Tuesday, June 24, 2014

German Society and Culture

Culture in Germany has been formed by famous intellectuals and big events in Europe, both religious and secular. Historically Germany has been called Das Land der Dichter und Denker (the nation of artists and thinkers).

Language in Germany:

German is the official and most spoken language in Germany. It is one of 23 official languages in the
Fig 1 taken from www.mapsofworld.com
European Union, and one of the three most used languages of the European Commission, alongside English and French. Along with German language, native minority languages in Germany are Danish, Sorbian, and Frisian. They are officially secured by the ECRML. The most utilized immigrant languages are Turkish, Kurdish, Polish, the Balkan languages, and Russian.

Standard German is a West Germanic dialect and it resembles and classified alongside English, Dutch, and the Frisian languages. To a lesser degree, it is also similar to the East and North Germanic languages. Most German vocabulary is inferred from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family While some of words of German language are derived from Latin and Greek and among those a smaller amount from French and most are from English (known as Denglisch). German is written by using Latin alphabets. There are 26 standard letters; German has three vowels with Umlaut as ä, ö, and ü, and also the Eszett or Scharfes S (sharp s) which is written as ß.
German dialect is different from standard German. German dialects are traditional local varieties and are traced back to distinctive German tribes. Many people among them are not able to understand and speak standard German language because of the difference in dictionary, phonology, and sentence structure. German has almost 100 million native speakers and about 80 million non-native speakers. German is the main language and spoken by about 90 million individuals (18%) in EU and 67% of German natives are able to speak at least one foreign language whereas 27% can communicate in two languages other than their own.

Religion in Germany:

64.1% of the German population belongs to Christian categories, 31.4% are Roman Catholic, and 32.7% are affiliated with Protestantism.
The North and East are Protestant and the South and West is Catholic. These days there is also a non-religious dominant part in Hamburg and the former East German states. Germany formed a substantial part of Roman Catholic Holy Roman Empire but it was also the source of Protestant reformers, for example, Martin Luther.

Historically, Germany had a significant Jewish population. Just a couple of thousand individuals of Jewish origin stayed in Germany after the Holocaust but the German Jewish group now has something like 100,000 members, majority from the previous Soviet Union. Germany additionally has a considerable Muslim minority and most of the Muslims belong to Turkey. 

Sports in Germany:

Sport is an important part of German culture. Twenty-seven million Germans are parts of sports club and twelve million people play these games individually. Football is the most prominent game. With more than 6.3 million members, the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund) is the biggest games association around the world. The Bundesliga is the second highest average attendance of any sports league in the world. The German national football group won the FIFA World Cup in 1954, 1974 and 1990 and the UEFA European Football Championship in 1972, 1980 and 1996. Germany has also hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1974 and 2006 and the UEFA European Football Championship in 1988. Among the best, successful and prestigious footballers are Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Jürgen Klinsmann, Lothar Matthäus, and Oliver Kahn. Other well known games in Germany are handball, volleyball, ball, ice hockey, and tennis.

Germany also leads in motor sports game in entire world. Race-winning cars, teams and drivers participate from Germany. The best Formula One driver ever, Michael Schumacher, has set numerous motorsport records throughout his profession, having won more Formula One World Drivers' Championships and more Formula One races since Formula One's presentation season in 1950. He is one of the most paid sportsmen in history and became a billionaire athlete as well. Companies like BMW and Mercedes are among the leading manufacturers in motorsport. Moreover, Porsche has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a prestigious yearly perseverance race held in France, 16 times, and Audi has won it 9 times. The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters is popular series in Germany.

Historically, German sportsmen have been the most successful contenders in the Olympic Games, positioning third in Olympic Games award check, combining East and West German awards. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, Germany achieved fifth position in the medal count while in the 2006 Winter Olympics they completed first. Germany has hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice, in Berlin in 1936 and in Munich in 1972. The Winter Olympic Games occurred in Germany once in 1936 and was organized in the Bavarian twin towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen.

German Society:

Germany is a modern and progressed society, formed by a majority of lifestyles and territorial characters.

Throughout the most recent decade of the twentieth century, Germany transformed its attitude towards immigrants. Until mid 1990's it was commonly supposed and perceived that Germany is not a nation of immigrants, despite the fact that 20% of the population were from non-German origin. Today the government and a dominant part of the German culture are recognizing immigrants from different ethno-cultural foundations.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Introduction to Germany

Federal Republic of Germany is located in center of Western Europe. It has sixteen states and Berlin is it's capital. Germany is situated over an area of 357,021 sq km. It is has powerful economical and political conditions among all European countries.Germany has temperate seasonal climate and here winters are moderate while summers are quite warm.

source: Germany photo http://whitey.net/en/germany-photos.htm


Political System of Germany:

Germany is a democratic republic where there is federal and parliament representation. All the laws and legal procedures, elections, politics etc are observed and implemented under constitution 1949. Any amendment in constitution is processed by agreement of two third majority of parliament on any particular issue. in Germany, all state powers lie with the President. Federal legislative powers lie with parliament that constitutes of federal diet and federal council known as Bundestag and Bundesrat respectively.

Law:

Germany has two law system: Civil law and Roman law systems. the federal constitutional court in Germany is Supreme Court. Inquisitorial Federal Court of justice is highest court of appeal and all other matters are held under Federal Social Court, Federal Labor Court, Federal Finance Court and Federal Administrative Court.the German law systems believes in rehabilitation of criminals except for criminals with petty crimes. all of sixteen states of Germany have their own state constitution.

Foreign Relations:

Germany has their good relationship with 90 countries and has 229 diplomatic missions world wide. Germany is on the top list of countries that contribute to European Union and it ranks third in contributing to United Nations. Germany has it's membership with NATO, Organization of economic cooperation and development, G20, G8, International Monetary Fund and World Bank and it ranks third in aid donation i.i. after United Sates and France.

Economy:

Germany has socially driven market economy with skilled and trained labor, large capital stock, less corruption and there is lots of innovation. It is ranked fourth in its nominal GDP among all countries in world.

Research and Development:

Germany has put their lots of efforts in research and development field that is why 104 scholars of Germany got noble price. Germans have worked a lot in field of science and those scientists include Albert Einstein, Warner Heisenberg, Max Planck etc. Otto Hahn worked in radioactive field and discovered principles regarding radioactive rays.