Portal:Germany
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Germany (German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland), is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Sea 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 357,596 square kilometres (138,069 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With nearly 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 most populous city 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.
Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor. It is a great power with a strong economy. As a global leader in several industrial, scientific and technological sectors, it is a major trading nation. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993. Read more...
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Christ lag in Todes Banden (also spelled Todesbanden; "Christ lay in death's bonds" or "Christ lay in the snares of death"), BWV 4, is a cantata for Easter by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, one of his earliest church cantatas. It is agreed to be an early work partly for stylistic reasons and partly because there is evidence that it was probably written for a performance in 1707. Bach went on to complete many other works in the same genre, contributing complete cantata cycles for all occasions of the liturgical year. John Eliot Gardiner described it as Bach's "first-known attempt at painting narrative in music".
Christ lag in Todes Banden is a chorale cantata, a style in which both text and music are based on a hymn. In this instance, the source was Martin Luther's hymn of the same name, the main hymn for Easter in the Lutheran church. The composition is based on the seven stanzas of the hymn and its tune, which was derived from Medieval models. Bach used the unchanged words of a stanza of the chorale in each of the seven vocal movements, in the format of chorale variations per omnes versus (for all stanzas), and he used its tune as a cantus firmus. After an opening sinfonia, the variations are arranged symmetrically: chorus–duet–solo–chorus–solo–duet–chorus, with the focus on the central fourth stanza about the battle between Life and Death. All movements are in E minor, and Bach achieves variety and intensifies the meaning of the text through many musical forms and techniques. (Full article...)
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Anniversaries for June 2

- 1878 – Anarchist Karl Nobiling attempts to assassinate Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany
- 1885 – Birth of neuropathologist Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt
- 1917 – Birth of zoologist and filmmaker Heinz Sielmann
- 1920 – Birth of literary critic and Warsaw Ghetto survivor Marcel Reich-Ranicki
- 1967 – Benno Ohnesorg is shot by a policeman during a demonstration
Did you know...
- ... that novelist Barbara Frischmuth (pictured) argues that humans should not presume to rule over other species?
- ... that a statue of German-born missionary Johann Gottlieb Schwarz was commissioned by Prabowo Subianto, later president of Indonesia?
- ... that the only surviving autograph pages of Bach's Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80, ended up in three libraries on two continents?
- ... that the birth of Christianity in Minahasa, Indonesia, is celebrated annually on June 12, the day that Johann Friedrich Riedel set foot in Manado?
- ... that Havergal Brian described his Second Symphony, inspired by Goethe's Götz von Berlichingen, (pictured) as dealing with man "in his cosmic loneliness: ambition, loves, battles, death"?
- ... that Sofia Gubaidulina combined the Passion narrative according to John with texts from the Book of Revelation when she composed her 2000 Johannes-Passion?
- ... that Adolf Hitler received more than 300 visitors during his Festungshaft (fortress confinement) in Landsberg Prison?
- ... that the creator of Pop was part of the German techno scene?
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Maultaschen (German: [ˈmaʊ̯lˌtaʃn̩] ⓘ; singular Maultasche , lit. 'mouth bags') are a kind of large meat-filled dumpling in Swabian cuisine. They consist of sheets of pasta dough filled with minced meat, smoked meat, spinach, bread crumbs and onions and flavored with various herbs and spices (such as black pepper, parsley and nutmeg). Maultaschen are typically 8–12 centimetres (3–4+1⁄2 inches) across. They are square or rectangular in shape.
On 22 October 2009, the European Union recognized Maultaschen (Schwäbische Maultaschen or Schwäbische Suppenmaultaschen) as a 'Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)' and remarked that the dish is significant to the cultural heritage of Baden-Württemberg. This measure provides protection to the integrity of the dish, mandating that genuine Maultaschen are only produced in Swabia, a historical region that was incorporated into the modern German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. (Full article...)Topics
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