The Country
Germany is the most populous country in the European Union. Its territory stretches from the North Sea and the Baltic Sea in the north to the Alps in the south, and is crossed by some of Europe's major rivers such as the Rhine, the Danube and the Elbe.
Germany is a federal republic. At national level, the legislative bodies are the Bundestag (Federal Parliament), whose members are elected every four years by universal suffrage, and the Bundesrat (Federal Council), made up of 69 representatives of the 16 states (Bundesländer). Each state has its own constitution and considerable autonomy in terms of internal organisation. Three of these states are cities: Bremen, Berlin and Hamburg.
After the Second World War, Germany was divided into two: a western (democratic) part and an eastern communist part (the German Democratic Republic). The Berlin Wall became the symbol of this split. The wall fell in 1989 and Germany was reunified a year later.