A Medley of Potpourri

ⁱ/ˈdʒɜrməni/; German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] (

listen)),^[7] is a federal parliamentary republic in western-central Europe. It consists of 16 constituent states, which retain limited sovereignty, and covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi) with a largely temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Berlin. The seat of government is Berlin and Bonn. Germany is a great power and traditionally a leader in many cultural, theoretical and technical fields.

With 80.7 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state in the European Union. After the United States, it is also the second most popular migration destination in the world.^[8] Germany has the world's fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP and the fifth-largest by PPP. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-largest exporter and third-largest importer of goods. It is a developed country with a very high standard of living, featuring comprehensive social security that includes the world's oldest universal health care system. Known for its rich cultural and political history, Germany has been the home of many influential philosophers, artists, musicians, cineasts, entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors. Germany was a founding member of the European Communities in 1957, which became the European Union in 1993. It is part of the Schengen Area, and has been a member of the Eurozone since 1999. Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, the OECD and the Council of Europe.

Various Germanic tribes have occupied what is now northern Germany and southern Scandinavia since classical antiquity. A region named Germania was documented by the Romans before AD 100. During the Migration Period that coincided with the decline of the Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes expanded southward and established kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire.^[9] During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. The rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation, which had been occupied by France during the Napoleonic Wars, resulted in the unification of most of the German states in 1871 into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. As a result of the military defeat in World War I, and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The establishment of the Third Reich, or Nazi Germany, in 1933 eventually led to World War II and the Holocaust. In 1945, the remnants of the Nazi regime surrendered to the Allied Powers. Over the next few years, Germany lost more of its territory and was divided by the victors into Allied occupation zones, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany.
On 3 October 1990, the country was reunified, regaining full sovereignty about six months later.

Etymology

The English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine.^[10] The German term Deutschland (originally diutisciu land, "the German lands") is derived from deutsch, descended from Old High German diutisc "popular" (i.e. belonging to the diot or diota "people"), originally used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz "popular" (see also the Latinised form Theodiscus), derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- "people".^[11]

History

Prehistory

The Nebra sky disk is about 3,600 years old.

The discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible in 1907 shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago.^[12] The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a coal mine in Schöningen in 1995 where three 380,000 year old wooden javelins 6–7.5 feet long were unearthed.^[13] The Neander Valley (German "Neanderthal") was the location where the first ever non-modern human fossil was discovered and recognised in 1856, the new species of human was named Neanderthal man. The Neanderthal 1 fossils are now known to be 40,000 years old. Evidence of modern humans, similarly dated, has been found in caves in the Swabian Jura near Ulm. The finds include 42,000 year old bird bone and mammoth ivory flutes which are the oldest musical instruments ever found,^[14] the 40,000 year old Ice Age Lion Man which is the oldest uncontested figurative art ever discovered,^[15] and the 35,000 year old Venus of Hohle Fels which is the oldest uncontested human figurative art ever discovered.^[16] The Nebra sky disk is a bronze disk attributed to a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt. UNESCO's Memory of the World Register calls it "one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century."^[17]

Germanic tribes and Frankish Empire

Second- to fifth-century migrations in Europe

The Germanic tribes are thought to date from the Nordic Bronze Age or the Pre-Roman Iron Age. From southern Scandinavia and north Germany, they expanded south, east and west from the 1st century BC, coming into contact with the Celtic tribes of Gaul as well as Iranian, Baltic, and Slavic tribes in Central and Eastern Europe.^[18] Under Augustus, Rome began to invade Germania (an area extending roughly from the Rhine to the Ural Mountains). In AD 9, three Roman legions led by Varus were defeated by the Cheruscan leader Arminius. By AD 100, when Tacitus wrote Germania, Germanic tribes had settled along the Rhine and the Danube (the Limes Germanicus), occupying most of the area of modern Germany; Austria, southern Bavaria and the western Rhineland, however, were Roman provinces.^[19]

In the 3rd century a number of large West Germanic tribes emerged: Alemanni, Franks, Chatti, Saxons, Frisii, Sicambri, and Thuringii. Around 260, the Germanic peoples broke into Roman-controlled lands.^[20] After the invasion of the Huns in 375, and with the decline of Rome from 395, Germanic tribes moved further south-west. Simultaneously several large tribes formed in what is now Germany and displaced the smaller Germanic tribes. Large areas (known since the Merovingian period as Austrasia) were occupied by the Franks, and Northern Germany was ruled by the Saxons and Slavs.^[19]

Holy Roman Empire

Map of the Holy Roman Empire in 1648, after the Peace of Westphalia which ended the Thirty Years' War.

On 25 December 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor and founded the Carolingian Empire, which was divided in 843.^[21] The Holy Roman Empire comprised the eastern portion of Charlemagne's original kingdom and emerged as the strongest. Its territory stretched from the Eider River in the north to the Mediterranean coast in the south.^[21] Under the reign of the Ottonian emperors (919–1024), several major duchies were consolidated, and the German king Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor of these regions in 962. In 996 Gregory V became the first German Pope, appointed by his cousin Otto III, whom he shortly after crowned Holy Roman Emperor.^[22] The Holy Roman Empire absorbed northern Italy and Burgundy under the reign of the Salian emperors (1024–1125), although the emperors lost power through the Investiture Controversy.^[23]

Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation

Under the Hohenstaufen emperors (1138–1254), the German princes increased their influence further south and east into territories inhabited by Slavs, preceding German settlement in these areas and further east (Ostsiedlung). Northern German towns grew prosperous as members of the Hanseatic League.^[24] Starting with the Great Famine in 1315, then the Black Death of 1348–50, the population of Germany declined.^[25] The edict of the Golden Bull in 1356 provided the basic constitution of the empire and codified the election of the emperor by seven prince-electors who ruled some of the most powerful principalities and archbishoprics.^[26]

Martin Luther publicised The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 in Wittenberg, challenging the Roman Catholic Church and initiating the Protestant Reformation. Lutheranism and the Reformed faith became the official religions in many German states after 1530 and 1648, respectively. Religious conflict led to the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated German lands.^[27] The population of the German states was reduced by about 30%.^[28] The Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended religious warfare among the German states. Throughout its entire history, the empire was de facto divided into numerous independent principalities. In the 18th century, the Holy Roman Empire consisted of approximately 1,800 such territories.^[29]

From 1740 onwards, dualism between the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and the Kingdom of Prussia dominated German history. In 1806 the Imperium was overrun and dissolved as a result of the Napoleonic Wars.^[30]

German Confederation and Empire

Origin of the Black-Red-Gold: German Revolution of 1848 (Berlin, 19 March 1848)

Foundation of the German Empire in Versailles, 1871. Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.

Following the fall of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna convened in 1814 and founded the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund), a loose league of 39 sovereign states. Disagreement with restoration politics partly led to the rise of liberal movements, followed by new measures of repression by Austrian statesman Metternich. The Zollverein, a tariff union, furthered economic unity in the German states.^[31] National and liberal ideals of the French Revolution gained increasing support among many, especially young, Germans. The Hambach Festival in May 1832 was a main event in support of German unity, freedom and democracy. In the light of a series of revolutionary movements in Europe, which established a republic in France, intellectuals and commoners started the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. King Frederick William IV of Prussia was offered the title of Emperor, but with a loss of power; he rejected the crown and the proposed constitution, leading to a temporary setback for the movement.^[32]

The German Empire (1871–1918), with the dominant Kingdom of Prussia in blue

King William I appointed Otto von Bismarck the new Minister President of Prussia in 1862. Bismarck successfully waged war on Denmark in 1864. Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 enabled him to create the North German Confederation (Norddeutscher Bund) and to exclude Austria from the federation's affairs. After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire was proclaimed in 1871 in Versailles, uniting all scattered parts of Germany except Austria. Prussia was the dominating constituent of the new state; the Hohenzollern King of Prussia ruled as its concurrent Emperor, and Berlin became its capital.^[32] In the Gründerzeit period following the unification of Germany, Bismarck's foreign policy as Chancellor of Germany under Emperor William I secured Germany's position as a great nation by forging alliances, isolating France by diplomatic means, and avoiding war. As a result of the Berlin Conference in 1884 Germany claimed several colonies including German East Africa, German South-West Africa, Togo, and Cameroon.^[33] Under Wilhelm II, however, Germany, like other European powers, took an imperialistic course leading to friction with neighbouring countries. Most alliances in which Germany had previously been involved were not renewed, and new alliances excluded the country.^[34]

The assassination of Austria's crown prince on 28 June 1914 triggered World War I. Germany, as part of the Central Powers, suffered defeat against the Allies in one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time. In total, approximately two million German soldiers were killed in World War I.^[35] The German Revolution broke out in November 1918, and Emperor Wilhelm II and all German ruling princes abdicated. An armistice ended the war on 11 November, and Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919. Germans perceived the treaty as humiliating and unjust and it was later seen by historians as influential in the rise of Adolf Hitler.^[36]^[37]^[38]

Weimar Republic and the Third Reich

At the beginning of the German Revolution in November 1918, Germany was declared a republic. However, the struggle for power continued, with radical-left Communists seizing power in Bavaria. The revolution came to an end on 11 August 1919, when the democratic Weimar Constitution was signed by President Friedrich Ebert.^[39]

After a tumultuous period seeing the occupation of the Ruhr by Belgian and French troops and the rise of inflation culminating in the hyperinflation of 1922–23, a debt restructuring plan (the Dawes Plan) and the creation of a new currency in 1924 ushered in the Golden Twenties, an era of increasing national confidence, artistic innovation, liberal cultural life and economic prosperity. However, the economic situation was still quite volatile and Germany remained politically tempestuous throughout. Historian David Williamson connotes the period between 1924 and 1929 in Germany as one of "Partial Stabilization."^[40]

Hitler was Chancellor and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.

The Great Depression hit Germany in 1929. After the federal election of 1930, forming a coalition government proved impossible and Chancellor Heinrich Brüning's government asked President Paul von Hindenburg to grant him Article 48 powers so that he could enact emergency policies without parliamentary approval. Hindenburg approved the request and Brüning's government pursued a policy of fiscal austerity and deflation which caused higher unemployment and left Germans, especially the unemployed, with fewer social services. By 1932 nearly 30% of Germany's workforce was unemployed^[41] and in the special federal election of 1932 the Nazi Party won 37% of the vote but could not form a coalition government. After a series of unsuccessful cabinets, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933.^[42] On 27 February 1933 the Reichstag building went up in flames, the Reichstag Fire Decree was passed abrogating basic civil rights and within weeks Germany's first concentration camp, Dachau, was opened.^[43] On 24 March 1933,the Enabling Act of 1933 gave Hitler unrestricted legislative power, his government established a centralised totalitarian state, in September 1933 Germans voted to withdraw from the League of Nations and Hitler began to pursue military rearmament.^[44]

Deportation of ethnic minorities inside Nazi Germany to concentration camps, action which foreshadowed the Holocaust, 22 May 1940

In 1935 the Nazi regime reintroduced compulsory military service, withdrew from the Treaty of Versailles and introduced the Nuremberg Laws which targeted Jews and other groups. Germany reacquired control of the Saar in 1935 and in 1936 sent troops into the Rhineland, which had been forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles.^[45] Austria was annexed in 1938 and despite the Munich Agreement in September 1938, Germany occupied Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939. Hitler's government then prepared for the invasion of Poland by signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and planning a fake Polish attack. On 1 September 1939 the German Wehrmacht launched their invasion, and swiftly occupied Poland along with the Soviet Red Army. The United Kingdom and France responded to the invasion by declaring war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.^[46] On 22 July 1940, the French signed an armistice with the Germans after Nazi troops had occupied most of France. The British successfully repelled the German attacks of 1940, known as the Battle of Britain, and continued to fight against the Axis powers. On 22 June 1941, Germany broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and invaded the Soviet Union. At that point, Germany and the other Axis powers controlled most of continental Europe and North Africa. In early 1943, the German troops begun to retreat from the Soviet Union after their defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, which is considered a turning point in the war.^[46]

In September 1943 Germany's ally Italy surrendered, and additional German troops were needed to defend against Allied forces in Italy. The D-Day invasion of France opened a Western front in the war and despite a German counter offensive Allied forces had entered Germany by 1945. Following Hitler's suicide and the Battle of Berlin, the German armed forces surrendered on 8 May 1945.^[47] The war was humanity's bloodiest conflict and caused the deaths of around 40 million people in Europe alone.^[48] German army war casualties were between 3.25 million and 5.3 million soldiers,^[49] and approximately 2 million German civilians were killed.^[50]

In what later became known as The Holocaust, the Nazi regime enacted policies which targeted minorities as well as political and religious opposition. Over 10 million civilians were executed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, including 6 million Jews, between 220,000 and 1,500,000 Romani people, 275,000 persons with mental and/or physical disabilities, thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses, thousands of homosexuals, and hundreds of thousands of members of the political and religious opposition.^[51] 2.7 million Poles^[52] and 1.3 million Ukrainians,^[53] along with an estimated 2.8 million Soviet war prisoners were also killed by the Nazi regime.

Berlin in ruins after World War II. View of the Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden boulevard, July 1945

Losing the war resulted in territorial losses for Germany, the expulsion of millions of ethnic Germans from the former eastern territories of Germany and formerly occupied countries. Germany, like many of the countries it had occupied,^[54] suffered mass rape^[55] and the destruction of numerous cities and cultural heritage due to bombing and fighting during the war. After World War II, some Nazis, former Nazis and others were tried for German war crimes, including crimes related to the Holocaust, at the Nuremberg trials.^[56]

East and West Germany

Occupation zones in Germany, 1947. The territories east of the Oder-Neisse line, under Polish and Soviet de jure administration and de facto annexation, are shown as white, as is the detached Saar protectorate.

After the surrender of Germany, the remaining German territory and Berlin were partitioned by the Allies into four military occupation zones. Together these zones accepted more than 6.5 million of the ethnic Germans expelled from eastern areas.^[57] The western sectors, controlled by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, were merged on 23 May 1949 to form the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland or BRD); on 7 October 1949, the Soviet Zone became the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR). They were informally known as "West Germany" and "East Germany". East Germany selected East Berlin as its capital, while West Germany chose Bonn as a provisional capital, to emphasise its stance that the two-state solution was an artificial and temporary status quo.^[58]

West Germany was established as a federal parliamentary republic with a "social market economy". Starting in 1948 West Germany became a major recipient of reconstruction aid under the Marshall Plan and used this to rebuild its industry (especially coal).^[59] Konrad Adenauer was elected the first Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler) of Germany in 1949 and remained in office until 1963. Under his and Ludwig Erhard's leadership, the country enjoyed prolonged economic growth beginning in the early 1950s, that became known as an "economic miracle" (Wirtschaftswunder).^[60] West Germany joined NATO in 1955 and was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957.

East Germany was an Eastern Bloc state under political and military control by the USSR via the latter's occupation forces and the Warsaw Pact. Though East Germany claimed to be a democracy, political power was exercised solely by leading members (Politbüro) of the communist-controlled Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), supported by the Stasi, an immense secret service,^[61] and a variety of sub-organisations controlling every aspect of society. A Soviet-style command economy was set up; the GDR later became a Comecon state (an economic organization under the leadership of the Soviet Union).^[62]

The Berlin Wall during its fall in 1989, with the Brandenburg Gate behind. Today the Gate is often regarded as Germany's main national landmark.

While East German propaganda was based on the benefits of the GDR's social programmes and the alleged constant threat of a West German invasion, many of its citizens looked to the West for freedom and prosperity.^[63] The Berlin Wall, built in 1961 to stop East Germans from escaping to West Germany, became a symbol of the Cold War,^[32] hence its fall in 1989 became a symbol of the Fall of Communism, German Reunification and Die Wende.

Tensions between East and West Germany were reduced in the early 1970s by Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik. In summer 1989, Hungary decided to dismantle the Iron Curtain and open the borders, causing the emigration of thousands of East Germans to West Germany via Hungary. This had devastating effects on the GDR, where regular mass demonstrations received increasing support. The East German authorities unexpectedly eased the border restrictions, allowing East German citizens to travel to the West; originally intended to help retain East Germany as a state, the opening of the border actually led to an acceleration of the Wende reform process. This culminated in the Two Plus Four Treaty a year later on 12 September 1990, under which the four occupying powers renounced their rights under the Instrument of Surrender, and Germany regained full sovereignty. This permitted German reunification on 3 October 1990, with the accession of the five re-established states of the former GDR (new states or "neue Länder").^[32]

German reunification and the EU

The German Unity Flag, raised outside the Reichstag building on 3 October 1990 as a national memorial to German reunification. Since its completed renovation in 1999, the Reichstag is the meeting place of the Bundestag, the German parliament.

Based on the Berlin/Bonn Act, adopted on 10 March 1994, Berlin once again became the capital of the reunified Germany, while Bonn obtained the unique status of a Bundesstadt (federal city) retaining some federal ministries.^[64] The relocation of the government was completed in 1999.^[65] Following the 1998 elections, SPD politician Gerhard Schröder became the first Chancellor of a red–green coalition with the Alliance '90/The Greens party, lasting until the 2005 elections.

Since reunification, Germany has taken a more active role in the European Union and NATO. Germany sent a peacekeeping force to secure stability in the Balkans and sent a force of German troops to Afghanistan as part of a NATO effort to provide security in that country after the ousting of the Taliban.^[66] These deployments were controversial since, after the war, Germany was bound by domestic law only to deploy troops for defence roles.^[67]

In 2005, Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany as the leader of a grand coalition ("Black-Red coalition").^[32] In 2009, a liberal-conservative coalition under Merkel assumed leadership of the country. In 2013, another grand coalition was established in a Third Merkel cabinet, with the FDP Liberals not present in the Bundestag for the first time. Since 2014, the newly established conservative Alternative for Germany (AfD) party were elected for various Landtag mandates. Among the major German political projects of the early 21st century are the energy transition (Energiewende) for a sustainable energy supply, the "Debt Brake" (Schuldenbremse) for balanced budgets, the reform of German immigration laws, the legislation for a general minimum wage, and high-tech strategies for the informatization and future transition of the German economy, summarized as Industry 4.0.^[68]

Geography

Topographic map

Germany is in Western and Central Europe, with Denmark bordering to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France and Luxembourg to the southwest, and Belgium and the Netherlands to the northwest. It lies mostly between latitudes 47° and 55° N (the tip of Sylt is just north of 55°), and longitudes 5° and 16° E. The territory covers 357,021 km² (137,847 sq mi), consisting of 349,223 km² (134,836 sq mi) of land and 7,798 km² (3,011 sq mi) of water. It is the seventh largest country by area in Europe and the 62nd largest in the world.^[1]

Elevation ranges from the mountains of the Alps (highest point: the Zugspitze at 2,962 metres or 9,718 feet) in the south to the shores of the North Sea (Nordsee) in the northwest and the Baltic Sea (Ostsee) in the northeast. The forested uplands of central Germany and the lowlands of northern Germany (lowest point: Wilstermarsch at 3.54 metres or 11.6 feet below sea level) are traversed by such major rivers as the Rhine, Danube and Elbe. Glaciers are found in the Alpine region, but are experiencing deglaciation. Significant natural resources are iron ore, coal, potash, timber, lignite, uranium, copper, natural gas, salt, nickel, arable land and water.^[1]

Climate

Steep coast of Darß, Western Pomerania – typical of the Baltic coastal landscape in northern Germany

Most of Germany has a temperate seasonal climate in which humid westerly winds predominate. The country is situated in between the oceanic Western European and the continental Eastern European climate. The climate is moderated by the North Atlantic Drift, the northern extension of the Gulf Stream. This warmer water affects the areas bordering the North Sea; consequently in the northwest and the north the climate is oceanic. Germany gets an average of 789 mm (31 in) precipitation per year. Rainfall occurs year-round, with no consistent dry season. Winters are mild and summers tend to be warm: temperatures can exceed 30 °C (86 °F).^[69]

The east has a more continental climate: winters can be very cold and summers very warm, and longer dry periods can occur. Central and southern Germany are transition regions which vary from moderately oceanic to continental. In addition to the maritime and continental climates that predominate over most of the country, the Alpine regions in the extreme south and, to a lesser degree, some areas of the Central German Uplands have a mountain climate, with lower temperatures and greater precipitation.^[69]

Biodiversity

The golden eagle is a protected bird of prey.

The territory of Germany can be subdivided into two ecoregions: European-Mediterranean montane mixed forests and Northeast-Atlantic shelf marine.^[70] As of 2008 the majority of Germany is covered by either arable land (34%) or forest and woodland (30.1%); only 13.4% of the area consists of permanent pastures, 11.8% is covered by settlements and streets.^[71]

Plants and animals are those generally common to middle Europe. Beeches, oaks, and other deciduous trees constitute one-third of the forests; conifers are increasing as a result of reforestation. Spruce and fir trees predominate in the upper mountains, while pine and larch are found in sandy soil. There are many species of ferns, flowers, fungi, and mosses. Wild animals include deer, wild boar, mouflon, fox, badger, hare, and small numbers of beavers.^[72] The blue cornflower was once a German national symbol.^[73]

The 14 national parks in Germany include the Jasmund National Park, the Vorpommern Lagoon Area National Park, the Müritz National Park, the Wadden Sea National Parks, the Harz National Park, the Hainich National Park, the Black Forest National Park, the Saxon Switzerland National Park, the Bavarian Forest National Park and the Berchtesgaden National Park. In addition, there are 14 Biosphere Reserves, as well as 98 nature parks. More than 400 registered zoos and animal parks operate in Germany, which is believed to be the largest number in any country.^[74] The Berlin Zoo, opened in 1844, is the oldest zoo in Germany, and presents the most comprehensive collection of species in the world.^[75]

Politics

The Reichstag building in Berlin is the site of the German parliament (Bundestag)

Germany is a federal, parliamentary, representative democratic republic. The German political system operates under a framework laid out in the 1949 constitutional document known as the Grundgesetz (Basic Law).
Amendments generally require a two-thirds majority of both chambers of parliament; the fundamental principles of the constitution, as expressed in the articles guaranteeing human dignity, the separation of powers, the federal structure, and the rule of law are valid in perpetuity.^[76]

The president, currently Joachim Gauck, is the head of state and invested primarily with representative responsibilities and powers. He is elected by the Bundesversammlung (federal convention), an institution consisting of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of state delegates. The second-highest official in the German order of precedence is the Bundestagspräsident (President of the Bundestag), who is elected by the Bundestag and responsible for overseeing the daily sessions of the body. The third-highest official and the head of government is the Chancellor, who is appointed by the Bundespräsident after being elected by the Bundestag.^[32]


Joachim Gauck President since 2012	Angela Merkel Chancellor since 2005

The chancellor, currently Angela Merkel, is the head of government and exercises executive power, similar to the role of a Prime Minister in other parliamentary democracies. Federal legislative power is vested in the parliament consisting of the Bundestag (Federal Diet) and Bundesrat (Federal Council), which together form the legislative body. The Bundestag is elected through direct elections, by proportional representation (mixed-member).^[1] The members of the Bundesrat represent the governments of the sixteen federated states and are members of the state cabinets.^[32]

Since 1949, the party system has been dominated by the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party of Germany. So far every chancellor has been a member of one of these parties. However, the smaller liberal Free Democratic Party (which had members in the Bundestag from 1949 to 2013) and the Alliance '90/The Greens (which has had seats in parliament since 1983) have also played important roles.^[77]

Law

German state police officers, with a typical German police car

Germany has a civil law system based on Roman law with some references to Germanic law. The Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) is the German Supreme Court responsible for constitutional matters, with power of judicial review.^[32]^[78] Germany's supreme court system, called Oberste Gerichtshöfe des Bundes, is specialised: for civil and criminal cases, the highest court of appeal is the inquisitorial Federal Court of Justice, and for other affairs the courts are the Federal Labour Court, the Federal Social Court, the Federal Finance Court and the Federal Administrative Court. The Völkerstrafgesetzbuch regulates the consequences of crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, and gives German courts universal jurisdiction in some circumstances.^[79]

Criminal and private laws are codified on the national level in the Strafgesetzbuch and the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch respectively. The German penal system is aimed towards rehabilitation of the criminal and the protection of the general public.^[80] Except for petty crimes, which are tried before a single professional judge, and serious political crimes, all charges are tried before mixed tribunals on which lay judges (Schöffen) sit side by side with professional judges.^[81]^[82] Many of the fundamental matters of administrative law remain in the jurisdiction of the states.

Constituent states

Germany comprises sixteen states which are collectively referred to as Länder.^[83] Each state has its own state constitution^[84] and is largely autonomous in regard to its internal organisation. Because of differences in size and population the subdivisions of these states vary, especially as between city states (Stadtstaaten) and states with larger territories (Flächenländer). For regional administrative purposes five states, namely Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony, consist of a total of 22 Government Districts (Regierungsbezirke). As of 2013 Germany is divided into 402 districts (Kreise) at a municipal level; these consist of 295 rural districts and 107 urban districts.^[85]

Lower Saxony

Bremen

Hamburg

Mecklenburg-
Vorpommern

Saxony-
Anhalt

Saxony

Brandenburg

Berlin

Thuringia

Hesse

North Rhine-
Westphalia

Bavaria

State	Capital	Area (km²)	Population^[86]
Baden-Württemberg	Stuttgart	35,752	10,569,100
Bavaria	Munich	70,549	12,519,600
Berlin	Berlin	892	3,375,200
Brandenburg	Potsdam	29,477	2,449,500
Bremen	Bremen	404	654,800
Hamburg	Hamburg	755	1,734,300
Hesse	Wiesbaden	21,115	6,016,500
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	Schwerin	23,174	1,600,300
Lower Saxony	Hanover	47,618	7,779,000
North Rhine-Westphalia	Düsseldorf	34,043	17,554,300
Rhineland-Palatinate	Mainz	19,847	3,990,300
Saarland	Saarbrücken	2,569	994,300
Saxony	Dresden	18,416	4,050,200
Saxony-Anhalt	Magdeburg	20,445	2,259,400
Schleswig-Holstein	Kiel	15,763	2,806,500
Thuringia	Erfurt	16,172	2,170,500

Foreign relations

Chancellor Angela Merkel hosting the G8 summit in Heiligendamm

Germany has a network of 229 diplomatic missions abroad^[87] and maintains relations with more than 190 countries.^[88] As of 2011 it is the largest contributor to the budget of the European Union (providing 20%)^[89] and the third largest contributor to the UN (providing 8%).^[90] Germany is a member of NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the G8, the G20, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It has played a leading role in the European Union since its inception and has maintained a strong alliance with France since the end of World War II. Germany seeks to advance the creation of a more unified European political, defence, and security apparatus.^[91]^[92]

The development policy of the Federal Republic of Germany is an independent area of German foreign policy. It is formulated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and carried out by the implementing organisations. The German government sees development policy as a joint responsibility of the international community.^[93] It is the world's third biggest aid donor after the United States and France.^[94]^[95]

During the Cold War, Germany's partition by the Iron Curtain made it a symbol of East–West tensions and a political battleground in Europe. However, Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik was a key factor in the détente of the 1970s.^[96] In 1999, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's government defined a new basis for German foreign policy by taking part in the NATO decisions surrounding the Kosovo War and by sending German troops into combat for the first time since World War II.^[97] The governments of Germany and the United States are close political allies.^[32] The 1948 Marshall Plan and strong cultural ties have crafted a strong bond between the two countries, although Schröder's vocal opposition to the Iraq War suggested the end of Atlanticism and a relative cooling of German-American relations.^[98] The two countries are also economically interdependent: 8.8% of German exports are US-bound and 6.6% of German imports originate from the US.^[99]

Military

The Eurofighter Typhoon is part of the Luftwaffe

Leopard 2 tanks of the German Army

Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, is organised into Heer (Army), Marine (Navy), Luftwaffe (Air Force), Bundeswehr Joint Medical Service and Streitkräftebasis (Joint Support Service) branches. The role of the Bundeswehr is described in the Constitution of Germany (Art. 87a) as absolutely defensive only. After a ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in 1994 the term "defense" has been defined to not only include protection of the borders of Germany, but also crisis reaction and conflict prevention, or more broadly as guarding the security of Germany anywhere in the world. In 2011, military spending was an estimated 1.3% of the country's GDP, which is low in a ranking of all countries; in absolute terms, German military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world.^[100] In peacetime, the Bundeswehr is commanded by the Minister of Defence. In state of defence, the Chancellor would become commander-in-chief of the Bundeswehr.^[101]

As of March 2012 the Bundeswehr employs 183,000 professional soldiers and 17,000 volunteers.^[102] The German government plans to reduce the number of soldiers to 170,000 professionals and up to 15,000 short-term volunteers (voluntary military service).^[103] Reservists are available to the Armed Forces and participate in defence exercises and deployments abroad.^[103] As of January 2015, the German military has about 2,370 troops stationed in foreign countries as part of international peacekeeping forces, including about 850 Bundeswehr troops in the NATO-led ISAF force in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, 670 German soldiers in Kosovo, and 120 troops with UNIFIL in Lebanon.^[104] In addition, according to SIPRI, Germany supplied major arms to 55 states in 2010-2014, although their exports of major weapons decreased by 43 per cent between 2005-2009 and 2010-14. Before 2014, Germany was the third largest exporter of major arms in the world. In 2014 the new German Government announced a more restrictive arms export policy, particularly in response to discussions about arms exports to the Middle East.
However, notable orders in 2014 included 33 patrol boats for Saudi Arabia, 4 frigates for Israel, 2 Type‑209 submarines for Egypt and 926 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) for Algeria.^[105]

Until 2011, military service was compulsory for men at age 18, and conscripts served six-month tours of duty; conscientious objectors could instead opt for an equal length of Zivildienst (civilian service), or a six-year commitment to (voluntary) emergency services like a fire department or the Red Cross. On 1 July 2011 conscription was officially suspended and replaced with a voluntary service.^[106]^[107] Since 2001 women may serve in all functions of service without restriction, but they have not been subject to conscription. There are presently some 17,500 women on active duty and a number of female reservists.^[108]

Economy

Frankfurt is Germany's financial capital (New ECB HQ pictured)

Germany is part of a monetary union, the eurozone (dark blue), and of the EU single market.

Germany has a social market economy with a highly skilled labour force, a large capital stock, a low level of corruption,^[109] and a high level of innovation.^[110] It has the largest and most powerful national economy in Europe, the fourth largest by nominal GDP in the world,^[111] and the fifth largest by PPP.^[112] The service sector contributes approximately 71% of the total GDP (including information technology), industry 28%, and agriculture 1%.^[1] The official average national unemployment rate in April 2014 was 6.8%.^[113] The harmonized unemployment rate of Germany published by the EU's statistical agency Eurostat amounts to 4.7% in January 2015.^[114] This is the lowest rate of all 28 EU member states ahead of Austria (4.8%) and the United Kingdom (5.6%). Germany also has with 7.1% the lowest youth unemployment rate of all EU member states ahead of Austria (8.2%) and Denmark (10.8%).^[114] Germany has one of the highest labour productivity levels in the world, according to OECD.^[115]
Germany is an advocate of closer European economic and political integration. Its commercial policies are increasingly determined by agreements among European Union (EU) members and by EU legislation. Germany introduced the common European currency, the Euro, on 1 January 2002.^[116]^[117] Its monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank, which is headquartered in Frankfurt. Two decades after German reunification, standards of living and per capita incomes remain significantly higher in the states of the former West Germany than in the former East.^[118] The modernisation and integration of the eastern German economy is a long-term process scheduled to last until the year 2019, with annual transfers from west to east amounting to roughly $80 billion.^[119]
In January 2009 the German government approved a €50 billion economic stimulus plan to protect several sectors from a downturn and a subsequent rise in unemployment rates.^[120]

Of the world's 500 largest stock-market-listed companies measured by revenue in 2010, the Fortune Global 500, 37 are headquartered in Germany. 30 Germany-based companies are included in the DAX, the German stock market index. As of 2014 well-known global brands include Mercedes-Benz, BMW, SAP, Volkswagen, Audi, Siemens, Allianz, Adidas, Porsche, and DHL.^[121] Germany is recognised for its large portion of specialised small and medium enterprises, globally known and followed as the Mittelstand model. Around 1,000 of these companies are global market leaders in their segment and are labelled hidden champions.^[122]

The list includes the largest German companies by revenue in 2011:

Rank^[123]	Name	Headquarters	Revenue (mil. €)	Profit (mil. €)	Employees (world)
01.	Volkswagen AG	Wolfsburg	159,000	15,800	502,000
02.	E.ON SE	Düsseldorf	113,000	−1,900	79,000
03.	Daimler AG	Stuttgart	107,000	6,000	271,000
04.	Siemens AG	Berlin, München	74,000	6,300	360,000
05.	BASF SE	Ludwigshafen am Rhein	73,000	6,600	111,000
06.	BMW AG	München	69,000	4,900	100,000
07.	Metro AG	Düsseldorf	67,000	740	288,000
08.	Schwarz Gruppe _{(Lidl/Kaufland)}	Neckarsulm	63,000	N/A	315,000
09.	Deutsche Telekom AG	Bonn	59,000	670	235,000
010.	Deutsche Post AG	Bonn	53,000	1,300	471,000
—	Allianz SE	München	104,000	2,800	141,000
—	Deutsche Bank AG	Frankfurt am Main	21,600	4,300	101,000

Infrastructure

The ICE 3 in Cologne railway station

With its central position in Europe, Germany is a transport hub for the continent.^[124] Like its neighbours in Western Europe, Germany's road network is amongst the densest in the world.^[125] The motorway (Autobahn) network ranks as the third-largest worldwide in length and is known for its lack of a general speed limit.^[126] Germany has established a polycentric network of high-speed trains. The InterCityExpress or ICE network of the Deutsche Bahn serves major German cities as well as destinations in neighbouring countries with speeds up to 300 kph (186 mph).^[127] The largest German airports are Frankfurt Airport and Munich Airport, both hubs of Lufthansa, while Air Berlin has hubs at Berlin Tegel and Düsseldorf. Other major airports include Berlin Schönefeld, Hamburg, Cologne/Bonn and Leipzig/Halle. Both airports in Berlin will be consolidated at a site adjacent to Berlin Schönefeld, which will become Berlin Brandenburg Airport.^[128] The Port of Hamburg is one of the top twenty largest container ports in the world.^[129]

In 2008, Germany was the world's sixth-largest consumer of energy,^[130] and 60% of its primary energy was imported.^[131] Government policy promotes energy conservation and renewable energy commercialisation. Energy efficiency has been improving since the early 1970s; the government aims to meet the country's electricity demands using 40% renewable sources by 2020 and 100% by 2050.^[132] In 2014, energy sources were: oil (35.0%); coal, including lignite (24.6%); natural gas (20.5%); nuclear (8.1%); hydro-electric and renewable sources (11.1%).^[133] In 2000, the government and the nuclear power industry agreed to phase out all nuclear power plants by 2021.^[134]
Germany is committed to the Kyoto protocol and several other treaties promoting biodiversity, low emission standards, recycling, and the use of renewable energy, and supports sustainable development at a global level.^[135] The German government has initiated wide-ranging emission reduction activities and the country's overall emissions are falling.^[136] Nevertheless the country's greenhouse gas emissions were the highest in the EU in 2010, while it is also the largest country by population and economical output.^[137] The German energy transition (German: Energiewende) is the globally recognised move to a sustainable economy by means of renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable development. The final goal is the abolition of coal and other non-renewable energy sources.^[138]

Science and technology

Albert Einstein was born in what is today the German city of Ulm.

Germany's achievements in the sciences have been significant, and research and development efforts form an integral part of the economy.^[139] The Nobel Prize has been awarded to 104 German laureates.^[140] For most of the 20th century, German laureates had more awards than those of any other nation, especially in the sciences (physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine).^[141]^[142]

Notable German physicists before the 20th century include Hermann von Helmholtz, Joseph von Fraunhofer and Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, among others. Albert Einstein introduced the relativity theories for light and gravity in 1905 and 1915 respectively, which remain mainstream theories in physics to this day. Along with Max Planck, he was instrumental in the introduction of quantum mechanics, in which Werner Heisenberg and Max Born later made major contributions.^[143] Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays and was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.^[144] Otto Hahn was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry and discovered nuclear fission,^[145] while Ferdinand Cohn and Robert Koch were founders of microbiology. Numerous mathematicians were born in Germany, including Carl Friedrich Gauss, David Hilbert, Bernhard Riemann, Gottfried Leibniz, Karl Weierstrass, Hermann Weyl and Felix Klein. Research institutions in Germany include the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association and the Fraunhofer Society. The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is granted to ten scientists and academics every year. With a maximum of €2.5 million per award it is one of highest endowed research prizes in the world.^[146]

Germany has been the home of many famous inventors and engineers, such as Johannes Gutenberg, credited with the invention of movable type printing in Europe; Hans Geiger, the creator of the Geiger counter; and Konrad Zuse, who built the first fully automatic digital computer.^[147] German inventors, engineers and industrialists such as Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Otto Lilienthal, Gottlieb Daimler, Rudolf Diesel, Hugo Junkers and Karl Benz helped shape modern automotive and air transportation technology.^[148] German institutions like the German Aerospace Center (DLR) are the largest contributor to ESA. Aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun developed the first space rocket and later on was a prominent member of NASA and developed the Saturn V Moon rocket, which paved the way for the success of the US Apollo programme. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz's work in the domain of electromagnetic radiation was pivotal to the development of modern telecommunication.^[149]

Germany is one of the leading countries in developing and using green technologies. Companies specialising in green technology have an estimated turnover of €200 billion. Key sectors of Germany's green technology industry are power generation, sustainable mobility, material efficiency, energy efficiency, waste management and recycling, and sustainable water management.^[150] With Wendelstein 7-X in Greifswald, Germany also hosts a leading facility in the research of fusion power.^[151]

Tourism

A church in the Berchtesgaden region of Bavaria. Bavaria is the most popular German state for international tourism.

Germany is the seventh most visited country in the world,^[152]^[153] with a total of 407.26 million overnights during 2012.^[154] This number includes 68.83 million nights by foreign visitors. In 2012, over 30.4 million international tourists arrived in Germany, bringing over US$38 billion in international tourism receipts to the country.^[155] Additionally, more than 30% of Germans spend their holiday in their own country, with the biggest share going to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. According to Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Reports, Germany is rated as one of the safest travel destinations worldwide. The official body for tourism in Germany is the German National Tourist Board (GNTB). Domestic and international travel and tourism combined directly contribute over EUR43.2 billion to German GDP. Including indirect and induced impacts, the industry contributes 4.5% of German GDP and supports 2 million jobs (4.8% of total employment).^[156]

Germany is well known for its diverse tourist routes, such as the Romantic Road, the Wine Route, the Castle Road, the Timber-Frame Road and the Avenue Road. There are 39 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany, including the old town cores of Regensburg, Bamberg, Lübeck, Quedlinburg, Weimar, Stralsund and Wismar. Germany's most-visited landmarks include i. e. Neuschwanstein Castle, Cologne Cathedral, Berlin Bundestag, Hofbräuhaus Munich, Heidelberg Castle, Dresden Zwinger, Fernsehturm Berlin and Aachen Cathedral. The Europa-Park near Freiburg is Europe's second most popular theme park resort, following Disneyland Paris.^[157] Its nature-protected national parks, biosphere reserves and other nature parks are popular destinations for ecotourism.

Demographics

With a population of 80.2 million according to the May 2011 census,^[3] Germany is the most populous country in the European Union, the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and ranks as the 16th most populous country in the world.^[158] Its population density stands at 225 inhabitants per square kilometre. The overall life expectancy in Germany at birth is 80.19 years (77.93 years for males and 82.58 years for females).^[1] The fertility rate of 1.41 children born per woman (2011 estimates), or 8.33 births per 1000 inhabitants, is one of the lowest in the world.^[1] Since the 1970s, Germany's death rate has continuously exceeded its birth rate.^[159] The Federal Statistical Office of Germany has forecast that the population could shrink to between 65 and 70 million by 2060 (depending on the level of net migration).^[160] However, Germany is currently witnessing increased birth rates^[161] and migration rates since the beginning of the 2010s. It is notably experiencing a strong increase in the number of well-educated migrants.^[162]^[163] In 2012 the country's population increased in part due to 300,000 more immigrants than emigrants, with most immigrants coming from the crisis effected countries of southern and eastern Europe and settling in urban but not rural areas.^[164]

National minorities

Four sizable groups of people are referred to as "national minorities" (nationale Minderheiten) because they have lived in their respective regions for centuries: Danes, Frisians, Roma and Sinti, and Sorbs.^[165] There is a Danish minority (about 50,000, according to government sources) in the northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein.^[165] Eastern and Northern Frisians live on Schleswig-Holstein's western coast, and in the north-western part of Lower Saxony. They are part of a wider community (Frisia) stretching from Germany to the northern Netherlands. The Sorbs, a Slavic population of about 60,000 (according to government sources), are in the Lusatia region of Saxony and Brandenburg.^[165]

Immigrant population

Germans by nationality make up 92.3% of the population of Germany as of 9 May 2011.^[3] As of 2011, about six million foreign citizens (7.7% of the population) were registered in Germany.^[3] Regarding ethnic background, 20%^[166] of the country's residents, or more than 16 million people, were of foreign or partially foreign descent in 2009 (including persons descending or partially descending from ethnic German repatriates), 96% of whom lived in the former West Germany or Berlin.^[167] In 2010, 2.3 million families with children under 18 years were living in Germany, in which at least one parent had foreign roots. They represented 29% of the total of 8.1 million families with minor children. Compared with 2005 – the year when the microcensus started to collect detailed information on the population with a migrant background – the proportion of migrant families has risen by 2 percentage points.^[168]
Most of the families with a migrant background live in the western part of Germany. In 2010, the proportion of migrant families in all families was 32% in the pre-unification territory of the Federal Republic. This figure was more than double that in the new Länder (including Berlin) where it stood at 15%.^[168] Families with a migrant background more often have three or more minor children in the household than families without a migrant background. In 2010, about 15% of the families with a migrant background contained three or more minor children, as compared with just 9% of the families without a migrant background.^[168]

The United Nations Population Fund lists Germany as host to the third-highest number of international migrants worldwide, about 5% or 10 million of all 191 million migrants.^[169] As a consequence of restrictions to Germany's formerly rather unrestricted laws on asylum and immigration, the number of immigrants seeking asylum or claiming German ethnicity (mostly from the former Soviet Union) has been declining steadily since 2000.^[170] In 2009, 20% of the population had immigrant roots, the highest since 1945.^[171] As of 2008, the largest national group was from Turkey (2.5 million), followed by Italy (776,000), Poland (687,000), and Albania (550,000).^[172] Since 1987, around 3 million ethnic Germans, mostly from the former eastern bloc, have taken advantage of their right of return and emigrated to Germany.^[173]

Urbanization

Germany has a number of large cities. There are 11 officially recognised metropolitan regions in Germany – and since 2006, 34 cities have been identified which can be called a regiopolis (metropolitan area). The largest conurbation is the Rhine-Ruhr region (11.7 million in 2008), including Düsseldorf (the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia), Cologne, Bonn, Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, and Bochum.^[174]

v t e Largest cities or towns in Germany List of statistical offices in Germany 24 December 2010
	Rank	Name	State	Pop.	Rank	Name	State	Pop.
Berlin Hamburg	1	Berlin	Berlin	3,471,756	11	Dresden	Saxony	523,058	Munich Cologne
	2	Hamburg	Hamburg	1,786,448	12	Leipzig	Saxony	522,883
	3	Munich	Bavaria	1,353,186	13	Hannover	Lower Saxony	522,686
	4	Cologne	North Rhine-Westphalia	1,007,119	14	Nuremberg	Bavaria	505,664
	5	Frankfurt	Hesse	688,664	15	Duisburg	North Rhine-Westphalia	489,599
	6	Stuttgart	Baden-Württemberg	606,588	16	Bochum	North Rhine-Westphalia	374,737
	7	Düsseldorf	North Rhine-Westphalia	598,786	17	Wuppertal	North Rhine-Westphalia	349,721
	8	Dortmund	North Rhine-Westphalia	580,444	18	Bonn	North Rhine-Westphalia	324,899
	9	Essen	North Rhine-Westphalia	574,635	19	Bielefeld	North Rhine-Westphalia	323,270
	10	Bremen	Bremen (state)	547,340	20	Mannheim	Baden-Württemberg	313,174

Religion

The Catholic Cologne Cathedral at the Rhine river is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Berlin Cathedral, one of the main Evangelical cathedrals in Germany

According to the latest official nationwide census of 2011, Christianity is the largest religion in Germany, claiming 66.8% of the total population.^[175] The census provided detailed statistics on religion in the Federal Republic. Results for the total population of Germany were as follows: 30.8% declared themselves as Roman Catholics; 30.3% as Protestants as represented by the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD); 5.7% were reported to be other Christians (including Protestants outside the EKD).^[176] Newer statistics indicate that the proportion of Christians in Germany has decreased to 62%.^[177] Geographically, Protestantism is concentrated in the northern, central and eastern parts of the country, mostly within the Evangelical Church, while Roman Catholicism is concentrated in the south and west. People with no or other religions are concentrated in the former East Germany and major metropolitan areas.^[178]

Islam is the second largest religion in the country. In the 2011 census only 1.9% declared themselves to be Muslims,^[176] however other sources estimate 3.8 to 4.3 million adherents (4.6% to 5.2%).^[179] Of these roughly 4 million Muslims, most are Sunnis and Alevites from Turkey, but there are a small number of Shi'ites, Ahmadiyyas and other denominations.^[179] German Muslims, a large portion of whom are of Turkish origin, lack full official state recognition of their religious community.^[178]

Other religions comprising less than 1% of Germany's population^[176] are Buddhism with 250,000 and Judaism with around 200,000 adherents (both roughly 0.3%). Hinduism has some 100,000 adherents (0.1%). All other religious communities in Germany have fewer than 50,000 adherents each.^[180] Germany has Europe's third largest Jewish population (after France and the United Kingdom).^[181] Approximately 50% of the Buddhists in Germany are Asian immigrants.^[182]

The remaining 32%–35% are not members of any religious body-a proportion that has grown steadily over recent decades. German reunification in 1990 greatly increased the country's non-religious population, a legacy of the state atheism of the previously Soviet-controlled East. The Christian population has decreased in recent decades, particularly among Protestants.^[178]

Languages

Knowledge of German in the European Union

German is the official and predominant spoken language in Germany.^[183] It is one of 24 official and working languages of the European Union,^[184] and one of the three working languages of the European Commission. The German language is the most widely spoken first language in the European Union, with around 100 million native speakers.^[185]

Recognized native minority languages in Germany are Danish, Low German, Sorbian, Romany, and Frisian; they are officially protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The most used immigrant languages are Turkish, Kurdish, Polish, the Balkan languages, and Russian. 67% of German citizens claim to be able to communicate in at least one foreign language and 27% in at least two languages other than their own.^[183]

Standard German is a West Germanic language and is closely related to and classified alongside English, Low German, Dutch, and the Frisian languages. To a lesser extent, it is also related to the East (extinct) and North Germanic languages. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family.^[186] Significant minorities of words are derived from Latin and Greek, with a smaller amount from French and most recently English (known as Denglisch). German is written using the Latin alphabet. German dialects, traditional local varieties traced back to the Germanic tribes, are distinguished from varieties of standard German by their lexicon, phonology, and syntax.^[187]

Education

Heidelberg University is the oldest of Germany's universities and among its best ranked.^[188] It was established in 1386.

Over 99% of Germans aged 15 and above are estimated to be able to read and write.^[1] Responsibility for educational supervision in Germany is primarily organised within the individual federal states. A system of apprenticeship called Duale Ausbildung ("dual education") allows students in vocational training to learn in a company as well as in a state-run vocational school.^[189] This successful model is highly regarded and reproduced all around the world.^[190]

Optional kindergarten education is provided for all children between three and six years old, after which school attendance is compulsory for at least nine years. Primary education usually lasts for four to six years and public schools are not stratified by academic ability at this stage.^[189] In contrast, secondary education includes three traditional types of schools focused on different academic levels: the Gymnasium enrols the most gifted children and prepares students for university studies; the Realschule for intermediate students lasts six years; the Hauptschule prepares pupils for vocational education.^[191] Since the 1960s, a reform movement has attempted to unify secondary education in a Gesamtschule (comprehensive school); several West German states later simplified their school system to two or three tiers.

Wendelstein 7-X, a research facility at the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics in Greifswald. Independent institutes have a great share of research in Germany.

The general entrance requirement for university is the Abitur, a qualification normally based on continuous assessment during the last few years at school and final examinations; however there are a number of exceptions, and precise requirements vary, depending on the state, the university and the subject. Germany's universities are recognised internationally: in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) for 2008, six of the top 100 universities in the world are in Germany, and 18 of the top 200.^[192]

Most of the German universities are public institutions, funded by the Länder governments, and students have traditionally studied without fee payment. In 2005 the public universities introduced tuition fees of around €60 per semester (and up to €500 in the state of Niedersachsen) for each student for a trial period;^[193]^[194] however, the German public was not amenable to the experiment and the temporary fee-based system was mostly abolished, the two remaining universities were due to abolish the fee requirement by the end of 2014.^[195]

Academic education is open to most citizens and is increasingly common in Germany.^[196] The dual education system that combines practical and theoretical learning, but does not lead to an academic degree, is typical for Germany and is recognised as a model for other countries.^[197]
The established universities in Germany include some of the oldest in the world, with Heidelberg University being the oldest in Germany (established in 1386). Heidelberg is followed by Leipzig University (1409), Rostock University (1419), Greifswald University (1456), Freiburg University (1457), LMU Munich (1472) and the University of Tübingen (1477). Academic research is also performed at independent non-university research institutions, such as the Max Planck, Fraunhofer, Leibniz and Helmholtz institutes.

Health

Hospice of the Holy Spirit in Lübeck – one of the world's oldest humanitarian institutions and a precursor to modern hospitals^[198]

Germany has the world's oldest universal health care system, dating back to Bismarck's social legislation in 1883.^[199] Since then there have been many reforms and provisions to ensure a balanced health care system. Currently the population is covered by a health insurance plan provided by statute, with criteria allowing some groups to opt for a private health insurance contract instead. According to the World Health Organization, Germany's health care system was 77% government-funded and 23% privately funded as of 2005.^[200] In 2005, Germany spent 11% of its GDP on health care. Germany ranked 20th in the world in life expectancy with 77 years for men and 82 years for women, and it had a very low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 live births).^[200]

In 2010, the principal cause of death was cardiovascular disease, at 41%, followed by malignant tumours, at 26%.^[201] In 2008, about 82,000 Germans had been infected with HIV/AIDS and 26,000 had died from the disease (cumulatively, since 1982).^[202] According to a 2005 survey, 27% of German adults are smokers.^[202]

Culture

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), composer

From its roots, culture in German states has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular. Historically Germany has been called Das Land der Dichter und Denker ("the land of poets and thinkers"),^[203] because of the major role its famous writers and philosophers have played in the development of Western thought and culture.

The federated states are in charge of the cultural institutions. There are 240 subsidised theatres, hundreds of symphonic orchestras, thousands of museums and over 25,000 libraries spread in Germany. These cultural opportunities are enjoyed by many: there are over 91 million German museum visits every year; annually, 20 million go to theatres and operas; 3.6 million per year listen to the symphonic orchestras.^[204] As of 2013 the UNESCO inscribed 38 properties in Germany on the World Heritage List.^[205]

Germany has established a high level of gender equality,^[206] promotes disability rights, and is legally and socially tolerant towards homosexuals. Gays and lesbians can legally adopt their partner's biological children, and civil unions have been permitted since 2001.^[207] Germany has also changed its attitude towards immigrants; since the mid-1990s, the government and the majority of Germans have begun to acknowledge that controlled immigration should be allowed based on qualification standards.^[208] Germany has been named the world's second most valued nation overall among 50 countries in 2013.^[209] A global opinion poll for the BBC revealed that Germany is recognised for having the most positive influence in the world in 2011,^[210] and for being the most positively viewed nation in the world, in 2013^[211] and 2014.^[212]

There are a number of public holidays in Germany. The country is particularly associated with its traditional Oktoberfest celebrations, its carnival culture and globally influential Christmas customs known as Weihnachten.^[213]^[214] 3 October is the national day of Germany since 1990, celebrated as the German Unity Day (Tag der Deutschen Einheit).

Art

Chalk Cliffs on Rügen (1818) by Caspar David Friedrich, the most prominent artist of Romanticism

German painters have been influential on western art throughout history. Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder were important German artists of the Renaissance, Peter Paul Rubens and Johann Baptist Zimmermann of Baroque, Caspar David Friedrich and Carl Spitzweg of Romanticism, Max Liebermann of Impressionism and Max Ernst of Surrealism.

Several German artist groups formed in the 20th century, such as the November Group or Die Brücke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in Expressionism. The New Objectivity arose as a counter-style to it during the Weimar Republic. After World War II, main movements of Neo-expressionism, performance art and Conceptual art evolved, with notable artists such as Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Jörg Immendorff, HA Schult, Aris Kalaizis, Neo Rauch (New Leipzig School) and Andreas Gursky (photography). Major art exhibitions and festivals in Germany are the documenta, transmediale and Art Cologne.

Music

German classical music includes works by some of the world's most well-known composers. Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel were influential composers of the Baroque period. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Ludwig van Beethoven was a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras. Franz Schubert was an important figure in the late Classical era and early Romantic era. Carl Maria von Weber and Felix Mendelssohn were important in the early Romantic period. Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms composed in the Romantic idiom. Richard Wagner was known for his operas. Richard Strauss was a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Carl Orff used colorful, unusual combinations of instruments in his orchestration. Karlheinz Stockhausen is one of the most important composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Germany is the second largest music market in Europe, and fourth largest in the world.^[215] German popular music of the 20th and 21st century includes the movements of Neue Deutsche Welle (Nena, Trio), Pop (Alphaville, Modern Talking), Ostrock (City, Keimzeit), Metal/Rock (Rammstein, Scorpions), Punk (Die Ärzte, Die Toten Hosen), Pop rock (Beatsteaks, Tokio Hotel), Indie (Tocotronic, Blumfeld) and Hip Hop (Die Fantastischen Vier, Deichkind). German Electronic music gained global influence, with Kraftwerk being a pioneer group in this genre^[216] and the Minimal, Techno and House scenes of Germany being very influential (e.g. Paul van Dyk, Tomcraft, Paul Kalkbrenner, Wolfgang Voigt and Scooter).^[217]

Architecture

Architectural contributions from Germany include the Carolingian and Ottonian styles, which were precursors of Romanesque. Brick Gothic in medieval times and Brick Expressionism in modern times are two distinctive styles that developed in Germany. Also in Renaissance and Baroque art, regional and typically German elements evolved (e.g. Weser Renaissance and Dresden Baroque). Among many renowned Baroque masters were Pöppelmann, Balthasar Neumann, Knobelsdorff and the Asam brothers. Germany is especially renowned for its timber frame old towns, with many well-kept examples to be found along the German Timber-Frame Road.

Kurhaus Binz on Rügen, a typical example of resort architecture. This style is common on the German Baltic Sea coast.

When industrialisation spread across Europe, Classicism and a distinctive style of historism developed in Germany, sometimes referred to as Gründerzeit style, due to the economical boom years at the end of the 19th century. Resort architecture and Spa architecture are sub-styles, that evolved since the 18th century in Germany, with the first modern spas and seaside resorts of Europe. Many architects formed this era, with Schinkel, Semper, Stüler, von Gärtner, Schwechten and Lipsius among them.

Jugendstil became a dominant architectural style at the turn of the 20th century, with a strong influence of the Art Nouveau movement.^[218] Expressionist architecture spread across the country, with e.g. Höger, Mendelsohn, Böhm and Schumacher being influential architects. Germany was particularly important in the early modern movement: it is the home of Werkbund initiated by Hermann Muthesius, and of the Bauhaus movement founded by Walter Gropius. Thus Germany is often considered the cradle of modern architecture and design. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became one of the world's most renowned architects in the second half of the 20th century. He conceived of the glass facade skyscraper.^[219]

Renowned contemporary architects and offices include Hans Kollhoff, Helmut Jahn, Graft, Behnisch, Sergei Tchoban, Albert Speer Junior, Frei Otto, GMP, Ingenhoven, Sauerbruch Hutton, AWA, Hadi Teherani, Oswald Mathias Ungers, Gottfried Böhm, Stephan Braunfels and Anna Heringer.^[220]

Literature and philosophy

The Brothers Grimm collected and published popular German folk tales.

German literature can be traced back to the Middle Ages and the works of writers such as Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach. Well-known German authors include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Theodor Fontane. The collections of folk tales published by the Brothers Grimm popularised German folklore on an international level. Influential authors of the 20th century include Gerhart Hauptmann, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass.^[221] German-speaking book publishers produce some 700 million books every year, with about 80,000 titles, nearly 60,000 of them new. Germany comes third in quantity of books published, after the English-speaking book market and the People's Republic of China.^[222] The Frankfurt Book Fair is the most important in the world for international deals and trading, with a tradition spanning over 500 years.^[223]

German philosophy is historically significant. Gottfried Leibniz's contributions to rationalism; the enlightenment philosophy by Immanuel Kant; the establishment of classical German idealism by Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling; Arthur Schopenhauer's composition of metaphysical pessimism; the formulation of communist theory by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; Friedrich Nietzsche's development of perspectivism; Gottlob Frege's contributions to the dawn of analytic philosophy; Martin Heidegger's works on Being; and the development of the Frankfurt school by Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse and Jürgen Habermas have been particularly influential. In the 21st century, Germany has contributed to the development of contemporary analytic philosophy in continental Europe.^[224]

Cinema

Babelsberg Studio near Berlin, the world's first large-scale film studio

German cinema dates back to the earliest years of the medium, it has made major technical and artistic contributions to film, as with the work of the Skladanowsky Brothers, who showed the first film sequences ever to an audience, in 1895. The renowned Babelsberg Studio in Berlin's suburb Potsdam was established in 1912, and thus was the first large-scale film studio in the world; today it is Europe's largest studio.^[225] Early German cinema was particularly influential with German expressionists such as Robert Wiene and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. Director Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) is referred to as the first major science-fiction film, although predated by the Homunculus series (1916) of Otto Rippert.^[226] In 1930 Josef von Sternberg directed The Blue Angel, the first major German sound film.^[227] With the rise of Nazi Germany, Jewish and left-leaning directors and actors were expelled, while the propaganda films of Leni Riefenstahl came to international fame and were stylistically copied in several productions, especially in post-war advertisements.^[228]

During the 1970s and 1980s, New German Cinema directors such as Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder put West German cinema on the international stage. In the 21st century, several German movies have had international success, such as The Experiment (2001), Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), The Wave (2008), The White Ribbon (2009), Pandorum (2009), Soul Kitchen (2009), Animals United (2010), Combat Girls (2011) and Cloud Atlas (2012). The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film ("Oscar" trophy) went to the German production Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) in 1979, to Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa) in 2002, and to Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) in 2007.^[229]

The annual European Film Awards ceremony awarding the "Felix" trophy is held every other year in Berlin, home of the European Film Academy (EFA). The Berlin Film Festival, known as "Berlinale", awarding the "Golden Bear" and held annually since 1951, is one of the world's leading film festivals.^[230] The "Lolas" are annually awarded also in Berlin, at the German Film Awards, that have been presented since 1951.

Media

Headquarters of Deutsche Welle in Bonn

The largest globally operating media companies in Germany are the Bertelsmann enterprise, Axel Springer SE and ProSiebenSat.1 Media. The German Press Agency DPA is also of global importance.

Germany's television market is the largest in Europe, with some 38 million TV households.^[231] Around 90% of German households have cable or satellite TV, with a variety of free-to-view public and commercial channels.^[232] The most watched television broadcast of all-time in Germany was the Germany vs Argentina final game of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, that Germany won. The top ten most watched television broadcasts of all-time in Germany all feature the German national football team.^[233]

There are more than 500 public and private radio stations in Germany, with the public Deutsche Welle being the main German radio (and television) broadcaster in foreign languages.

Many of Europe's best-selling newspapers and magazines are produced in Germany. The papers with the highest circulation are Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt, the largest magazines include Der Spiegel, Stern and Focus. The Bild is a tabloid and has the largest circulation of all German papers. The largest regional newspapers are Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Rheinische Post, Augsburger Allgemeine, Südwest Presse and Freie Presse.^[234]

The German video gaming market is one of the largest in the world.^[235] The Gamescom in Cologne is the world's leading gaming convention.^[236] Popular game series from Germany include Turrican, the Anno series, The Settlers series, the Gothic series, SpellForce, the X series, the FIFA Manager series, Far Cry and Crysis. The most relevant game developers and publishers are Blue Byte, Crytek, Deck13, Deep Silver, Egosoft, Kalypso Media, Koch Media, Nintendo Europe, Piranha Bytes, Related Designs and Yager Development. Bigpoint, Gameforge, Goodgame and Wooga are globally leading developers of online and social games.^[237]

Cuisine

An array of bratwurst

German cuisine varies from region to region. The southern regions of Bavaria and Swabia, for instance, share a culinary culture with Switzerland and Austria. Across German regions, meat is often eaten as sausages which are produced in almost 1,500 varieties.^[238] Organic food has gained a market share of about 4 percent in 2012, and is expected to increase further.^[239]

Although wine is becoming more popular in many parts of Germany, especially from German wine regions,^[240] the national alcoholic drink is beer. German beer consumption per person is declining, but at 121.4 litres in 2009 it is still among the highest in the world.^[241] The Michelin Guide of 2015 has awarded eleven restaurants in Germany three stars, the highest designation, while 38 more received two stars and 233 one star, and 470 are listed for "good food at reasonable prices".^[242] Overall, German restaurants have become the world's second-most decorated after France.^[243]^[244]

Sports

The German national football team after winning the FIFA World Cup for the fourth time in 2014. Football is the most popular sport in Germany.

Twenty-seven million Germans are members of a sports club and an additional twelve million pursue sports individually.^[245] Association football is the most popular sport. With more than 6.3 million official members, the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund) is the largest sports organisation of its kind worldwide, and the German top league, the Bundesliga, attracts the second highest average attendance of all professional sports leagues in the world.^[245] The German men's national football team won the FIFA World Cup in 1954, 1974, 1990, and 2014 and the UEFA European Championship in 1972, 1980 and 1996. Germany hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1974 and 2006 and the UEFA European Championship in 1988.

Other popular spectator sports include winter sports, boxing, handball, volleyball, basketball, ice hockey, tennis, horse riding and golf. Water sports like sailing, rowing, and swimming are popular in Germany as well.^[245]

Germany is one of the leading motor sports countries in the world. Constructors like BMW and Mercedes are prominent manufacturers in motor sport. Additionally, Porsche has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an annual endurance race held in France, 16 times, and Audi has won it 11 times. The Formula One driver Michael Schumacher has set many motor sport records during his career, having won more Formula One World Drivers' Championships with seven titles, and more Formula One races than any other driver; he is one of the highest paid sportsmen in history.^[246] With four championship titles, Sebastian Vettel is also among the top three most successful Formula One drivers of all time.^[247]

Historically, German athletes have been successful contenders in the Olympic Games, ranking third in an all-time Olympic Games medal count, combining East and West German medals. In the 2012 Summer Olympics, Germany finished fifth in the medal count, while in the 2006 Winter Olympics they finished first.^[248] Germany has hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice, in Berlin in 1936 and in Munich in 1972. The Winter Olympic Games were held in Germany once, in 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Fashion and design

Claudia Schiffer, German supermodel

German designers were leaders of modern product design, with the Bauhaus designers like Mies van der Rohe, and Dieter Rams of Braun being essential.^[249]

Germany has also been influential on western fashion throughout history. Today it is a leading country in the fashion industry. The German textile industry consisted of about 1,300 companies with more than 130,000 employees in 2010, which generated a revenue of 28 billion Euro. Almost 44 percent of the products are exported.
The textile branch thus is the second largest producer of consumer goods after food production in the country.^[250]

German fashion is famed for its elegant lines, as well as unconventional young designs and its great variety of styles. Berlin is the center of young and creative fashion in Germany, prominently displayed at Berlin Fashion Week (twice a year). It also hosts Europe's largest fashion trade fair called Bread & Butter. Besides Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne and Düsseldorf, also smaller places are important design and production hubs of the German fashion industry.^[251] Globally renowned fashion designers from Germany include Karl Lagerfeld, Wolfgang Joop, Jil Sander and Michael Michalsky. Important fashion brands include Hugo Boss, Escada and Triumph, as well as special outfitters like Adidas, PUMA, Jack Wolfskin and Dr. Martens. German fashion is popular in celebrity circles and with high fashion models.^[252]

Terraforming of Mars

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Artist's conception of the process of terraforming Mars.

The terraforming of Mars is the hypothetical process by which Mars's climate and surface would be deliberately changed to make large areas of the environment hospitable to humans, thus making human colonization safer and sustainable.

There are several proposed concepts, some of which present prohibitive economic and natural resource costs, and others that may be currently technologically achievable.^[1]

Motivation and ethics

Future population growth, demand for resources, and an alternate solution to the Doomsday argument may require human colonization of objects other than Earth, such as Mars, the Moon, and nearby planets. Space colonization will facilitate harvesting the Solar System's energy and material resources.^[2]

In many respects, Mars is the most Earth-like of all the other planets in the Solar System. It is thought^[3] that Mars had a more Earth-like environment early in its history, with a thicker atmosphere and abundant water that was lost over the course of hundreds of millions of years. Given the foundations of similarity and proximity, Mars would make one of the most plausible terraforming targets in the Solar System.

Ethical considerations of terraforming include the potential displacement or destruction of indigenous life, even if microbial, if such life exists.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

Challenges and limitations

The Martian environment presents several terraforming challenges to overcome and the extent of terraforming may be limited by certain key environmental factors.

Low gravity

The surface gravity on Mars is 38% of that on Earth. It is not known if this is enough to prevent the health problems associated with weightlessness.^[8] Additionally, the lower gravity of Mars requires 2.6 times Earth’s column airmass to achieve 100 kPa pressure at the surface.^[9]
Earth and Venus^{[dubious – discuss]} are both able to sustain thick atmospheres, even though they experience more of the solar wind that is believed to strip away planetary volatiles. Continuing sources of atmospheric gases on Mars might therefore be required to ensure that an atmosphere sufficiently dense for humans is sustained in the long term.^{[citation needed]}

Countering the effects of space weather

Mars lacks a magnetosphere, which poses challenges for mitigating solar radiation and retaining atmosphere. It is thought that the localized fields detected on Mars are remnants of a magnetosphere that collapsed early in its history.
The lack of a magnetosphere is thought to be one reason for Mars's thin atmosphere. Solar-wind-induced ejection of Martian atmospheric atoms has been detected by Mars-orbiting probes. Venus, however, clearly demonstrates that the lack of a magnetosphere does not preclude a dense atmosphere.^{[citation needed]}

Earth abounds with water because its ionosphere is permeated with a magnetosphere. The hydrogen ions present in its ionosphere move very fast due to their small mass, but they cannot escape to outer space because their trajectories are deflected by the magnetic field. Venus has a dense atmosphere, but only traces of water vapor (20 ppm) because it has no magnetic field.^[10] The Martian atmosphere also loses water to space. Earth's ozone layer provides additional protection. Ultraviolet light is blocked before it can dissociate water into hydrogen and oxygen. Because little water vapor rises above the troposphere and the ozone layer is in the upper stratosphere, little water is dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen.^{[citation needed]}

The Earth's magnetic field is 31 µT. Mars would require a similar magnetic-field intensity to similarly offset the effects of the solar wind at its distance further from the Sun.

Advantages

Hypothetical terraformed Mars

According to modern theorists, Mars exists on the outer edge of the habitable zone, a region of the Solar System where life can exist. Mars is on the border of a region known as the extended habitable zone where liquid water on the surface may be supported if concentrated greenhouse gases could increase the atmospheric pressure.^{[citation needed]}

The lack of both a magnetic field and geologic activity on Mars may be a result of its relatively small size, which allowed the interior to cool more quickly than Earth's, though the details of such a process are still not well understood.^[11]^[12]

It has been suggested that Mars once had an atmosphere as thick as Earth's during an earlier stage in its development, and that its pressure supported abundant liquid water at the surface.^[13] Although water appears to have once been present on the Martian surface, water ice appears to exist at the poles just below the planetary surface as permafrost. The soil and atmosphere of Mars contain many of the main elements crucial to life, including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon.^[14]

Large amounts of water ice exist below the Martian surface, as well as on the surface at the poles, where it is mixed with dry ice, frozen CO₂. Significant amounts of water are located in the south pole of Mars, which, if melted, would correspond to a planetwide ocean 11 meters deep.^[15] Frozen carbon dioxide (CO₂) at the poles sublimes into the atmosphere during the Martian summers, and small amounts of water residue are left behind, which fast winds sweep off the poles at speeds approaching 400 km/h (250 mph).^{[citation needed]} This seasonal occurrence transports large amounts of dust and water vapor into the atmosphere, forming Earth-like clouds.^[16]

Most of the oxygen in the Martian atmosphere is present as carbon dioxide (CO₂), the main atmospheric component. Molecular oxygen (O₂) only exists in trace amounts. Large amounts of elemental oxygen can be also found in metal oxides on the Martian surface, and in the soil, in the form of per-nitrates.^[17] An analysis of soil samples taken by the Phoenix lander indicated the presence of perchlorate, which has been used to liberate oxygen in chemical oxygen generators.^[18] Electrolysis could be employed to separate water on Mars into oxygen and hydrogen if sufficient liquid water and electricity were available.^{[citation needed]}

Proposed methods and strategies

**Comparison of dry atmosphere**
	Mars	Earth
Pressure	0.6 kPa (0.087 psi)	101.3 kPa (14.69 psi)
Carbon dioxide (CO₂)	96.0%	0.04%
Argon (Ar)	2.1%	0.93%
Nitrogen (N₂)	1.9%	78.08%
Oxygen (O₂)	0.145%	20.94%

Artist's conception of a terraformed Mars centered on the Tharsis region

Artist's conception of a terraformed Mars. This portrayal is approximately centered on the prime meridian and 30° North latitude, and a hypothesized ocean with a sea level at approximately two kilometers below average surface elevation. The ocean submerges what are now Vastitas Borealis, Acidalia Planitia, Chryse Planitia, and Xanthe Terra; the visible landmasses are Tempe Terra at the left, Aonia Terra at the bottom, Terra Meridiani at the lower right, and Arabia Terra at the upper right. Rivers that feed the ocean at the lower right occupy what are now Valles Marineris and Ares Vallis and the large lake at the lower right occupies what is now Aram Chaos.

Terraforming Mars would entail three major interlaced changes: building up the atmosphere, keeping it warm, and keeping the atmosphere from being lost to outer space.^{[citation needed]} The atmosphere of Mars is relatively thin and has a very low surface pressure. Because its atmosphere consists mainly of CO₂, a known greenhouse gas, once Mars begins to heat, the CO₂ may help to keep thermal energy near the surface. Moreover, as it heats, more CO₂ should enter the atmosphere from the frozen reserves on the poles, enhancing the greenhouse effect. This means that the two processes of building the atmosphere and heating it would augment one another, favoring terraforming.^{[citation needed]}

Carbon dioxide sublimation

There is presently enough carbon dioxide (CO₂) as dry ice in the Martian south pole and absorbed by regolith (soil) on Mars that, if sublimated to gas by a climate warming of only a few degrees, would increase the atmospheric pressure to 30 kilopascals (0.30 atm),^[19]^{[not in citation given]} comparable to the altitude of the peak of Mount Everest, where the atmospheric pressure is 33.7 kilopascals (0.333 atm). Although this would not be breathable by humans, it is above the Armstrong limit and would eliminate the present need for pressure suits.^{[citation needed]} Phytoplankton can also convert dissolved CO₂ into oxygen. This is important because Henry's law states that a high level of atmospheric CO₂ will result in a high concentration of dissolved CO₂ in any body of liquid water (especially an ocean in the Northern Polar Basin), particularly at Mars's low temperature where gases will dissolve in liquids easily.^{[citation needed]}

Importing ammonia

Another more intricate method uses ammonia as a powerful greenhouse gas. It is possible that large amounts of it exist in frozen form on minor planets orbiting in the outer Solar System. It may be possible to move these and send them into Mars's atmosphere.^[20] Because ammonia (NH₃) is mostly nitrogen by weight, it could also supply the buffer gas for the atmosphere. Sustained smaller impacts will also contribute to increases in the temperature and mass of the atmosphere.

The need for a buffer gas is a challenge that will face any potential atmosphere builders. On Earth, nitrogen is the primary atmospheric component, making up 78% of the atmosphere. Mars would require a similar buffer-gas component although not necessarily as much.^{[citation needed]}

Importing hydrocarbons

Another way to create a martian atmosphere would be to import methane or other hydrocarbons,^[21]^[22] which are common in Titan's atmosphere and on its surface); the methane could be vented into the atmosphere where it would act to compound the greenhouse effect.^{[citation needed]}

Use of fluorine compounds

Because long-term climate stability would be required for sustaining a human population, the use of especially powerful fluorine-bearing greenhouse gases, possibly including sulfur hexafluoride or halocarbons such as chlorofluorocarbons (or CFCs) and perfluorocarbons (or PFCs), has been suggested.^[9] These gases are proposed for introduction because they produce a strong effect as greenhouse gases thousands of times stronger than CO₂. This can conceivably be done by sending rockets with payloads of compressed CFCs on collision courses with Mars.^[17] When the rockets crash onto the surface they release their payloads into the atmosphere. A steady barrage of these "CFC rockets" would need to be sustained for a little over a decade while Mars changes chemically and becomes warmer. However, their lifetime due to photolysis would require an annual replenishing of 170 kilotons,^[9] and they would destroy any ozone layer.^[9]

In order to sublimate the south polar CO₂ glaciers, Mars would require the introduction of approximately 0.3 microbars of CFCs into Mars's atmosphere. This is equivalent to a mass of approximately 39 million metric tons. This is about three times the amount of CFC manufactured on Earth from 1972 to 1992 (when CFC production was banned by international treaty). Mineralogical surveys of Mars estimate the elemental presence of fluorine in the bulk composition of Mars at 32 ppm by mass vs. 19.4 ppm for the Earth.^[9]

A proposal to mine fluorine-containing minerals as a source of CFCs and PFCs is supported by the belief that because these minerals are expected to be at least as common on Mars as on Earth, this process could sustain the production of sufficient quantities of optimal greenhouse compounds (CF₃SCF₃, CF₃OCF₂OCF₃, CF₃SCF₂SCF₃, CF₃OCF₂NFCF₃, C₁₂F₂₇N) to maintain Mars at 'comfortable' temperatures, as a method of maintaining an Earth-like atmosphere produced previously by some other means.^[9]

Use of orbital mirrors

Mirrors made of thin aluminized PET film could be placed in orbit around Mars to increase the total insolation it receives.^[1] This would direct the sunlight onto the surface and could increase Mars's surface temperature directly. The mirror could be positioned as a statite, using its effectiveness as a solar sail to orbit in a stationary position relative to Mars, near the poles, to sublimate the CO₂ ice sheet and contribute to the warming greenhouse effect.^[1]

Albedo reduction

Reducing the albedo of the Martian surface would also make more efficient use of incoming sunlight.^[23] This could be done by spreading dark dust from Mars's moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are among the blackest bodies in the Solar System; or by introducing dark extremophile microbial life forms such as lichens, algae and bacteria.^{[citation needed]} The ground would then absorb more sunlight, warming the atmosphere.

If algae or other green life were established, it would also contribute a small amount of oxygen to the atmosphere, though not enough to allow humans to breathe. The conversion process to produce oxygen is highly reliant upon water. The CO₂ is mostly converted to carbohydrates.^[24] On 26 April 2012, scientists reported that lichen survived and showed remarkable results on the adaptation capacity of photosynthetic activity within the simulation time of 34 days under Martian conditions in the Mars Simulation Laboratory (MSL) maintained by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).^[25]^[26]

Comet impact

Another way to increase the temperature could be to direct small comets onto the Martian surface.^{[citation needed]} This could be achieved through use of spaceborne lasers to alter trajectories or other methods proposed for asteroid impact avoidance.^{[citation needed]} The impact energy would be released as heat. This heat could sublimate CO₂ or, if there is liquid water present at this stage of the terraforming process, could vaporize it to steam, which is also a greenhouse gas. Comets could also be chosen for their composition, such as ammonia, which would then disperse into the atmosphere on impact, adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.^{[citation needed]}

Thermodynamics of terraforming

The overall energy required to sublimate the CO₂ from the south polar ice cap is modeled by Zubrin and McKay.^[1] Raising temperature of the poles by 4 K would be necessary in order to trigger a runaway greenhouse effect. If using orbital mirrors, an estimated 120 MWe-years would be required in order to produce mirrors large enough to vaporize the ice caps. This is considered the most effective method, though the least practical. If using powerful halocarbon greenhouse gases, an order of 1000 MWe-years would be required to accomplish this heating. Although ineffectual in comparison, it is considered the most practical method.^{[citation needed]} Impacting an asteroid, which is often considered a synergistic effect, would require approximately four 10-billion-tonne ammonia-rich asteroids to trigger the runaway greenhouse effect, totaling an eight degree increase in temperature.^{[citation needed]}

First baby born from IVF technique which eliminates inherited disease

A pioneering IVF technique allows babies at risk from inherited illnesses to be born free of disease

Baby Lucas with his parents Carmen and Gabriel Photo: Geoff Pugh

By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor

9:00PM GMT 28 Mar 2015

Original link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11495591/First-baby-born-from-IVF-technique-which-eliminates-inherited-disease.html

The first baby has been born in Europe from a new IVF procedure that checks embryos for devastating genetic disorders.

Lucas Meagu was at high risk of inheriting a rare form of muscular dystrophy which would have left him with weak muscles making walking and everyday tasks difficult.

However, a ground-breaking technique which is being pioneered by fertility doctors in London has allowed Lucas to be born fit, healthy and free of disease.

Traditional embryo testing procedures require months of laboratory work but the latest technique, known as karyomapping, takes less than a fortnight and can pick up a range of diseases.

Lucas’ mother Carmen, 26, who works in recruitment, inherited Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease from her father who suffered with the illness all his life.

It causes weakness and wasting of the muscles below the knees and often those of the hands and can lead to loss of feeling in the fingers and legs.

Although Mrs Meagu only has mild symptoms, she was concerned that her children would inherit the disease and specialists warned that there was a 50 per cent chance she would pass on the illness.

“For me the risk was too high,” she said. “My dad had severe symptoms and it really got him down. He was unable to walk unaided and he always felt people were looking at him and staring. It had a massive impact on him mentally.

^{Baby Lucas Meagu was at high risk of inheriting a rare form of muscular dystrophy}

“I was told I could try and get pregnant and have a test at 16 weeks, but that really wasn’t an option for me because it would have been too hard to have an abortion at that stage.

“Then we were told about a clinic in London which could screen the disease out, and we felt we had to try.”

To isolate the genes responsible for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease doctors took DNA swabs from Mrs Meagu, her mother and Lucas’s father Gabriel, 30, who works for Vodafone.
They then compared the gene sequences at 300,000 different points of the chromosomes to work out which section of genetic code was defective and responsible for the abnormality.

The couple then underwent a normal IVF cycle but, crucially, the embryos created from the procedure were biopsied to find out which ones were free of the genetic disease.

The test also checks that embryos have the right number of chromosomes, a common cause of miscarriage and developmental disorders, such as Down's syndrome.

The procedure started in December 2013 and Lucas was born a year later. He is now three months old, happy and healthy.

Mrs Meagu added: “Lucas is absolutely perfect. He is really big for his age, and healthy. I have peace of mind now that he is going to be ok.

“I obviously worry, like all mother’s, but now I worry about normal things. I know for sure that he is not only free of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease but also other illnesses.

“I would recommend it to any other mother who is worried about passing on an illness.”

The procedure, which is now available on the NHS, gives renewed hope to parents who are concerned about passing on serious genetic faults to their children.

And because most people undergoing the procedure do not suffer from fertility problems, the chances of becoming pregnant are higher than usual IVF rates.

^{Mr and Mrs Meagu hope to grow their family within the next few years}

Mr and Mrs Meagu froze two more embryos during the first round of IVF and are planning to have at least one more child within the next five years.

Fertility expert Paul Serhal, the founder of Centre of Reproductive and Genetic Health, said: “Essentially, karyomapping finds a fingerprint that is unique to the chromosome that carries the defective gene.

“It is then possible to test embryos produced using IVF for this presence of this fingerprint. Whenever the fingerprint is seen in an embryo it means that it has inherited the chromosome carrying the defective gene.

“By obtaining a blood sample form Carmen, her husband and another close relative, we were able to prepare their diagnosis in a matter of weeks.

“The test checked for Charcot Marie Tooth disease and at the same time for chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down’s syndrome, enabling us to avoid inadvertently transferring an embryo which may otherwise not have been viable. We were of course delighted to hear of the safe arrival of their baby.”

Jeffrey Smith: ‘I know nothing about GMOs but that doesn’t stop me from promoting junk science’

Jon Entine | April 6, 2015 | Genetic Literacy Project

Smith demonstrating “yogic flying” at Natural Law Party press conference in Springfield, Ill., Oct. 22, 1996.

Recently on the Huffington Post we came across a disturbing article – an attack by Jeffrey Smith on two respected university professors who apply a critical eye to the claims made by various advocates alleging dangers to human health linked to genetically modified organisms (GMOs.)

2015-04-01-1427906926-6335062-HuffPoheadline-thumb

Smith, if you are not familiar with him, heads up a one-man band rabidly anti-GMO organization known as the Institute for Responsible Technology–he and his organization are controversial to say the least, but more on that later.

Bruce Chassy

The subject of the attack piece was co-written by University of Illinois emeritus professor Bruce Chassy and University of Melbourne geneticist David Tribe. It appears on the website of AcademicsReview, an independent non-profit set up by the scholars to address the maelstrom of misinformation that passes for debate on the GMO issue.

In one of their most pointed and heavily circulated critiques, Chassy and Tribe examine one of Smith’s two self-published books that supposedly ‘prove’ that GMO foods are reckless and dangerous. Chassy and Tribe’s critique titled “Yogic Flying and GM Foods: The Wild Theories of Jeffrey Smith,” addressed each of the 65 major

David Tribe

claims Smith makes about the safety of GMOs, using peer reviewed research and fact-based evidence to refute every one.

Smith’s response in the Huffington Post defends his claims by citing the example of the FLAVR SAVR™ tomato. Let’s take a closer look at Smith’s “new” claims.

It is not clear why, in 2015, Smith would choose to mount an argument claiming dangers from “GMOs” based on an obsolete tomato variety developed more than 25 years ago that has been off the market for two decades. But Smith chose to defend his mistaken and falsified claims that the Food and Drug Administration had botched its review of the tomato and suppressed warnings from its staff about alleged dangers. 2015-04-01-1427907122-2388905-tomato-thumb

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The first thing to note is that three of Smith’s ten embedded links to
comments by FDA officials supposedly casting doubt on the safety of
the tomato or the review process don’t work. In any case, what Smith
leaves out is worth noting.

The FLAVR SAVR™ tomato, developed by Calgene, was the first “bioengineered” food ever reviewed by FDA. At that time FDA had no formalized process for such reviews, so, typically, officials bent over backwards to make sure they didn’t miss anything that might be important or relevant.

Among other things, FDA scientists did not yet have a clear view of what kind of tests were needed to ensure safety and much of the back and forth among agency scientists that Smith argues is evidence of corruption and bad faith is, in context, simply and obviously, the record of folks trying to figure out how to get it right. This is evident to those who read the documents without presupposing conspiracies and evil intent. Read through the documents Smith cites yourself and see what you think. But read them all, from beginning to end; don’t short cut. The full, boring, bureaucratic context is, in fact, the essential point.

Smith refers to a selected compilation (i.e. “cherry picked”) of FDA documents he claims supports his case. The specific “smoking gun” supposedly proving the dangers of this tomato is that in a total of 39 studies involving 456 rats, 12 animals fed the tomatoes showed “erosions” in their digestive tracts. The question is whether these were caused by eating the tomatoes, or by something else, such as the feeding procedures or stress on the animals because of their confinement, both plausible explanations. Without corroborating evidence, Smith insists the tomatoes were at fault, and he cites documents long available in the public record as evidence that facts were suppressed. But the documents, in their entirety, show the opposite of what Smith claims; the FDA reviewed all of the available data and affirmed the safety of the tomato.

One of us (Val Giddings) read these documents when they first came out as he was at the time a regulator in the biotech products division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and had been peripherally involved with USDA’s review of the Calgene tomato. The documents didn’t support Smith’s conspiracy theories then and that hasn’t changed in the 22 years since.

Consider item 15 on Smith’s list (chosen entirely at random as one of his few cited links that actually worked). Smith has offered it as one of many documents showing a conspiracy to suppress findings of dangers to consumers of the tomato. What does it show? Read it in its entirety for yourself and reach your own conclusions. If you do, you will find this statement, from an FDA official summarizing for his superiors:

All I can do is state my opinion that the data does not show any real toxicity. The requirements that one should have in this data (and in data generally) for a real finding [of toxicity] are:

A strong association between the alleged cause (treatment) and the effect. Here the association is weak and variable and the effect seems spurious and unlikely to be reproduced.
Specificity (One should not find the effect produced by other extraneous factors. (Here we find the effect produced in the controls.)
A biological gradient evidenced by a clear dose response. (This feature was not present in these studies.)
Consistent data shown by positive results in repeated studies. (Here a second study is negative.
A plausible biological mechanism for the treatment and the effect observed. (Here the tomatine levels were shown to be the same as in regular tomatoes and the acid in tomatoes is much weaker than stomach acid itself. No other likely treatment related cause is apparent.) On the other hand the stress-induced fasting is plausible.

At least two things stand out that are worth emphasizing: first, Smith claims the observed lesions were caused by the tomatoes, yet they were also seen, in the first experiment, in control rats that were not exposed; second, in the repeat experiment, no lesions at all were noted. This argues strongly against the tomatoes as the cause of the lesions seen in the first experiment, and suggests they were in fact an accidental result of the experimental procedures, which involved inserting a feeding tube down the throats of the rats – a technique that requires skill, and is easy to get wrong.

Bottom line: FDA evaluators considered all the data, compared observations to what would be expected if the tomatoes were in fact the cause of the lesions, and when things didn’t add up, they concluded, following well established principles of toxicology, that whatever caused the lesions it wasn’t the tomatoes. And they documented their analysis and conclusions for the record. End of story.

But Smith disputes FDA’s conclusion, despite the clear absence of any of the signs that would be expected if the tomatoes were in fact guilty, as enumerated above. Now Smith may sincerely believe FDA got it wrong, but there is nothing in the record to support his belief, and the science does not back him up.

Furthermore, Smith does more than just misunderstand and misrepresent ancient bureaucratic documents on obsolete products. He also writes:

To claim that there are no new potential health hazards from GMOs is absurd. Fran Sharples, the Director of the Board on Life Sciences at the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS), told me, “The academies have issued numerous reports on assessing the risks of transgenic plants. If the academy believed there were no such potential risks, why would we have delved into these matters in these reports?”

This is intriguing. Fran Sharples has been working in this area for three decades. She has a well-deserved reputation for probity and professionalism. This comment does not sound like something she would say (if only for its clumsy phrasing). So, having known Dr. Sharples for three decades, we reached out to her and asked if Smith’s quote was accurate. Her reply:

To be perfectly honest, I have no recollection of ever talking to this guy or of making such a statement. For all I know, he made it up. It’s a mystery and a bit unsettling to find my name in print in association with something I have no memory of.

It is also worth pointing out that the words Smith attributes to Dr. Sharples make no sense to anyone familiar with how the National Academy of Sciences works. The Academy generally does not pick and choose the topics of its studies, but rather responds to requests to examine issues, most often from government agencies. The Academy enlists …the aid of the nation’s most knowledgeable scientists, engineers, health professionals, and other experts who volunteer their time to produce reports that have led to some of the most significant and lasting improvements in the health, education, and welfare of all the world’s citizens.

It is commonplace for U.S. Government Agencies under assault by parties unwilling to follow where the data leads to request an impartial third party review from the Academy, which has frequently happened on GMO related issues. But as the present case demonstrates, folks unpersuaded by data are difficult to persuade by examinations of data.

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One might wonder what would motivate someone to embark on a campaign of hostility toward innovations in food and agriculture that have already delivered enormous benefits around the world, particularly to small farmers in developing countries? There doesn’t appear to be anything in Smith’s previous background as an accomplished ballroom dance instructor or practitioner of yogic flying (yes, see accompanying picture) that would lead one to anticipate such an obsession.

Perhaps it is related to his membership in the Maharishi religious cult that seems to make opposition to innovation in agricultural biotechnology one of its central tenets. Whatever Smith’s motivation, the weaknesses of his claims are not repaired by his ineffective attempts in their defense.

At this point, it may be worth considering the credentials of the folks at odds here. David Tribe, a microbiology PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in microbiology, recognized around the world for his expertise in biotechnology and food safety, widely published and cited in peer-reviewed literature, and noted for his dedication to education and public service. Bruce Chassy, a biochemistry PhD, was a research chemist at the National Institutes of Health, received the Public Health Service Distinguished Service Award, served as Professor and Head of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois, and as a food safety expert on the FDA’s Food Advisory Committee.

Jeffrey Smith? His academic training and expertise in crop biotechnology is easily summarized: none. His credentials? He has self-published two books about the apocalyptic dangers of GM crops and foods and self-produced documentary narrated by the wife of Dr. Oz. He goes on Dr. Oz and other fringe science shows. And he travels around the world, addressing rabidly anti-GMO audiences with a the fervor of a religious fanatic.
One is free to choose who are the more credible commentators on biotechnology.

L. Val Giddings is a Senior Fellow with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. He is a genetics PhD with 3 decades of global experience in the science, policy, and regulation of innovations in agricultural biotechnology.

Jon Entine, executive director of the Genetic Literacy Project, is a Senior Fellow at the World Food Center Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy, University of California-Davis. Follow @JonEntine on Twitter

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