Germany

Germany (Listeni /ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)),[5] is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The territory of Germany covers 357,021 square kilometers (137,847 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants in 2010,[2] it has the largest population among member states of the European Union, and it is home to the third-largest number of international migrants worldwide.[6]

A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state, the country was first unified amidst the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. After World War II, Germany was divided in 1949 into two separate states—East Germany and West Germany—along the lines of Allied occupation. Germany was reunified in 1990 upon the entry of the German Democratic Republic into the Federal Republic. West Germany was a founding member of the European Community (EC) in 1957, which became the European Union in 1993. It is part of the Schengen Area and adopted the European currency, the euro, in 1999

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