‘Think Germany – now think again’ ran the slogan on the German National Tourist Office’s UK promotional campaign posters launched late in 2006 to encourage more British visitors to consider the country as a holiday destination.
It was appropriate, and topical. After 60 years of trying, Germany finally managed to shake off the guilty shadows of its past during the immensely successful football World Cup staged in the country during the summer of 2006.
Once again, it became ‘OK’ to wave the national flag with pride and without fear of being accused of inappropriate nationalism, and the whole country seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at its new-found ability to express its distinctive national character again.
Modern Germany has come of age, and while it is still suffering the economic consequences of reunification in October 1990, it is clearly a nation coming to terms with itself.
The country is the product of a long history of division, first as a loose collection of independent (and often warring) states before original unification during the 19th century, and latterly as West and communist East Germany following WWII.
For this reason alone, it is a country of remarkable diversity, with cultural differences clearly evident as one travels around the various states that make up the modern Federal Republic.
Germany is a heady mix of history and nature, fine arts and youthful rebellion. Its capital, Berlin, has a reputation gained from its decades as a divided city, as a hedonistic, ‘on the edge’ community where almost anything goes. In contrast, the quiet academic surroundings of historic university cities like Heidelberg, convey a quiet gentility quite at odds with the atmosphere of the capital.
One thing is certain: wherever one ventures in Germany, there is something interesting to see or do. It is a goldmine for the adventurous tourist in search of something different to the norm.
Geography
The Federal Republic of Germany shares frontiers with Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland. The northwest of the country has a coastline on the North Sea with islands known for their health resorts, while the Baltic coastline in the northeast stretches from the Danish to the Polish border.
The country is divided into 16 states (Bundesländer), including the formerly divided city of Berlin. The landscape is exceedingly varied, with the Rhine, Bavaria and the Black Forest being probably the three most famous features of western Germany. In eastern Germany, the country is lake-studded with undulating lowlands which give way to the hills and mountains of the Lausitzer Bergland, the Saxon Hills in the Elbe Valley and the Erzgebirge, while the once divided areas of the Thuringian and Harz ranges in the central part of the country are now whole regions again. River basins extend over a large percentage of the eastern part of Germany, the most important being the Elbe, Saale, Havel, Spree and Oder. Northern Germany includes the states of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) and the city states of Bremen and Hamburg.
The western area of the country consists of the Rhineland, the industrial sprawl of the Ruhr, North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen), Hessen, the Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) and the Saarland. In the southern area of the country are the two largest states, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria (Bayern), which contain the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), Lake Constance (Bodensee) and the Bavarian Alps. Munich (München), Stuttgart and Nuremberg (Nürnberg) are the major cities.
The eastern part of the country is made up of the states of Thuringia, Saxony (Sachsen), Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin. The major cities in eastern Germany are Dresden, Leipzig, Erfurt, Halle, Magdeburg, Potsdam, Schwerin and Rostock. Apart from Leipzig and Rostock, these are also all recently reconstituted state capitals.