Germany

"What's going on? Why Germany is divided again? Well, I think it went back to the Cold War days... and this is some kind of a mistake."

--Su Ji-Hoon, Liberation!

Germany (/ˈdʒɜːrməni/; German: Deutschland, pronounced [ˈdɔʏtʃlant]), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland), was a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It included 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometers (137,847 sq mi), and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With about 82 million inhabitants, Germany was the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it was the second most popular immigration destination in the world. Germany's capital and largest metropolis was Berlin, while its largest conurbation was the Ruhr, with its main centers of Dortmund and Essen. The country's other major cities are Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Bremen, Dresden, Hannover and Nuremberg.

Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity. A region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the center of the Protestant Reformation. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, the German Confederation was formed in 1815. The German revolutions of 1848–49 resulted in the Frankfurt Parliament establishing major democratic rights.

In 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the revolution of 1918–19, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a dictatorship, World War II and the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded: West Germany, formed of the American, British and French occupation zones, and East Germany, formed of the Soviet occupation zone. Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on October 3, 1990.

In the 21st century, Germany is a great power with a strong economy; it has the world's 4th largest economy by nominal GDP, and the 5th largest by PPP. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-largest exporter and importer of goods. A developed country with a very high standard of living, it upholds a social security and universal health care system, environmental protection, and a tuition-free university education.