Germany

Map of Germany

Germany (known locally as Deutschland) is a country in Western Eurasia, a largely forested temperate area. Germany has a population of about 81 million, making it the most populated nation in the European Union. Germany has an advanced manufacturing sector and is economically quite powerful (having the fourth largest economy in the world). Germany is bordered by Poland and the Czech Republic to the East; France, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the West; and Switzerland and Austria to the south.

German Developments

• The European Printing Press
• Public Education
• The Bolt Action Rifle (Dreyse needle gun)
• The Rigid Airship
• The Haber Process
• The Automobile (Benz Patent-Motorwagen, 1886)
• The Jet Engine

German States in History

• The Holy Roman Empire: A loose assemblage of states created by Charlemagne with the backing of the Catholic Church, which once included France and Germany before being largely limited to Germany. The Imperial throne became an elected position, with emperors being voted in by the highest ranking nobles of the Empire. The Empire was a loose affair at the best and effectively ceased to be after the protestant reformation.
• Various German Principalities
• The Kingdom of Prussia: One of the more powerful German states that rose to prominence after the protestant reformation and during the age of Enlightenment, notably during the reign of king Frederick II.
• The German Empire (1871-1918): Unified under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, Germany grew in industrial strength and developed a colonial empire. The German Empire was dissolved after losing the Great War.
• The Weimar Republic (1918-1933)
• Nazi Germany (1933-1945)
• German Democratic Republic (1945-1990): After the fall of the Third Reich part of germany was occupied by the USSR. The Soviet Union installed a communist regime in the territory that it occupied.
• Federal Republic of Germany (1945 onward): A democratic state that was created after the second world war in territories occupied by the British, French and Americans. The Federal Republic of Germany evenutaly absorbed the German Democratic Republic.

Germans of Note

Guttenburg: the German Artisan that invented the tool that allowed the Age of Enlightenment to happen

• Albert Einstein
• Angela Merkel
• Claus von Stauffenberg
• Erwin Rommel
• Frederick II of Prussia
• Gregor Mendel
• Johannes Gutenberg
• Konrad Adenauer
• Konrad Zuse
• Otto von Bismark

Germans on SD.net

• Thanas
• Serafina