98.  Germany’s “Greens,” a political party officially known as Alliance 90/The Greens, with roots in the environmental and left-wing movements of the seventies, entered government as junior coalition partner in 1998.  The Free Democratic Party (FDP) is a small center-right party that has participated as a partner in most German governments since 1949, with the exception of the periods 1957–61, 1966–69 and after the 1998 elections.  The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) is the successor political organization to the Communist Party which ruled in the former German Democratic Republic.  It enjoys limited regional strength, particularly in some districts of Berlin and the states of the former GDR.

Germany has an active and highly innovative theater culture, in both the large cities and smaller communities throughout the country. Theaters and acting companies are usually subsidized although more and more theatres are privatizing, especially in Berlin. Despite this financial dependence, theaters have great artistic freedom guaranteed by the German Basic Law.

For lovers of the visual arts, almost every city maintains art exhibitions and private galleries. Germany has more than 3,000 museums, of which 500 are concentrated in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most heavily populated of the Länder. There are outstanding art museums in Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Hannover, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Kassel, Stuttgart, and Wiesbaden. The most extensive art collections in the care of a local authority are found in the city of Cologne, including the Wallraf Richartz Museum and the Ludwig Museum of Modern Art. The latter institution contains one of the largest collections of American modern art outside the U.S. Cologne also enjoys a global reputation as a sales center for contemporary art. Every five years, the city of Kassel, in the state of Hesse, hosts the largest festival of modern art in the world. Meanwhile, Berlin is also experiencing a revival in the arts and is seeking to establish the Berlin Biennial as a major international show and marketplace.

Foreign artists are frequently involved in German cultural events. Almost every German opera house has American singers under contract. Several German orchestras have an American conductor, and many have American musicians. Every year major American orchestras and dance companies perform under commercial auspices in Germany, touring several cities. American artists are represented in all major museums, exhibits, and galleries around the country. German-language productions of American plays and musicals are frequently part of the repertoire of German theater companies.

As in the U.S., where education is a State and local function, education in Germany is largely the responsibility of the Länder. The Länder coordinate their educational policies through the “Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs” (Kulturminister-konferenz). The Federal Government can legislate on vocational training and regulations governing the basic principles of higher education and research, and, as in the U.S., it provides important subsidies in these areas.

As an industrial nation lacking raw materials, Germany sees high standards of education and high levels of productivity as essential to the quality of life of its citizens.

Although there are many regional variations in educational patterns and changes under way, certain basic practices remain as the German educational model. Compulsory schooling begins at age six and lasts nine years (in some Länder, 10). As in most European countries, Germany relies on early testing and the track system to select students for vocational training leading to skilled employment or further academic study culminating in the university. Most children are tested at age 10. Options include placement in a Hauptschule or Realschule — vocational high schools or in a Gymnasium, an academic high school. In some Länder there are comprehensive schools called Gesamtschulen. After completion of their compulsory schooling, students may qualify for higher-level specialized vocational training at a Fachöberschule, after which admission to a polytechnic university is possible. The Gymnasium leads to the award of the highly-prized Abitur, a certificate received after successfully passing stringent tests at the conclusion of the 13th year. (Most eastern Länder give the Abitur after only 12 years.) The Abitur degree is required for university entrance. The comprehensive school embraces all these tracks.

There are nearly two million students at institutions of higher education in Germany. There are over 200 advanced institutions of several kinds (universities and technical universities, polytechnic universities, comprehensive universities, teacher training colleges, and fine art colleges). Numerous adult education centers (Volkshochschulen) also offer an attractive spectrum of subjects for personal enrichment.

Study courses at the 70 universities are divided into basic studies (Grundstudium) and specialized studies (Hauptstudium). Basic studies culminate in an intermediate examination or Vordiplom (usually after four or five semesters) and specialized studies in the Diplom or State Examination (after eight or more semesters, depending on the field). American students with two years of full-time college study may be admitted to German universities if they have the required language proficiency. Students with combined SAT scores above 1,300 may sometimes be admitted with less U.S. college credit. Admission requirements for doctoral and other advanced programs vary. There is limited access to the medical fields.

Education in Germany, including university education, is free of charge for all students, including foreigners.  There is, however, a registration fee.