Federal Republic of Germany

G

Culture

Unlike English and French cultural life, which is centred in the capital cities of London and Paris, German cultural life has traditionally flourished in many principal cities. For centuries these cities were the capitals of the many independent German states, whose rulers encouraged art, music, theatre, and scholarship as expressions of their power. Berlin was the cultural as well as the political capital of a united nation from 1871 to 1945 and became so again in 1990.

Western Germany has some 1,200 museums, 400 important libraries, 60 opera houses, 300 other theatres, and over 150 major orchestras. These institutions receive large subsidies from their respective cities or states, continuing the tradition of princely support for the arts. Government aid enables many people to find employment in the arts, and brings the arts within geographic and economic reach of a large part of the region’s population, but it does not imply government control.

In World War II many museums, libraries, and historical buildings were damaged or destroyed; but many treasures were safely stored away and thus preserved. A revival of interest in German history prior to the 20th century has encouraged rebuilding and new building, revitalizing old cities such as Munich and Bonn.

The outstanding art collections of the kings of Prussia are found in Berlin. The city has the State Museum of Prussian Cultural Treasures, which houses Egyptian art and old-master paintings in the Dahlem complex, and 19th- and 20th-century paintings in the National Gallery. The collections of the Bavarian rulers form the Bavarian State Art Galleries in Munich: Old Masters in the world-famous Alte Pinakothek and modern works in the Neue Pinakothek. The Bavarian National Museum, also in Munich, includes collections of sculpture, decorative art, and folk art. The Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne displays Roman antiquities. A leading art museum in eastern Germany is the State Art Collection in Dresden, formerly owned by the rulers of Saxony. It includes a world-famous gallery of old masters and a fine collection of porcelain, both in the Zwinger, and decorative arts in the Green Vault.

The Ancient, Far Eastern, and Islamic collections of the kings of Prussia are part of the State Museums of what was formerly East Berlin. Other art treasures are privately held by the Church and by aristocratic families. Outstanding scientific collections are housed in the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History in Frankfurt, in the Technical Museum in Dresden, and in the State Scientific Collections of Natural History and the German Museum, one of the foremost technological museums of the world, in Munich. The City Museums of Frankfurt contain fine art and folk art as well as an assortment of archaeological and historical material.

Important research libraries include the Bavarian State Library in Munich, the State Library of Prussian Cultural Treasures in Berlin, and the German Library in Frankfurt. Records of the Nazi period are in the federal archives in Koblenz and in the Berlin Document Centre, which houses 25 million Nazi Party documents. Excellent university libraries and many city and church lending libraries are found throughout the country.

The theatres and concert halls of western Germany and the western sector of Berlin attract large audiences from all levels of society. Opera houses of the first rank are those of Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, and Stuttgart. Stuttgart also maintains a fine ballet company. Repertory, open-air, and cabaret theatres thrive in Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Recklinghausen, and other cities. The Berlin and Munich Philharmonic orchestras and the Bamberg Symphony are world famous, as are the radio orchestras of Cologne, Hamburg, and Munich. International visitors flock to special festivals and fairs such as the Wagner festival at Bayreuth, the Bach festivals at Ansbach and Leipzig, the “documenta” of visual arts at Kassel, film week in Berlin, and the Frankfurt Book Fair. Folk culture is preserved in folk museums, pageants, and festivals.

IV

Economy

Despite great damage to both East and West Germany during World War II, both countries had emerged as potent economies by the 1960s. Germany is the third most powerful economy in the world. West Germany became a leading economic world power in the 1970s and 1980s, and East Germany was a leader among Warsaw Pact economies. Reunification has been a shock to the economy of both nations. The West has had to shoulder high taxes to fund improvements in infrastructure, environment, and industry in the East, while many eastern enterprises have collapsed in the face of western competition. Some US$100 billion is being spent annually on the eastern states by the Federal government, achieving an 8 per cent increase in annual economic growth since 1991. In 1994 it was 9 per cent, the highest in the EU. Economic recovery in the east is mainly construction-led. There is a continuing tendency for German companies to set up manufacturing operations abroad, mainly to avoid high production costs at home. Movement towards a single European currency is a major issue facing Germany. Still, Germany remains a powerhouse in the world economy and has one of the highest standards of living in the world. Germany’s GNP (World Bank) in 2004 was US$2,532 billion, equivalent to US$38,990 per capita. In 2007 the Federal budget included around US$944 billion of revenue and US$962 billion of expenditure.

A

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

Agriculture plays a minor role in the German economy, and the country imports about one third of its food. Farms in western Germany are relatively small—about 75 per cent of the units are made up of an area of 20 hectares (49 acres) or less. These smaller farms are often owned and operated by farmers and their families who support themselves with other jobs. East Germany operated most farms as collectives, and the landholdings are generally larger. The government is in the process of converting the tracts to individual ownership. Only just over 3 per cent of the population works in agriculture.

The best farmland is located in the southern end of the north plains. The nation’s principal crops are sugar beet, potatoes, barley, wheat, oats, and rye. Germany is also a major wine producer. Farmers raise cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry.

Germany has substantial forestry and fishing industries. Most of the 28 million cu m (989 million cu ft) of timber produced in 1993 came from the great forests of the south-west; more than 70 per cent was coniferous wood. In recent years coniferous forest growth has suffered from acid rain, a result of industrial pollution from the manufacturing centres.

The nation’s leading fishing ports include Bremen, Bremerhaven, and Cuxhaven, on the North Sea, and Kiel, on the Baltic Sea. In 2007 the annual catch totalled some 333,216 tonnes, including almost all marine fish, especially herring, cod, blue mussel, and rainbow trout.

B

Mining

The mining industry plays a comparatively small role in the German economy. Several minerals, however, are produced in sizeable quantities. Germany is the world’s leading producer of lignite, a low-grade brown coal. Bituminous coal, crude petroleum, iron ore, potash, salt, and natural gas are other important mineral products.

C

Manufacturing

The economy of Germany is dominated by the manufacturing sector, which produces a great variety of technologically advanced goods, and employs almost 25 per cent of the workforce. The leading types of fabricated goods are transport equipment, machinery, processed food, chemicals, and electronic devices. In 1993 Germany was the world’s third-biggest producer of passenger cars.

Large-scale manufacturing enterprises are concentrated in several areas. The most important industrial area encompasses the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which includes the steel-producing Ruhr region plus other large manufacturing centres, such as Aachen, Cologne, and Düsseldorf, where chemicals, metal goods, machinery, and motor vehicles are manufactured. Another major industrial region is located around the confluence of the Rhine and Main rivers. Encompassing the cities of Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Mainz, and Offenbach, it has large factories producing metals, electronic equipment, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and motor vehicles.

To the south, along the Rhine, is an important industrial area centred on the cities of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Karlsruhe, where chemicals, machinery, and building materials are manufactured. Stuttgart is the hub of a manufacturing region in which motor vehicles, electronic equipment, office machinery, textiles, and optical instruments are produced. Products of the Munich area include aircraft, motor vehicles, clothing, and beer.

Several important industrial regions are located in north-west Germany. These include the Hanover-Brunswick area, where steel, chemicals, and motor vehicles are produced. Another major manufacturing region includes such coastal port cities as Hamburg, Bremen, Kiel, and Wilhelmshaven. Among the products of this region are refined petroleum, processed foods, beer, ships, office machinery, and printed materials. Berlin is also a major producer of electronic equipment.

Out of a total of 67,000 firms in the whole country, about 13,000 companies were operating in East Germany in 1994. However, fewer than one quarter of them were expected to survive in the more competitive economy of a unified Germany. The territory of the former East Germany has a large iron and steel industry, with huge mills at Eisenhüttenstadt and near Berlin. Yearly production of crude steel in East Germany in the late 1980s was about 8.2 million tonnes. A total of 40 million tonnes was produced in 1994 in Germany as a whole. East Germany also produced great amounts of chemicals, such as sulphuric acid, caustic soda, and ammonia. Many chemical plants are in the region of Dessau, Halle, and Leipzig. A large petrochemical complex at Schwedt an der Oder, in the north-east, processes petroleum piped in from Russia, part of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Machinery is produced in numerous cities, especially in the south-west, and the former East Berlin has large factories making electronic equipment. World-leading optical and precision instruments are manufactured in Jena and Görlitz. Rostock and Wismar were the former East Germany’s chief centres of the shipbuilding industry. Textiles are produced in several cities, notably Chemnitz, Cottbus, and Leipzig, and motor vehicles are assembled in Dresden, Eisenach, and Zwickau.