Portal:Germany
Wikipedia portal for content related to Germany / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portal maintenance status: (January 2019)
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Welcome to the Germany Portal!
Willkommen im Deutschland-Portal!
Germany (German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north and the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.
Germany includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,578 square kilometres (138,062 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 83 million inhabitants, it is the second most populous state of Europe after Russia, the most populous state lying entirely in Europe, as well as the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is a very decentralized country. Its capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while Frankfurt serves as its financial capital and has the country's busiest airport.
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 World War II, and the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, two new German states were founded: West Germany, formed from the American, British, and French occupation zones, and East Germany, formed from the western part of the Soviet occupation zone, reduced by the newly established Oder-Neisse line. Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on 3 October 1990.
Today, Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor. It is a great power with a strong economy. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993. Read more...
Selected article
Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas (or, as some of his later works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Weber and Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).
His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use of leitmotifs—musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas or plot elements. His advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music. More...
Selected picture
- Image 1Photo credit: Daniel SchwenA portrait of a senior police officer in Hamburg, wearing the new blue uniform in accordance with the policy of using the same colour for police uniforms and vehicles throughout the European Union. Law enforcement in Germany is divided into two groups: the federal police and the state police.
- Image 2The Hohenzollern Bridge crossing the Rhine in Cologne, Germany, with the Cologne Cathedral in the background. The bridge is a tied-arch railway bridge, as well as a pedestrian bridge. Originally built in 1911, it survived numerous Allied bombings in World War II, only to be destroyed by German engineers as the war drew to a close. Reconstruction began soon after and the bridge was opened to pedestrian traffic in 1948 and completely opened in 1959.
- Image 3Blankenhain Castle is an open-air museum and castle near Crimmitschau, a large district town in the Saxon landkreis of Zwickauer Land, Germany.
- Image 4Photo credit: Daniel SchwenSparrenburg Castle, located in Bielefeld, Germany, as seen from the western lawn. The castle was constructed between 1240 and 1250 by the Counts of Ravensberg. The castle has been rebuilt many times. Although often under siege, it was never stormed. After extensive restoration work, the castle now presents itself as an imposing historic site.
- Image 5
- Image 6Painting credit: Albert BierstadtAlbert Bierstadt (1830–1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West, such as this oil-on-canvas painting, entitled Among the Sierra Nevada, California, created in 1868. He painted the landscape in his Rome studio, and exhibited it in Berlin and London before shipping it to the United States. His choice of grandiose subjects was matched by his entrepreneurial flair; his exhibitions of individual works were accompanied by promotion, ticket sales, and, in the words of one critic, a "vast machinery of advertisement and puffery". This work is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
- Image 7Credit: Astrophysikalisches Institut PotsdamThe Einstein Tower, a solar observatory in Potsdam
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- Image 9Design credit: German New Guinea Company; photographed by the National Numismatic CollectionGerman New Guinea was a German colonial protectorate established in 1884 in the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups. The German New Guinea Company was founded in Berlin by Adolph von Hansemann and a syndicate of German bankers for the purpose of colonizing and exploiting the protectorate's resources. This gold coin, worth 20 New Guinean marks, was issued by the German New Guinea Company in 1895, and is now part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
- Image 10Banknote design credit: Danzig Central Finance Department; photographed by Andrew ShivaThe Papiermark is the name given to the German currency from 4 August 1914, when the link between the Goldmark and gold was abandoned. In particular, the name is used for the banknotes issued during the period of hyperinflation in Germany in 1922 and especially 1923. During this period, the Papiermark was also issued by the Free City of Danzig. The last of five series of the Danzig mark was the 1923 inflation issue, which consisted of denominations of 1 million to 10 billion issued from August to October 1923. The Danzig mark was replaced on 22 October 1923 by the Danzig gulden.
This ten-billion-mark banknote, issued on 11 October 1923, is in the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
Other denominations:
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000015-QINU`"' - Image 11Photo credit: Matthias SüßenMorning fog on the plains of East Frisia, a coastal region in the northwest of the German federal state of Lower Saxony. It connects Western Frisia (in the Netherlands) with the district of Nordfriesland ("Northern Frisia") in Schleswig-Holstein, all of which belong to the historic and geographic Frisia.
- Image 12Painting: Caspar David FriedrichCairn in Snow is a landscape painting by Caspar David Friedrich that was completed in 1807. The painting is a Romantic allegorical landscape, showing a pagan burial site between three oaks, near the town Gützkow in Germany. It is held by the Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden, Germany.
- Image 13Photo credit: Daniel Schwen/AntilivedThe marketplace of Göttingen, a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, with the old city hall, Gänseliesel fountain and pedestrian zone. Founded before 1200, the city is famous for Georg-August University, which was founded in 1737 and became the most visited university of Europe.
- Image 14Photograph: Thomas WolfCharlottenburg Palace is a large palace in Charlottenburg, a part of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough of Berlin, Germany. The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and expanded during the 18th century. It includes much exotic internal decoration in baroque and rococo styles. It was badly damaged during the Second World War, but has since been reconstructed, becoming a major tourist attraction.
- Image 15Photo credit: Andreas TilleLichtenstein Castle is a fairy-tale castle located near Honau in the Swabian Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Although there have been previous castles on the site, the current castle was constructed by Duke Wilhelm of Urach in 1840 after being inspired by Wilhelm Hauff's novel Lichtenstein. The romantic Neo-Gothic design of the castle was created by the architect Carl Alexander Heideloff.
- Image 16Photochrom: Detroit Publishing Co.
Restoration: Lise BroerAn 1890s photochrom print of Dresden, the capital city of Saxony in Germany, with Dresden Frauenkirche (left), Augustus Bridge (centre), and Katholische Hofkirche (right) visible. Dresden in the early 20th century was a leading European centre of culture and science, but suffered heavy damage due to an Allied bombing on February 13, 1945. - Image 18Painting: Hans BaluschekCity of Workers is an oil painting on canvas completed by the Berlin Secessionist painter Hans Baluschek in 1920. It depicts a dark and dirty working class sector of the German capital, Berlin, in which industrial smoke dominates the skyline and the few lights of windows are drowned in the gloom. The 48.44 × 36.25 in (123 × 92.1 cm) work is held at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
- Image 19The German Instrument of Surrender, the main portion of which was signed at Reims, France, at 02:41 on 7 May 1945, was the legal instrument that established the armistice ending World War II in Europe. It was signed by representatives of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the Allied Expeditionary Force and Soviet High Command. Another act of military surrender was signed, shortly before midnight, on 8 May in the outskirts of Berlin, Germany, at the insistence of the Soviets.
- Image 20Photograph: Henry W. LaurischKadavar are a rock band from Berlin, Germany, founded in 2010. Their retro sound, incorporating psychedelic rock and stoner rock, has been compared to bands of the 1970s hard rock/heavy metal era. Kadavar currently consists of three members: guitarist and lead vocalist Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann, drummer Christoph "Tiger" Bartelt, and bassist Simon "Dragon" Bouteloup.
- Image 21Shaft 12 of Zeche Zollverein, a coal mine in Essen
- Image 22Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is an 1818 painting by Caspar David Friedrich, a German Romantic. It has been read as a metaphor for the uncertainty of the future.
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Anniversaries for June 13
- 1809 – Birth of Heinrich Hoffmann, author of Struwwelpeter
- 1878 – Beginning of the Congress of Berlin
- 1878 – Birth of poet Bruno Frank
- 1886 – Death of King Ludwig II of Bavaria on Lake Starnberg
- 1937 – Birth of football manager Erich Ribbeck
Did you know...
- ... that Samuel Kummer chose for his first recital as the organist of the restored Frauenkirche in Dresden music by Bach, Brahms, Max Reger, Louis Vierne, and himself?
- ... that over the course of several decades, the missionaries of New Zealand's German Mission House failed to convert a single person?
- ... that German factory worker Julius Welschof now plays in the National Football League?
- ... that Peter Demetz, who taught German literature at Yale University from 1956 to 1991, was born in Prague where he was persecuted under the Nazis and escaped the Communist regime in 1949?
- ... that the Lutheran St. Trinitatis in Wolfenbüttel, consecrated in 1719, is a Baroque church with a facade recalling that of a palace?
- ... that Romani Holocaust survivor Philomena Franz wrote about her deportation to Auschwitz, internment in Ravensbrück, escape from a camp near Wittenberge, and concealment by a farmer?
- ... that baritone Liviu Holender chose lieder by five composers whose music was banned by the Nazis—Schreker, Zemlinsky, Mahler, Korngold and Schönberg—for a recital at the Oper Frankfurt?
- ... that ancient humans cared for a 14,000-year-old puppy?
Selected cuisines, dishes and foods
Sauerbraten (pronounced [ˈzaʊ̯ɐˌbʁaːtn̩] ⓘ) is a traditional German roast of heavily marinated meat. It is regarded as a national dish of Germany, and is frequently served in German-style restaurants internationally. It can be cooked from a variety of meats, most often from beef, but also from chicken, lamb and mutton, pork and horse. Before cooking, the raw meat is marinated for 5 to 15 days in a mixture of wine or vinegar, water, herbs, spices, and seasonings. Usually, tougher cuts of meat, such as rump roast or bottom round of beef, are used, and the long marinating tenderizes the meat. A Sauerbraten dinner is almost always accompanied by a hearty gravy resulting from its roasting and is most often served with potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer), potato dumplings (Kartoffelklöße), or Spätzle.
Ingredients used in the marinade, and accompaniments served with sauerbraten, vary across regions. Regional variants of the dish include those from Baden, Franconia, Thuringia, Rhineland, Saarland, Silesia, and Swabia. (Full article...)Topics
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- Requests: Columbiahalle [de], German Archaeological Institute at Rome [de], Deutsche Familienversicherung [de], Dietlof von Arnim-Boitzenburg [de], Rolf von Bargen [de], Micky Beisenherz [de], Hennes Bender [de], Georg Bernhard [de] (1875–1944), Eduard Georg von Bethusy-Huc [de], Rolf Brandt [de] (1886–1953), Jan Philipp Burgard [de], Georg Arbogast von und zu Franckenstein [de], Georg Gafron [de], Ferdinand Heribert von Galen [de], Gundula Gause [de], Karl-Heinz Hagen [de], Herbert Helmrich [de], Nils von der Heyde [de], Monty Jacobs [de] (1875–1945), Hans Katzer [de], Siegfried Kauder [de], Matze Knop [de], Wolfgang Kryszohn [de], Claus Larass [de], Isidor Levy [de] (1852–1929), Markus Löning [de], Anke Plättner [de], Hans Heinrich X. Fürst von Pless [de], Gerd Poppe [de], Victor-Emanuel Preusker [de], Günter Prinz [de], Hans Sauer (inventor) [de], Franz August Schenk von Stauffenberg [de], Paul Schlesinger [de] (1878-1928),Oscar Schneider [de], Hajo Schumacher [de], Otto Theodor von Seydewitz [de], Dorothea Siems [de], Werner Sonne [de], Anton Stark [de], Udo zu Stolberg-Wernigerode [de], Christoph Strässer [de], Torsten Sträter [de], Joseph von Utzschneider [de], Jürgen Wieshoff [de], Hans Wilhelmi [de], Alexandra Würzbach [de]
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