Germany

Quick Facts

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Local name

Deutschland

Capital

Berlin

Government

Federal Republic

Nationality

German

Population

82,422,299

Languages

German

Religions

Christianity (Protestant, Catholic), Islam, Judaism

Currency

Euro (EUR) €

Calling Code

+49

Time Zone

CET (UTC+1)

Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

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Introduction

Ulm, Germany-Rathaus side view

© All Rights Reserved MrJfromFla

The 2006 FIFA World Cup brought Germany and its hardy mixture of stout beers, a festive atmosphere and celebrated heritage into international limelight. It's a diverse country, which has gifted the world with a dazzling array of renowned artists, composers, writers and thinkers, but which will also be remembered for some of the darkest times in Western history.

The Germany of the 21st century is an industrial powerhouse with countless picturesque small towns to balance out its modern, stylized big cities. The once-divided Berlin stands as a pillar of historical importance, while it grasps the future with both hands. Medieval castles and a lively Bavarian culture in the south of Germany highlight the depth of the country's heritage. Such natural stores of beauty as the Alps and the Black Forest make it plain to see why Germany is one of Europe's top picks for travellers, even without a football tournament to really spice things up.

Brief History

Geography

The geography of Germany has lots to offer. From Rhine River Valley, the Black Forest to the alps there is great beauty to be found. Remember Germany is not just a country of cities. Germany shares international borders with Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Regions

Germany is a federal republic of 16 states, called Bundesländer in German.

• Baden-Wurttemberg
• Bayern (Bavaria)
• Berlin
• Brandenburg
• Bremen
• Hamburg
• Hessen
• Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• Niedersachsen
• Nordrhein-Westfalen
• Rheinland-Pfalz
• Saarland
• Sachsen
• Sachsen-Anhalt
• Schleswig-Holstein
• Thuringen

Not so long ago the various regions in Germany were seperate countries all with their own government and their own army, ruled by a king, a duchy or a prince and often at war with each other. Although not immediately recogniseable for a short-term traveller there are distinctive differences between the regions. Speech, traditional dress, way of thinking (conservative vs. liberal) and maybe most importantly food. The north-south divide between Hamburg or Berlin and Munich is the easiest to observe. It is strongly recommend for a traveller to spend time in all parts of Germany to get a feeling for the country.

Cities

• Berlin
• Hamburg
• Munich
• Frankfurt am Main
• Stuttgart
• Cologne
• Bremen
• Karlsruhe
• Dresden
• Leipzig
• Düsseldorf
• Hannover

Sights and Activities

Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) is one of Berlin's former official gate. At one time there were many gates to Berlin but today the Brandenburg Gate is the only remaining gate to Berlin. Its construction was completed in 1791. During the Soviet occupation a section of the Berlin Wall actually went through the plaza, which has been torn down. The gate has been a very important symbol throughout modern German history and today it is mostly a wonderful plaza to walk through and enjoy.

Ulm Minster

The Ulm Minster (Ulmer Münster), located in Ulm, is the largest Lutheran church in the world with a steeple that is over 161.53 m (530 ft). To make it up this steeple a traveller must climb up over 768 steps. Once at the top there is stunning view of all of Ulm that makes the climb very worthwhile. Construction was started in the 14th century but the slow process of constructing this huge gothic church was not completed until the 19th century. There is great art to be enjoyed inside the Church and a wonderful feeling of knowing that Mozart once played on its famous massive organ can be felt.

Cologne Cathedral

The Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is a beautiful catholic church with stunning gothic architecture located in Cologne. Construction of the church began in 1248 and was not completed until 1880. The two large towers dominate the church supporting the worlds largest façade of any church in the whole world. In 1996 this cathedral was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Today it is one of the best tourist sights in all of Germany.

Rügen Island

Rügen Island is the largest island in all of Germany and located in the Baltic Sea. Rügen is one of the most popular holiday and recreation areas within all of Germany. Although this is not a super hot beach resort island like in Thailand because during the summers the temperature is usually only around 16.3 °C. Therefore hiking and enjoying the scenery is a much better option then taking swim.

Other Sights and Activities

• The Black Forest (Schwarzwald) is a great place to enjoy the best hikes and the wilderness in Germany.
• Lake Constance, located in Bodensee is the largest lake in all of Germany. This is a great place for boating and enjoying the wilderness.
• St Pauli Football Club, located in Hamburg is one of the best football clubs in Europe and a great team to watch.

Events and Festivals

Oktoberfest

Germany's most well-known feast is the Oktoberfest, a 4-week extravanganza of beer drinking, riding the caroussels and having a load of fun (if you like drunken crowds). It takes part in Munich from late September to early October, the actual dates changing each year. It draws more visitors from all over the world than any other feast in Europe. It is so popular that most hotels and hostels are completely booked out by February.

Cannstadter Vasen

A similar venture to the Octoberfest is the Cannstadter Vasen. It takes place in Stuttgart at roughly the same time as the Octoberfest and offers similar attractions, yet it is much less overrun than the Octoberfest.

International Beer Festival

Another important date for beer-lovers is the International Beer festival that takes place in Berlin in late July or early August for about 3 days. It gives people the chance to sample the best beers from all over the world, all within a mile's walk.

Other Events and Festivals

Rose Monday,Koln

© All Rights Reserved Zhou

• Carneval (Mardi Gras) - Is in February every year and is a good time. The Carneval in Cologne is considered especially famous. It is the one festival in Germany that can rival the Oktoberfest in popularity, which is no small feat.
• Fastnet - In Southern Germany is also very worthwhile, in fact with its masked dancers it tends to appeal to tourists far more than the Carneval in the Rhine area.

Weather

Getting There

By Plane

Germany is one of the most convenient countries in Europe, with the ability to fly there from dozens of destination throughout the world. Although the country has several international airports, the most important one (and in fact one of the busiest in Europe) is Frankfurt am Main International Airport (IATA: FRA, ICAO: EDDF), located 12 km southwest of Frankfurt city centre. The main national carrier is Lufthansa, which has flights to all major destinations in both Europe as other continents.

Low-cost carrier German Wings is based at Cologne Bonn International Airport (IATA: CGN, ICAO: EDDK), 15 km southeast of Cologne city centre and 16 km northeast of Bonn, and focuses on European destinations. It also flies from the international airports at Hamburg, Dortmund, Berlin Schönefeld and Stuttgart.

Another budget airline is Air Berlin, which has flights within Europe as well as to places further away including China and Westcoast USA. Its hub is at Berlin Tegel Airport, but it also flies from Düsseldorf and 18(!) other airports in Germany. Air Berlin operates as charter carrier on a lot of medium- and long-distance routes, so if you intend to fly into one of the smaller airports it helps if you are flying in summer and from/to a popular holiday destination.

A third one is Condor, which uses both FRA and Munich International Airport (IATA: MUC, ICAO: EDDM), located 28 km northeast of Munich. It flies to destinations in Europe and beyond. Condor is the charter venture of Lufthansa, they use the same aircraft and crew. It is essentially Lufthansa under another name with lower prices, but with less destinations.

By Train

Germany is well-connected by rail with its neighbours. Some of the connections are:

From Czech Republic

• Decin - Schöna (Prague-Dresden line)
• Kraslice - Klingenthal (Zwickau - Karlovy Vary)

From Belgium

• Liège (city) - Aachen

From Denmark

• Tønder - Niebüll
• Padborg - Flensburg
• Roedby - Puttgarden

From Luxembourg

• Luxembourg (city) - Trier

By Car

By Bus

By Boat

Getting Around

By Plane

Lufthansa, Air Berlin and German Wings has a number of domestic flights, among several other carriers. The main airports are at Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Cologne-Bonn, Frankfurt and München.

By Train

State-owned Deutsche Bahn (DB) is the national railway company of Germany. Some of the train services operated by DB include:

• InterCityExpress ICE - high-speed train, mostly national and some international trains
• InterCity IC - national long-distance trains
• EuroCity EC - international long-distance trains
• DB NachtZug NZ - national and international night trains
• Urlaubs Express - national night trains to the Alps and the Baltic Sea during the holidays
• Regional Express RE - medium-distance semi-fast trains for regional services
• Regional Bahn RB - basic local service, usually calling at all stations
• S-Bahn S - suburban rail transport offered mainly by Deutsche Bahn, sometimes by others

There are periodically special offer train journeys, on German trains. These offers change frequently, so it is worth it, for bargin hunters, to check often.

By Car

Autobahn - Is Germany's excellent highway system originally built in the 1930s. All vehicles must be able to drive over 60 km/h and the recommended speed is around 130 km/h. Remember this speed is only a recommendation and while many parts of the autobahn network have speed limits imposed there is no actual speed limit for the whole system. All autobahn roads are named with the capital letter A followed by a number. Even numbers indicate a west-east running autobahn, and uneven numbers indicate a north-south running autobahn. The higher the number the shorter the route, the lower the number the more important.

• A 10 to A 19 - Are in the eastern part Germany (Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg).
• A 20 to A 29 - Are in northern and northeastern Germany.
• A 30 to A 39 - Are in lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia area.
• A 40 to A 49 - Are in the Rhine-Ruhr area.
• A 50 to A 59 - Are also in the Rhine-Ruhr area.
• A 60 to A 69 - Are in Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Hessen area.
• A 70 to A 79 - Are in Thuringia, northern Bayern and parts of Saxony area.
• A 80 to A 89 - Are in Baden-Württemberg area.
• A 90 to A 99 - Are in southern Bayern area.

Mitfahrgelegenheit - Is a cheap and easy option to check out if you speak a little German. People offer lifts in their car from one place to another. You will just have to pay for the petrol and also have the chance to meet some Germans.

There are many companies offering rental cars at airport and cities and the bigger railway stations. A national driver's licence is sufficient and if bringing your own car be sure to have insurance (green card).

By Bus

There are very few options for long-distance public bus travel in Germany. Buses mostly cover local routes between villages. The big exeption is international travel plus a few limited long-distance routes. Examples of these routes are buses from Hamburg and Munich to Berlin, a bus route from Hamburg to Frankfurt and the Romantic Road Coach.

Some of the local bus operators are:

• Deutsche Touring
• Berlin Linien Bus
• Gullivers Bus

By Boat

Germany has an extensive network of channels and rivers. Kayaking and canoeing is very popular as well as yachting. However there are no public transport options by boat available. Bring or rent your own boat.

There are regular boat services on most rivers, lakes and coastal waters. These include the Danube, Main, Moselle, Neckar, Rhine and the Weser rivers and also on Ammer See, Chiemsee, Königssee and Lake Constance. There are also local ferries to and from Kiel (Kiel Fjord) and from Cuxhaven to Helgoland and to the East and North Friesian Islands.

The KD German Rhine Line has trips on the Rhine and Mosel rivers.

Red Tape

If you are a European Union (EU) citizen, you may enter without any restriction as per your EU citizenship rights. EU citizens can travel to Germany on their national ID cards. Since UK citizens do not have national ID cards (yet), they need a passport to enter. Non-EU citizens might need to obtain a Schengen Visa. This visa is valid for any country in the Schengen zone. The following countries can travel to Germany visa-free:

• All countries and territories that are members of the Schengen acquis, of the EU or of EFTA due to their rights according to the relevant treaties.

Additionally:

• Andorra
• Argentina
• Australia
• Brazil
• Brunei
• Canada
• Chile
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Hong Kong (SAR of Flag of the People's Republic of China China)
• Israel
• Japan
• Macau (SAR of Flag of the People's Republic of China China)
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Monaco
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Paraguay
• San Marino
• Singapore
• South Korea
• United States
• Uruguay
• Vatican City
• Venezuela

All citizens from all other countries need a Schengen visa to enter.

All citizens from the above countries (except citizens of countries and territories that are members of the Schengen acquis, of the EU or of EFTA) need a Schengen visa if the duration of their stay inside the Schengen area is longer than 90 days in a 180 day period or if the purpose of their visit is any other than tourism.

Money

See also: Money Matters

Germany has adopted the Euro (ISO code: EUR, symbol: €) as its official currency. One Euro is divided into 100 cents, which is sometimes referred to as eurocents, especially when distinguishing them with the US cents.

Euro banknotes come in denominations of €5, €10, €20, €50, €100, €200, €500. The highest three denominations are rarely used in everyday transactions. All Euro banknotes have a common design for each denomination on both sides throughout the Eurozone.

The Euro coins are 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, €1 and €2. Some countries in the Eurozone have law which requires cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest 5 cents. All Euro coins have a common design on the denomination (value) side, while the opposite side may have a different image from one country to another. Although the image side may be different, all Euro coins remain legal tender throughout the Eurozone.

Work

Study

The German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) (DAAD) is your one-stop guide to studying at a German university or taking German language classes in Germany.

Language

German is part of the Indo-European language family. It is closely related to English, Danish, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian. With over 120 million native speakers and even more non-native speakers it is the third most important language in the EU after English and French.

The large majority of Germany's inhabitants speak German as their first language. However there are significant minorities that speak their native tongues. In terms of numbers the most important would be the Turkish migrants - there are some areas in large German cities where you don't hear a word of German at all. Other native minorities would be the Danish minority in the north and the Sorbs in the area south of Berlin.

German children learn English and other foreign languages like Latin, French, Old Greek, Italian, Spanish and Russian at school. In order to attend university a students needs to have had at least five years of lessons in one foreign language and at least three years in another. Most Germans (especially the younger) speak at least some English and are able to understand simple questions and reply with simple answers. Quite a large number are decently fluent enough to hold a converstation.

It is usually no problem for a traveller who speaks no German to get around in Germany with only English.

If signs and other public announcements are bilingual the second language used apart from German is usually English.

Eat

Sleep

Cheapest places to sleep for single travellers are hostel beds in dorms. HI/YHA hostels are the most wide-spread and are often the the only hostel in smaller cities or villages. In rural areas camping sites can be a good option. For families or small groups a holiday appartment can be a great an inexpensive deal. The best way to find cheap and good quality accomodation in smaller towns is usually to contact the tourist information of the city, since most of the tourist informations have an internal booking service for all the holiday appartments, pensions and hotels in town. Instead of calling countless small places only to be told that they are full contact the tourist information as they know exactly which appartment or pension has vacancies for the dates you want. Expect to pay between 20-40 EUR per day and person if renting an appartment and 10-20 EUR per day and person when staying on a camping site.

Drink

Germany's national drink is beer. Germans take great pride in their beer and there are far too many micro-breweries in Germany to count them.

But tee-totalers need not despair: The second most important national drink is "schorle". It is essentially sparkling mineral water mixed with fruit juice 50:50. Very tasty and much healthier than any soft drink. The most common variant is apple schorle. Schorle is so popular that a certain American soft drink producer has started to bottle their own schorle under the brand "Lift", yet due to the low fruit juice content and the fact that it contains table water instead of mineral water the company is not allowed to sell it as such. (Says something about the quality of the swill, doesn't it?)

Health

Germany has a great health care system. All major cities have excellent hospitals with great service. It should be pretty easy to find staff in the hospital that speak English. A quirk of the German health care system is that almost all Germans have medical insurance, either private or statuory. Having medical insurance with sufficient coverage for major hospital treatment is mandatory for every foreigner entering Germany. If you do not have insurance and find yourself in the unfortunate position of having to pay for treatment you'll be in for quite a shock - the great health care system comes with a huge price tag attached.

Safety

The emergency number in Germany is 112. This number can be dialled from any telephone in Germany to contact the Police, Medical and Fire Brigade. The police only/directly is 110.

Keep Connected

Internet

Phone

The international call prefix in Germany is 00. To dial out of Germany, dial 00, followed by country code, area code, and the telephone number (e.g. 00 44 1234 567890). If you're using a mobile phone, simply add the plus sign "+" before the country code to call out of Germany (e.g. +44 1234 567890).

The cheapest way to call abroad from Germany is to use the internet cafés run by immigrants. They sell special calling cards that give the best rate to certain countries as well as offer cheap international calls from phone booths. It is also the cheapest way to call landlines in Germany.

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