Germany

Germany is a country in the middle of Europe. It shares borders with nine other countries, more than almost any nation in Europe. About 84 million people live there, which makes it the most populated country in the European Union. Its capital is Berlin. The official language is German.

The land of Germany is varied. In the north, flat plains stretch to the coasts of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The middle of the country has rolling hills, thick forests, and famous rivers like the Rhine and the Danube. In the south, the Alps rise along the border with Austria. The highest peak in Germany, the Zugspitze, stands almost 10,000 feet tall, nearly twice the height of Mount Mitchell in North Carolina.

For most of its history, Germany was not one country. It was a patchwork of small kingdoms, dukedoms, and free cities. These lands only joined together as a single nation in 1871. In the twentieth century, Germany started two world wars and lost both. Under the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, the German government carried out the Holocaust, the murder of about 6 million Jewish people and millions of others. Today, German schools teach this history carefully so it is never forgotten.

After World War II, the country was split in two. West Germany was a democracy tied to the United States and Western Europe. East Germany was a communist state controlled by the Soviet Union. The city of Berlin, deep inside East Germany, was also divided. In 1961, East Germany built the Berlin Wall to stop people from escaping to the West. The wall stood for 28 years. When it finally came down in 1989, Germans from both sides climbed on top of it and celebrated together. East and West Germany became one country again in 1990.

Germany has shaped the world in many ways. It is the home of the printing press, invented by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440. It gave the world composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, and scientists like Albert Einstein. German factories build some of the most famous cars on the planet, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Volkswagen.

Germans love outdoor life, soccer, and festivals. The biggest is Oktoberfest in Munich, which draws about 6 million visitors each fall. Fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, including Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Rapunzel, also come from Germany. Many of those stories began in the country's dark, ancient forests.