Facts about Germany

The territory of the former East Germany (divided into five new Länder in 1990) accounts for almost one-third of united Germany’s territory and one-fifth of its population. After a close vote, in 1993 the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany’s parliament, voted to transfer the capital from Bonn in the west to Berlin, a city-state in the east surrounded by the Land of Brandenburg.

Topography: With its irregular, elongated shape, Germany provides an excellent example of a recurring sequence of landforms found the world over. A plain dotted with lakes, moors, marshes, and heaths retreats from the sea and reaches inland, where it becomes a landscape of hills crisscrossed by streams, rivers, and valleys. These hills lead upward, gradually forming high plateaus and woodlands and eventually climaxing in spectacular mountain ranges.

As of the mid-1990s, about 37 percent of the country’s area was arable; 17 percent consisted of meadows and pastures; 30 percent was forests and woodlands; and 16 percent was devoted to other uses. Geographers often divide Germany into four distinct topographic regions: the North German Lowland; the Central German Uplands; Southern Germany; and the Alpine Foreland and the Alps.

Climate: Cool, continental climate with abundant rainfall and long overcast season. Lower temperatures with considerable snowfall in east and south. Prone to rapid weather variations from merging of Gulf Stream and extreme northeastern climate conditions. More about climate in Germany…

Administrative Division: 16 states (Länder): Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thueringen.

Population, Area, and Capitals of the Länder, December 31, 1992

-	- -	-	-	POPULATION
No	Land	Capital	Area (in square kilometers)	Total (in thousands)	Density (persons per square kilometer)
1	Baden-Württemberg	Stuttgart	35,751	10,149	284
2	Bavaria	Munich	70,554	11,770	167
3	Berlin	Berlin	889	3,466	3,898
4	Brandenburg	Potsdam	29,476	2,543	86
5	Bremen	Bremen	404	686	1,697
6	Hamburg	Hamburg	755	1,689	2,236
7	Hesse	Wiesbaden	21,114	5,923	281
8	Lower Saxony	Hanover	47,348	7,578	160
9	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	Schwerin	23,421	1,865	80
10	North Rhine-Westphalia	Düsseldorf	34,072	17,679	519
11	Rhineland-Palatinate	Mainz	19,846	3,881	196
12	Saarland	Saarbrücken	2,570	1,084	422
13	Saxony	Dresden	18,408	4,641	252
14	Saxony-Anhalt	Magdeburg	20,443	2,797	137
15	Schleswig-Holstein	Kiel	15,732	2,680	170
16	Thüringen	Erfurt	16,176	2,546	157
-	TOTAL	-	356,959	80,975	227

source : http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/facts/bl_geography.htm