Germany (Deutschland), officially – Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland), FRG (German: BRD) is a state in Central Europe. The area of the territory is 357 021 km². Population – more than 82 million people, as of 2016. 16th largest country in the world by population (2nd in Europe) and 62nd – by territory. Capital: Berlin. State language: German. About 65% of the population professes Christianity. Germany includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular immigration destination in the world. Germany's capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, with its main centres of Dortmund and Essen. The country's other major cities are Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Bremen, Dresden, Hannover and Nuremberg.
Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity. A region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, the German Confederation was formed in 1815. The German revolutions of 1848–49 resulted in the Frankfurt Parliament establishing major democratic rights.
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 German Revolution of 1918–19, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. In 1933 the Nazi seizure of power quickly led to the establishment of Nazi Germany which was built upon a dictatorship and consequently led to World War II and the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded: the democratic West Germany and the socialist East Germany. On 3 October 1990, the country was reunified.
In the 21st century, Germany is a great power and has the world's fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the fifth-largest by PPP. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a developed country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled and productive society. It upholds a social security and universal health care system, environmental protection and a tuition-free university education.
The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999. Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G7 (formerly G8), the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world. Known for its rich cultural history, Germany has been continuously the home of influential and successful artists, philosophers, musicians, sportspeople, entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, and inventors.
As of 2016, about ten million of Germany's 82 million residents did not have German citizenship, which makes up 12% of the country's population. The majority of migrants lives in western Germany, in particular in urban areas.
The Federal Statistical Office classifies the citizens by immigrant background. Regarding the immigrant background, 21% of the country's residents, or more than 17,1 million people, were of immigrant or partially immigrant descent in 2015 (including persons descending or partially descending from ethnic German repatriates). In 2010, 29% of families with children under 18 had at least one parent with immigrant roots. In 2015, the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs listed Germany as host to the second-highest number of international migrants worldwide, about 5% or 12 million of all 244 million migrants. Germany ranks 7th amongst EU countries and 37th globally in terms of the percentage of migrants who made up part of the country's population. As of 2014, the largest national group was from Turkey (2,859,000), followed by Poland (1,617,000), Russia (1,188,000), and Italy (764,000). Since 1987, around 3 million ethnic Germans, mostly from the former Eastern Bloc countries, have exercised their right of return and emigrated to Germany. In 2015-2016 years. As a result of the migration crisis, political stability in Germany was shaken. The policy of the government coalition (CDU / CSU - SPD) to attract refugees to the country in combination with the assimilation integration model of Germany and the firm confidence of political elites that all refugees will abandon their civilizational values in view of the clear advantages of Western civilization values led to an increase in protest moods, right-wing radical parties and explosive growth in the number of hate crimes.
The successes of the party "Alternative for Germany" in the 2014 elections, the take-off of "Pegida" movement indicate the formation of a significant public demand for "restoring order in the sphere of migration" that actually reproduces the classical migrant-phobic clichés. It seems dangerous that some politicians from "big" parties try to use this factor in pursuit of the voter.
In 2015, 8 518 xenophobic crimes were recorded in Germany (of which 8 209 crimes were committed by local right-wing radicals, 77 by foreign nationals and 232 by persons without certain political preferences). This is a monstrous figure, considering that in 2014 only 3 939 such crimes were registered. The growth was 116.25%! Of these, violent crimes amounted to 1 151 and 707 respectively. Out of 1 151 violent crimes, 20 attempts were made to kill. The number of attacks on centres for reception and accommodation of refugees increased by more than five times in 1 031 cases against 199 in 2014.
In 2015, Germany had the highest amount of crimes motivated by anti-Semitism in Europe, although the number of such crimes slightly decreased compared to 2014. The overwhelming number of offenders (more than 80%) were right-wing radicals, rather than immigrants from the Arab Middle East as the media is trying to present. At the same time, the outbreak of "new anti-Semitism" among Muslim immigrants speaks of some significant shortcomings in integration of immigrants and the latent influence of radical Islamism on the masses of immigrants. All this taken together represents a danger to the current stable situation in German society.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, published in late April 2017, in Germany in 2016 there were 41,500 offenses with political motivation. This is 6.6% more than in 2015. Of these, 23,555 cases revealed right-wing radical motivation (2.6%), 9.389 left-wing motivation (-2.2%), and 3.372 political motivation of foreign citizens +66.5%). [1] In general, the year 2016 was the most "fruitful" for crimes based on hate. This year, there was also the only one for many years of murder due to hatred (officially recognized as such). A representative of the right-wing extremist Movement of "Citizens of the Reich" killed a police officer in October 2016.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, published in May 2018, in Germany in 2017 there were 39.505 offenses with political motivation. This is 4.9% less than in 2016.
