1992 Edition

Climate

temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm, tropical foehn wind; high relative humidity

Coastline

2,389 km

Comparative area

slightly smaller than Montana

Continental shelf

200 m (depth) or to depth of exploitation

Disputes

the boundaries of Germany were set by the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany signed 12 September 1990 in Moscow by the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union; this Treaty entered into force on 15 March 1991; a subsequent Treaty between Germany and Poland, reaffirming the German-Polish boundary, was signed on 14 November 1990 and took effect on 16 January 1992

Environment

air and water pollution; groundwater, lakes, and air quality in eastern Germany are especially bad; significant deforestation in the eastern mountains caused by air pollution and acid rain

Exclusive fishing zone

200 nm

Land area

349,520 km2; comprises the formerly separate Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and Berlin following formal unification on 3 October 1990

Land boundaries

3,790 km; Austria 784 km, Belgium 167 km, Czechoslovakia 815 km, Denmark 68 km, France 451 km, Luxembourg 138 km, Netherlands 577 km, Poland 456 km, Switzerland 334 km

Land use

arable land 34%; permanent crops 1%; meadows and pastures 16%; forest and woodland 30%; other 19%; includes irrigated 1%

Natural resources

iron ore, coal, potash, timber, lignite, uranium, copper, natural gas, salt, nickel

Note

strategic location on North European Plain and along the entrance to the Baltic Sea

Terrain

lowlands in north, uplands in center, Bavarian Alps in south

Territorial sea

North Sea and Schleswig-Holstein coast of Baltic Sea - 3 nm (extends, at one point, to 16 nm in the Helgolander Bucht); remainder of Baltic Sea - 12 nm

Total area

356,910 km2

Birth rate

11 births/1,000 population (1992)

Death rate

11 deaths/1,000 population (1992)

Ethnic divisions

primarily German; small Danish and Slavic minorities

Infant mortality rate

7 deaths/1,000 live births (1992)

Labor force

36,750,000; industry 41%, agriculture 6%, other 53% (1987)

Languages

German

Life expectancy at birth

73 years male, 79 years female (1992)

Literacy

99% (male NA%, female NA%) age 15 and over can read and write (1970 est.)

Nationality

noun - German(s); adjective - German

Net migration rate

5 migrants/1,000 population (1992)

Organized labor

47% of labor force (1986 est.)

Population

80,387,283 (July 1992), growth rate 0.5% (1992)

Religions

Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 37%, unaffiliated or other 18%

Total fertility rate

1.4 children born/woman (1992)

Administrative divisions

16 states (lander, singular - land); Baden-Wurttemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringen

Capital

Berlin; note - the shift from Bonn to Berlin will take place over a period of years with Bonn retaining many administrative functions and several ministries

Chief of State

President Dr. Richard von WEIZSACKER (since 1 July 1984)

Constitution

23 May 1949, provisional constitution known as Basic Law

Executive branch

president, chancellor, Cabinet

Federal Diet

last held 2 December 1990 (next to be held October 1994); results - CDU 36.7%, SPD 33.5%, FDP 11.0%, CSU 7.1%, Green Party (West Germany) 3.9%, PDS 2.4%, Republikaner 2.1%, Alliance 90/Green Party (East Germany) 1.2%, other 2.1%; seats - (662 total, 656 statutory with special rules to allow for slight expansion) CDU 268, SPD 239, FDP 79, CSU 51, PDS 17, Alliance 90/Green Party (East Germany) 8; note - special rules for this election allowed former East German parties to win seats if they received at least 5% of vote in eastern Germany

Head of Government

Chancellor Dr. Helmut KOHL (since 4 October 1982)

Independence

18 January 1871 (German Empire unification); divided into four zones of occupation (UK, US, USSR, and later, France) in 1945 following World War II; Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West Germany) proclaimed 23 May 1949 and included the former UK, US, and French zones; German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) proclaimed 7 October 1949 and included the former USSR zone; unification of West Germany and East Germany took place 3 October 1990; all four power rights formally relinquished 15 March 1991

Judicial branch

Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht)

Legal system

civil law system with indigenous concepts; judicial review of legislative acts in the Federal Constitutional Court; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Legislative branch

bicameral parliament (no official name for the two chambers as a whole) consists of an upper chamber or Federal Council (Bundesrat) and a lower chamber or Federal Diet (Bundestag)

Long-form name

Federal Republic of Germany

National holiday

German Unity Day, 3 October (1990)

Type

federal republic

Agriculture

West - accounts for about 2% of GDP (including fishing and forestry); diversified crop and livestock farming; principal crops and livestock include potatoes, wheat, barley, sugar beets, fruit, cabbage, cattle, pigs, poultry; net importer of food; fish catch of 202,000 metric tons in 1987; East - accounts for about 10% of GDP (including fishing and forestry); principal crops - wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, fruit; livestock products include pork, beef, chicken, milk, hides and skins; net importer of food; fish catch of 193,600 metric tons in 1987

Budget

West (federal, state, local) - revenues $684 billion; expenditures $704 billion, including capital expenditures $NA (1990), East - NA

Currency

deutsche mark (plural - deutsche marks); 1 deutsche mark (DM) = 100 pfennige

Economic aid

West - donor - ODA and OOF commitments (1970-89), $75.5 billion; East - donor - $4.0 billion extended bilaterally to non-Communist less developed countries (1956-89)

Electricity

133,000,000 kW capacity; 580,000 million kWh produced, 7,390 kWh per capita (1991)

Exchange rates

deutsche marks (DM) per US$1 - 1.6611 (March 1992), 1.6595 (1991), 1.6157 (1990), 1.8800 (1989), 1.7562 (1988), 1.7974 (1987)

Exports

West - $324.3 billion (f.o.b., 1989)

partners: EC 53.3% (France 12.7%, Netherlands 8.3%, Italy 9.1%, UK 8.3%, Belgium-Luxembourg 7.3%), other Western Europe 15.9%, US 7.1%, Eastern Europe 4.1%, OPEC 2.7% (1990)

External debt

West - $500 million (June 1988); East - $20.6 billion (1989)

Fiscal year

calendar year

GDP

billion, per capita $19,200; real growth rate 3.1%; eastern Germany $95.6 billion, per capita $5,870; real growth rate - 30% (1991 est.)

per capita $16,700; real growth rate 0.7%; western Germany

$1,235.8

purchasing power equivalent - Federal Republic of Germany

$1,331.4 billion,

Imports

West - $346.5 billion (f.o.b., 1989) commodities: manufactures 68.5%, agricultural products 12.0%, fuels 9.7%, raw materials 7.1% partners: EC 51.7% (France 11.7%, Netherlands 10.1%, Italy 9.3%, UK 6.7%, Belgium-Luxembourg 7.2%), other Western Europe 13.4%, US 6.6%, Eastern Europe 3.8%, OPEC 2.5% (1990)

Industrial production

growth rates, West - 5.4% (1990); East - 30% (1991 est.)

Industries

West - among world's largest producers of iron, steel, coal, cement, chemicals, machinery, vehicles, machine tools, electronics; food and beverages; East - metal fabrication, chemicals, brown coal, shipbuilding, machine building, food and beverages, textiles, petroleum refining

Inflation rate (consumer prices)

West - 3.5% (1991); East - NA%

Overview

The Federal Republic of Germany is making substantial progress in integrating and modernizing eastern Germany, but at a heavy economic cost. Western Germany's growth in 1991 slowed to 3.1% - the lowest rate since 1987 - because of slack world growth and higher interest rates and taxes required by the unification process. While western Germany's economy was in recession in the last half of 1991, eastern Germany's economy bottomed out after a nearly two-year freefall and shows signs of recovery, particularly in the construction, transportation, and service sectors. Eastern Germany could begin a fragile recovery later, concentrated in 1992 in construction, transportation, and services. The two regions remain vastly different, however, despite eastern Germany's progress. Western Germany has an advanced market economy and is a world leader in exports. It has a highly urbanized and skilled population that enjoys excellent living standards, abundant leisure time, and comprehensive social welfare benefits. Western Germany is relatively poor in natural resources, coal being the most important mineral. Western Germany's world-class companies manufacture technologically advanced

for the dominant share of economic activity, and raw materials and semimanufactured goods constitute a large portion of imports. In recent years, manufacturing has accounted for about 31% of GDP, with other sectors contributing lesser amounts. Gross fixed investment in 1990 accounted for about 21% of GDP. In 1991, GDP in the western region was an estimated $19,200 per capita. In contrast, eastern Germany's economy is shedding the obsolete heavy industries that dominated the economy during the Communist era. Eastern Germany's share of all-German GDP is only about 7%, and eastern productivity is just 30% that of the west. The privatization agency for eastern Germany, the Treuhand, is rapidly selling many of the 11,500 firms under its control. The pace of private investment is starting to pick up, but questions about property rights and environmental liabilities remain. Eastern Germany has one of the world's largest reserves of low-grade lignite coal but little else in the way of mineral resources. The quality of statistics from eastern Germany is improving, yet many gaps remain; the federal government began producing all-German data for select economic statistics at the start of 1992. The most challenging economic problem is promoting eastern Germany's economic reconstruction - specifically, finding the right mix of fiscal, monetary, regulatory, and tax policies that will spur investment in eastern Germany - without destabilizing western Germany's economy or damaging relations with West European partners. The biggest danger is that excessive wage settlements and heavy federal borrowing could fuel inflation and prompt the German Central Bank, the Bundesbank, to keep a tight monetary policy to choke off a wage-price spiral. Meanwhile, the FRG has been providing billions of dollars to help the former Soviet republics and the reformist economies of Eastern Europe.

goods. The region's economy is mature

services and manufacturing account

Unemployment rate

West - 6.3% (1991); East - 11% (1991)

Airports

462 total, 455 usable; 242 with permanent-surface runways; 4 with runways over 3,659 m; 40 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 55 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Civil air

239 major transport aircraft

Highways

West - 466,305 km total; 169,568 km primary, includes 6,435 km autobahn, 32,460 km national highways (Bundesstrassen), 65,425 km state highways (Landesstrassen), 65,248 km county roads (Kreisstrassen); 296,737 km of secondary communal roads (Gemeindestrassen); East - 124,604 km total; 47,203 km concrete, asphalt, stone block, of which 1,855 km are autobahn and limited access roads, 11,326 are trunk roads, and 34,022 are regional roads; 77,401 municipal roads (1988)

Inland waterways

West - 5,222 km, of which almost 70% are usable by craft of 1,000-metric ton capacity or larger; major rivers include the Rhine and Elbe; Kiel Canal is an important connection between the Baltic Sea and North Sea; East - 2,319 km (1988)

Merchant marine

607 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 5,210,060 GRT/6,626,333 DWT; includes 3 passenger, 5 short-sea passenger, 324 cargo, 10 refrigerated cargo, 135 container, 31 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 5 railcar carrier, 6 barge carrier, 11 oil tanker, 21 chemical tanker, 22 liquefied gas tanker, 5 combination ore/oil, 14 combination bulk, 15 bulk; note - the German register includes ships of the former East and West Germany; during 1991 the fleet underwent major restructuring as surplus ships were sold off

Pipelines

crude oil 3,644 km; petroleum products 3,946 km; natural gas 97,564 km (1988)

Ports

maritime - Bremerhaven, Brunsbuttel, Cuxhaven, Emden, Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel, Lubeck, Wilhelmshaven, Rostock, Wismar, Stralsund, Sassnitz; inland - 31 major

Railroads

West - 31,443 km total; 27,421 km government owned, 1.435-meter standard gauge (12,491 km double track, 11,501 km electrified); 4,022 km nongovernment owned, including 3,598 km 1.435-meter standard gauge (214 km electrified) and 424 km 1.000-meter gauge (186 km electrified); East - 14,025 km total; 13,750 km 1.435-meter standard gauge, 275 km 1.000-meter or other narrow gauge; 3,830 (est.) km 1.435-meter standard gauge double-track; 3,475 km overhead electrified (1988)

Telecommunications

West - highly developed, modern telecommunication service to all parts of the country; fully adequate in all respects; 40,300,000 telephones; intensively developed, highly redundant cable and radio relay networks, all completely automatic; broadcast stations - 80 AM, 470 FM, 225 (6,000 repeaters) TV; 6 submarine coaxial cables; satellite earth stations - 12 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT antennas, 2 Indian Ocean INTELSAT antennas, EUTELSAT, and domestic systems; 2 HF radiocommunication centers; tropospheric links East - badly needs modernization; 3,970,000 telephones; broadcast stations - 23 AM, 17 FM, 21 TV (15 Soviet TV repeaters); 6,181,860 TVs; 6,700,000 radios; 1 satellite earth station operating in INTELSAT and Intersputnik systems

Branches

Army, Navy, Air Force, Federal Border Police

Defense expenditures

exchange rate conversion - $39.5 billion, 2.5% of GDP (1991)

Manpower availability

males 15-49, 20,300,359; 17,612,677 fit for military service; 414,330 reach military age (18) annually