Germany Facts

Germany produces more than 5,000 varieties of beer.

The first German car to be built solely outside of Germany is the BMW Z3.

Bernd Eilts, a German artist, turns dried cow manure into wall clocks and small sculptures.

In World War II, the German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.

Adolf Hitler was one of the people that was responsible in the creation of the Volkswagen Beetle.

The name Vaseline is a combination of the German word for water, wasser, and the Greek word for olive oil, elaion.

The word snorkel comes from the German word Schnorchel, which was a tube used by German submarine crews in WWII.

Germany is made up of the North German Plain, the Central German Uplands (Mittelgebirge), and the Southern German Highlands.

Germany's major rivers are the Danube, the Elbe, the Oder, the Weser, and the Rhine.

The country of Prussia no longer exists. After World War II, it was divided among Poland, Germany, and the USSR.

Cologne water, a mildly perfumed toilet water also known as eau de Cologne, is made in Cologne, Germany.

Germany was the first European country to establish a system for health insurance for its workers in 1888.

The coffee filter was invented by Melitta Bentz, in Germany in 1908.

The Federal states that comprise Germany are: Baden-Wuerttemberg (capital: Stuttgart), Bavaria (capital: Munich), Berlin (3.45), Brandenburg (capital: Potsdam), Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse (capital: Wiesbaden), Lower Saxony (capital: Hanover), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (capital:Schwerin), North Rhine-Westphalia (capital: Duesseldorf), Rhineland-Palatinate (capital: Mainz),Saarland (capital: Saarbruecken), Saxony (capital: Dresden), Saxony-Anhalt (capital: Magdeburg), Schleswig-Holstein (capital: Kiel), Thuringia (capital: Erfurt).

Germany's most important natural resources are iron ore, coal, timber, copper, natural gas, salt.

Germany's major cities are Berlin 3,477,900, Hamburg 1,703,800, Munich 1,251,100, Cologne 963,300 and Frankfurt 656,200.

The Zugspitze in the Bavarian Alps near the Austrian border is 9,720 ft in elevation and is Germany's highest mountain.

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