Here are 35 interesting facts about Germany you may not know about

Life in Germany. Interesting facts about Germany. Germany is rich culture and history, but some of its most interesting facts often go unnoticed. One of the main attractions of the country is the cuisine and all kinds of beers and sausages. However, there are many more fascinating facts about this country that you should know. Here are 35 interesting facts you did not know:

Interesting facts about Germany

According to the latest statistics , 84,488,027 people currently live in Germany .
Forests and green space cover one third of Germany.
Germany is one of the founding member states of the European Union.
65% of motorways in Germany have no speed limits, the remaining percentage have a recommended maximum speed of 130 km/h .
Most German public universities offer quality education with little or no tuition other than administration fees.
There were once more than 20,000 castles in Germany. However, 60% of them have fallen due to lack of repairs and about 15,000 are still well preserved.
There are around 1,500 breweries in Germany with over 7,000 types of beer.
Germany is the seventh largest country in Europe. It covers an area of 357,022 km², of which 90,224 km² is land and 7,798 km² is water.
Berlin is nine times bigger than Paris and has more bridges than Venice. There are 700 of them in Berlin and “only” 409 in Venice .
Germany consists of sixteen federal states. In its constitution, each federal state is divided into 403 districts. Bavaria is the largest state with an area of 70,550.19 km².
Germany borders nine other countries. Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Germany is one of the largest car manufacturers in the world. Record car sales were 3.4 million in 2011.
A book was printed in Germany for the first time in the world. It was the Latin version of the Bible printed by Johann Gutenberg.
Germany is a world leader in book publishing, producing around 94,000 new titles annually.
The first periodical ever published was in Germany in 1663 by the poet and theologian Johann Rist, entitled Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen.
Germany was the first country in the world to introduce summer time. This happened during World War I in 1916.
German is the fifth most learned language in the world after Spanish.
German is an official language in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.
There are thirty-five dialects of the German language.
There are over 300 different types of bread in Germany.
There are over 1,000 types of sausage in Germany.
Smoking is prohibited in public places, with a few federal states being the exception.
Germany is in the top ten countries with the largest number of beer consumers.
The biggest beer festival in the world is Oktoberfest in Munich, Bavaria, where a pint of beer has a capacity of 1 litre!
The uniquely German way of ordering three pints of beer is to raise three fingers: thumb, index and middle, which is very popular among Western Europeans.
There are more football clubs in Germany than anywhere else in the world.
The tradition of decorating the Christmas tree (Tannenbaum) comes from Germany, it is believed that it was initiated by Martin Luther, a 16th-century German Protestant.
Germany has over 400 zoos – the most in the world.
Chancellor Angela Merkel had a Barbie doll made in her honor, designed by Mattel in 2009.
Germans celebrate the start of school by giving children cardboard bags filled with sweets, the so-called Schultüte, where there are sweets, toys, school supplies, etc.
In Germany, there is no penalty for a prisoner who tries to escape from prison, as escape is a basic human instinct, as long as no crime was committed during the escape.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the narrowest street in the world is in Reutlingen, Germany. It is called Spreuerhofstraße and is 31 cm wide at its narrowest point.
The Federal Chancellery in Berlin is popularly known as the ” washing machine ” due to its unusual architecture.
Most taxis in Germany are Mercedes, as they offer taxi companies the best deals.
The longest German word is Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrtätenhauptbetriebswerksbauunteroffiziere. It has a total of 79 letters and is made up of several smaller words joined together to form a compound word. When these words are put together, the word can be translated as, “the non-commissioned officers responsible for the construction at the main maintenance plant of steam navigation using electricity on the river Danube.”

Source: bamf.de