MOVING TO GERMANY

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KEY FACTS

Official Name: Federal Republic of Germany

Capital City: Berlin

Type of Government: Republic

Official Language: German

Area: 356,900 sq. km/137,800 sq. mi

Population: 83 million

Religion: Christianity

Currency: Euro (€)

Number of Time Zones: 1

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) plus 1 hour; Eastern Standard Time (EST) plus 6 hours

Weights and Measures: Metric system

Country Domain: .de

Country Tel Code: 49

AT A GLANCE

Politics

The Federal Republic of Germany was established on May 23, 1949, and on October 3, 1990 East Germany joined the West, reuniting the nation. Some aspects of government are still delegated to regional areas, or Länder, that approximate to the older state divisions. The various regions maintain some of their individual characteristics in terms of culture, cuisine, and personality.

Under the 1949 constitution, the head of state is the president. He is elected for a term of five years and is mostly a titular and advisory figure. The executive power lies with the chancellor. He is elected by the Bundestag or parliament. Legislative power rests with the 669-member Bundestag and a 69-member Federal Council, or Bundesrat, chosen from the 16 Länder.

Economy

Germany’s major events of the past 25 years, the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and reunification in 1990, were cause for great celebration at the time. However, reunification came at an unexpected cost. Large subsidies have been necessary to address the inequalities in the East. These subsidies have been financed by unpopular taxes applied throughout Germany. The taxes have caused particular resentment in the West over the amount of money spent in the East, and frustration in the East over the slow pace of progress.

As years passed, ground was gained in the East, as conditions and the economy improved.

Another source of resentment has been the large influx of refugees, especially from the Near East. Their competition for jobs has increased an already high rate of unemployment. In addition, the economy is faced with high taxes to support generous social benefits and an aging population in need of social security outlays.

Germany continues to attract foreign investment for many of the historic reasons: a stable and technically powerful economy, a large well-educated and productive population, a prosperous middle class, the reputation of its products for excellence and reliability, and its strategic location in central Europe. The country’s leading role in a unified Europe is typified by its participation early in the roll-out of the new Euro.

More recently, Germany’s economy did not escape the global recession, though it fared better than some of its neighbors in some respects. Unemployment is a relatively moderate 7.4 percent. Industrial workers have been hit particularly hard by unemployment. Still, Germany’s economy is the largest in Europe, and GDP growth was 3.6 percent in 2010.

UNDERSTANDING THE PEOPLE

Until 1871 Germany was made up of separate independent states, a situation still reflected in many Germans’ sense of identity, which is often regional first and national second.

Germans are a hard-working people who insist on and enjoy order in their lives. They tend to be a home-loving people who take pride in their houses. Most families live in small houses or apartments, and most German families are small with one or two children.

Population

Germany is home to about 83 million people, the largest population in Europe with the exception of Russia. It has the lowest birthrate of any major industrial country; the population has shown zero growth overall in recent years. Life expectancy averages 77 years, 74 years for males and 80 years for females.

It is also one of the world’s most densely populated countries, with approximately 230 persons per sq km/595 persons per sq mi. Approximately 86 percent of the population lives in urban areas.

Ethnic makeup

Modern-day Germans, who make up about 92 percent of the population, are descended from pre-Christian era tribes who migrated into north-central Europe from the north and the east. Those tribes commingled with the earlier Celtic populations of Northern Europe, with Slavs from the eastern frontier, and with successive waves of invading Huns and Swedes. They form the basis for today’s ethnic Germans.

Over the centuries, other peoples sought refuge among the Germans. The Protestant Huguenots, for example, were driven from France in the religious upheavals of the 17th century and made a significant contribution to Berlin’s rise as a European commercial and industrial center.

After World War II, hundreds of thousands of Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Romanians, and other Eastern Europeans fleeing Communist rule found a safe haven in West Germany. The West Germans also took in 13 million of their own kin, forced out of German territories occupied or annexed by the Soviet Union and Poland. Others came from centuries-old German communities in the former Czechoslovakia – now the Czech and Slovak republics, Hungary, and Romania. Those fleeing from the war in the former Yugoslavia now account for an estimated four percent of the total population.

There is a continuing small in-migration of Russian Germans, descendants of the farmers who were settled on the steppes during the 18th century by German-born Catherine the Great of Russia to stimulate modernization.

There is a small ethnic Danish minority in the extreme north. Germany’s present Jewish population numbers 50,000 or 10 percent of the pre-Nazi population of 500,000.

More recent arrivals are the Gastarbeiter – guest workers from Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, and Italy, who were hired by West German industry during the labor shortage of the 1960s and early 1970s. Turks are the second largest ethnic minority, comprising about 2.4 percent of the population.

Most recently there has been an influx from troubled areas of Africa and Asia. A provision of the constitution takes cognizance of the plight of anti-Nazi Germans once forced to flee their own homeland and mandates the granting of asylum to victims of political repression.

The former East Germany had its own Gastarbeiter, mostly from Vietnam, but also a scattering from other unstable countries. With reunification, most are being repatriated. Reunification of Germany has intensified the east to west movement, especially of young people seeking employment.

Cultural traditions

The German people are highly literate and cultured, and every city, large or small, offers a wide variety of cultural events and museums, theaters, musical events, and cinemas for all tastes.

Literature

Literature has flourished in Germany since the ninth century when the Hildebrandslied, a story of a legendary hero, was written. The Nibelungenlied, a collection of myths and heroic tales about the Germanic peoples, is another early piece of literature. After the Protestant Reformation, Germany developed many literary forms and produced numerous writers, such as Goethe, Schiller, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, all of whom are important literary figures today. More recent writers like Heine, Marx, Engels, and Nietzsche combined politics, poetry, and philosophy. Writers from Germany’s turbulent 1900s and influenced by the two World Wars are Mann, Remarque, Hesse, Böll, Grass, Brecht, and Wolf, among others.

Music

Music has been Germany’s greatest love. The number of great German composers is staggering: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Handel, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Schönberg, Schumann, and Wagner, to name a few. Germany is world famous for some of its music festivals, such as that celebrating Wagner’s music at Bayreuth.

Fine arts

Over the centuries Germany has produced major artists, such as Dürer and Hans Holbein. In the early 20th century, German expressionism became an important movement, but it and other forms of experimentation were promptly labeled “degenerate” by the Nazis and destroyed or suppressed.

One of the most important influences of 20th- century art and architecture was the Bauhaus group, who worked and studied together in the 1920s. Among the famous German architects who achieved international prominence were Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe.

Religion

Germany is strongly, around 72 percent, Christian, roughly split between Protestant, mainly Lutheran, and Roman Catholic. Approximately 38 percent of the people are Protestants and 34 percent are Roman Catholics. Geographically, Roman Catholics reside mostly in the south and west and Protestants in the north and east; it is quite common for entire towns to be of one persuasion. Regular attendance at worship services is declining.

Approximately 2 percent of the population is Muslim, and less than 1 percent Jewish. Roughly 25 percent of the population has no religious affiliation.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed by law. Voluntary denominational religious instruction is offered in the public schools. Church members are taxed at a rate of approximately 9 percent of their income tax liability for the support of churches; the money is collected by tax authorities and distributed by the government.

Language

Germans take great pride in an expressive language that is the medium for one of the world’s great literatures. It is the mother tongue of a 100 million people and a second language for many millions more. Other than English and French, it is the most translated language. It is estimated that every tenth book published in the world today is in German.

There are regional dialects spoken informally, but the official language is High German and is the language spoken by the majority of the population and the language taught in the schools.

German is easier to learn than is generally perceived. While the grammar can be very complex, it need not be mastered in detail for purposes of basic communication. A practical approach is to concentrate on the spoken language – learn by hearing and repeating. Progress is often quite rapid, especially for those in Germany who constantly hear the language. While the total word count numbers well over 500,000, only a few thousand words are commonly used in everyday speech.

English is widely understood and is taught in schools. As in any country, some knowledge of the language is advantageous and courteous. Germans consider a foreigner’s effort to speak their language, even if not well, as a compliment. Most Germans will make a great effort themselves to understand and to help the speaker. More complex communication may still end up in English, or be done through an interpreter, but the initial willingness on your part will be repaid in appreciation by your host.

Common attitudes

Toward education

Germans are very proud of their educational system and of their pursuit of education. The literacy rate of 99 percent reflects this pride.

Education is free at all levels and is mandatory from ages 6 to 15 or 16 on a full-time basis and up to 18 on a part-time basis.

In addition to schooling children, Germany offers some form of vocational training for almost every profession. Thus many individuals in management positions will also have technical qualifications relevant to their business.

Toward family and children

The family is an important social unit in Germany, although families are typically small, with one or two children. Even when both parents work outside the home, the family structure generally remains paternalistic. Education of children is given high priority, along with imparting the values of responsibility, accountability, and respect for elders and superiors.

You may still encounter the old-style attitude that children should be seen and not heard. Children are expected to fit in to the family structure and schedule just like everyone else. Unruly or spontaneous behavior may be discouraged. In contrast to this attitude, German families generally spend their free time and vacations together. There are few opportunities for children to attend camps or other vacation activities that do not include their parents.

Toward foreigners

Lying just below the surface in German society, xenophobia has increased disturbingly since reunification. Initially directed almost exclusively toward foreign workers resident in Germany, it now is also focused against immigrants from the Third World pouring into the country and seeking asylum as political refugees. In recent years, a small group of extremists has been involved in violent acts against various foreign groups.

Any activity by right-wing groups in Germany automatically elicits discussions of the rise of Neo-Nazi groups and the fear that anti-Semitism will rear its ugly head again. Unfortunately, these isolated events have been replayed in other countries in Europe and in the U.S. Most Germans are appalled by these activities, as evidenced by the many well-attended marches and protests demonstrating against these violent groups and their actions.

The official stance is that there are virtually no restrictions on foreign investment throughout Germany, nor any special controls on foreign business activities. The only area closed to foreign investment is the postal service, a government monopoly. Foreign interests may hold up to 100 percent of the equity in a German-based subsidiary or branch. There are no exchange controls or restrictions on the normal transfer of dividends, profits, and capital.

West German commercial law is now applicable throughout Germany, and all forms of European business incorporation are permitted in the East. There are no restrictions on joint ventures, and to encourage Western investment, the East has been temporarily designated a lower-tax zone.

Some businesses may find government regulations and procedures confusing and time-consuming obstacles to investment.

Toward women

The traditional Kinder, Kirche, Kuche – meaning “children, church, kitchen” – are no longer considered the only proper interests of German women. Largely for economic reasons, it was more common for women in the former East Germany to work outside the home than for their Western counterparts.

Although women have become an important part of the workforce in the post-World War II era and are increasingly prominent in political life and to some extent in the media, they are still not a significant presence in business at the management and executive levels.

German business and industry are still male dominated. Few top positions are filled by women, and many of those do not have the authority and responsibility that a man in the job would be expected to have.

The state governments have adopted programs and set up departments to address women’s rights, but there has been little progress in resolving problems such as discrimination in hiring and pay. In addition, school schedules, lack of day-care facilities, and inconvenient shopping hours present obstacles for women in the workforce.

The situation inevitably affects attitudes toward foreign businesswomen. German businessmen will be scrupulously courteous, but as a rule will not take a woman as seriously as a decision-maker for a foreign firm as they would a male representative.

Toward hierarchy

Knowing where you stand in the hierarchy, socially, within the family, and at work, is an essential element in the German desire to impose order in everyday life. Use of correct titles and understanding your role and the rules also go along with this.

Germans are very conscious of the status implied by academic and other achievements, as well as by social standing, family background, and property ownership.

Toward work

The Germans generally take their work very seriously and are intensely achievement oriented. Reunification has had some influence on what was previously seen as a dichotomy between the economically repressed workers of the East and the affluence of the capitalist West. There is a growing sense of economic urgency in the country as a whole, which has somewhat restored the traditional work ethic.

Toward religion

Freedom of religion is guaranteed by law, and most of Germany is strongly Christian, split between Protestant and Catholic. However, regular attendance at worship services is declining.

Voluntary denominational religious instruction is offered in the public schools. Church members are taxed from 8 percent to 9 percent of their income tax payment for the support of churches; the money is collected by tax authorities and distributed by the government.

Other important values

Gemütlichkeit

This concept means feeling good or enjoying peace and harmony. It is the antidote to the relentless pursuit of order and strict rules that seem to dominate much of daily life. Gemütlichkeit means having a pleasant place to relax, having pastimes to distract the mind, and being comfortable and safe.

Pride in ownership

Germans much prefer to own than to borrow. Possessions are prized and protected along with, and usually including, the home. It is therefore unusual for a German to offer to lend you anything.
Intellectual achievements

Along with the importance of education comes a great respect for all things intellectual. This may be manifested through academic qualifications or by the demonstration of general knowledge in conversation. It is also important to a German to be correct in one’s manner of speaking, as well as in other social attributes that may reflect an individual’s mental capacity.

This trait used to place the concept of the intellectual idea above the value of developing an idea into a practical or commercial reality. Today, however, those in scientific academia and corporate research departments are encouraged to accept that it might be necessary or even desirable to allow commercial development and exploitation of new ideas.

Information provided in association with Living Abroad