III.

Population

The people of Germany consist mostly of two groupings of the Caucasoid race. The predominant Alpine type is concentrated in the central and southern regions; people of the Teutonic grouping live principally in the north. Of ethnic minorities, some 2.3 per cent of the population is Turkish.

A.

Population Characteristics

The population of Germany is 82,400,996 (2007 estimate), giving the country an overall population density of about 236 people per sq km (611 people per sq mi). Population densities in the former East Germany are generally lower than in western Germany. The nation is highly urbanized, with approximately 88 per cent of the people living in urban areas.

B.

Political Divisions

Germany is divided into 16 German states (Länder): Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia.

C.

Principal Cities

The capital of Germany is Berlin, which has a population of 3,387,800 (2005 estimate). The government, however, still largely resides in the old capital of the former West Germany, Bonn, an old university city on the Rhine with a population of 311,900 (2005 estimate); complete transition to Berlin will not take place until the year 2003. The country’s largest cities, with their population figures, are Hamburg, 1,734,800 (2005 estimate), a major seaport; Munich, 1,249,200 (2005 estimate), a commercial and cultural centre; Cologne, 969,700 (2005 estimate), an industrial city with a famous cathedral; Frankfurt, 646,900 (2005 estimate), a major financial centre and manufacturing city; Essen, 588,100 (2005 estimate), a steel-making centre in the Ruhr; Dortmund, 588,700 (2005 estimate), an industrial centre with nearby coal mines; Stuttgart, 590,700 (2005 estimate), a manufacturing and commercial city; Düsseldorf, 572,700 (2005 estimate), a fashionable industrial and financial city; and Leipzig, 498,500 (2005 estimate), also a manufacturing and commercial centre.

D.

Religion

About 35 per cent of Germans are Protestants, the great majority of these being Lutherans. Most of the Protestants live in the north. About 34 per cent of the people are Roman Catholic, concentrated in the Rhineland and Bavaria. About 2 per cent are Muslim. Approximately 40,000 Jews live in Germany today.

E.

Language

The official language is German, which is spoken by the majority of the population. Several regional dialects exist, some of which differ substantially from Standard German. Some regional languages are spoken by minorities, such as Eastern and Northern Frisian, Kölsch, Mainfränkisch, Pfaelzisch, and Low Saxon and Upper Saxon, by far the most widely understood of all the regional languages. A significant linguistic minority of about 100,000 Sorbs (also spelled Serbs), descendants of the Slavic peoples called the Wends by the Germans in medieval times, live in the Lusatia region (which includes the cities of Cottbus and Bautzen) and speak Lower and Upper Sorbian, also called “Wendish”. Polish, Danish, Sinte Romani, and Vlax Romani are also mother tongues for certain minorities. At least 40 non-indigenous languages are spoken by immigrant communities, including different types of Arabic, Russian, Croatian, Italian, English, and Chinese.

F.

Education

Though the FRG (West Germany) and the GDR (East Germany) shared centuries of cultural history, the GDR was heavily influenced by Soviet values and social systems. Since reunification the educational system in the east has abandoned the Soviet polytechnic model of comprehensive education for all secondary-school students, and returned to the specialized system of the west.

Schooling in Germany is compulsory and free for people between the ages of 6 and 18. Although education is controlled by the individual state governments, national coordinating groups ensure that school systems and requirements are roughly the same throughout the region. Almost all adults in Germany are literate. Around 5 per cent of the country’s gross national product (GNP) was spent on education in 2002–2003.

Children begin their education with four years at a Grundschule (basic school). On completion of the Grundschule at about the age of ten, students are given extensive tests, the results of which largely determine their subsequent schooling. Almost half of the students go on to a Hauptschule (senior school) for five years. They then undertake a three-year vocational training programme, which includes on-the-job experience plus classroom instruction at a Berufsschule (vocational school). Approximately one fifth of the children who finish the Grundschule attend a Realschule, where they take a six-year course emphasizing commercial and business subjects. After the Realschule these students may enter a two-year vocational college (Fachoberschule). About one in four students enters a Gymnasium (academic high school) after the Grundschule. The Gymnasium offers a rigorous nine-year programme that culminates with examinations for the Abitur (diploma), which is necessary for university entrance.

Under reforms introduced in the 1970s, the rigid distinctions between the three types of schooling were loosened, and some students were permitted to change from one kind of school to another during the course of their education. Such mid-course changes were easiest at the small but growing number of comprehensive schools, which offered all three programmes—vocational, commercial, and academic. Schools of continuing education for adults, such as the many Volkshochschulen (people’s universities), offer a variety of courses and have some programmes leading to diplomas. In 1995 Germany had 17,910 primary schools with 3,519,051 pupils and 238,345 teachers, and over 11,000 secondary schools of various types, with 4.2 million pupils and almost 333,000 teachers.

Germany has long been known for the quality of its institutions of higher learning, and one of its universities, the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg (1386), is among the oldest in Europe. Other leading universities in Germany are at Berlin, Bonn, Erlangen, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Göttingen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Marburg an der Lahn, Munich, and Tübingen. Germany also has numerous teacher-training institutions; schools of fine arts, music, and film-making; and schools of theology. In 2002–2003 there were around 2.33 million students at German universities.

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.