tates were formed in 1949: the western Federal
Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic
(GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic
and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO,
while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led
Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War
allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then, Germany has
expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages
up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU
countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.

Geography Germany

Location:
Central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between
the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark

Geographic coordinates:
51 00 N, 9 00 E

Map references:
Europe

Area:
total: 357,021 sq km
land: 349,223 sq km
water: 7,798 sq km

Area - comparative:
slightly smaller than Montana

Land boundaries:
total: 3,621 km
border countries: Austria 784 km, Belgium 167 km, Czech Republic 646
km, Denmark 68 km, France 451 km, Luxembourg 138 km, Netherlands 577
km, Poland 456 km, Switzerland 334 km

Coastline:
2,389 km

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers;
occasional warm mountain (foehn) wind

Terrain:
lowlands in north, uplands in center, Bavarian Alps in south

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Neuendorf bei Wilster -3.54 m
highest point: Zugspitze 2,963 m

Natural resources:
coal, lignite, natural gas, iron ore, copper, nickel, uranium,
potash, salt, construction materials, timber, arable land

Land use:
arable land: 33.13%
permanent crops: 0.6%
other: 66.27% (2005)

Irrigated land:
4,850 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
flooding

Environment - current issues:
emissions from coal-burning utilities and industries contribute to
air pollution; acid rain, resulting from sulfur dioxide emissions,
is damaging forests; pollution in the Baltic Sea from raw sewage and
industrial effluents from rivers in eastern Germany; hazardous waste
disposal; government established a mechanism for ending the use of
nuclear power over the next 15 years; government working to meet EU
c