44 Fun Facts about Germany

Germany is known for many things. Some of the most important include a number of tuition-free universities, high quality education and cultural diversity.

However, there are a lot more intriguing things you could learn about Germany than you probably think. We’ve put together this list of the most interesting facts about Germany that you’ve probably never heard before.

1. According to the latest United Nations statistics, there is 84,488,027 people currently living in Germany.
2. A third of the territory of Germany is still covered in greenery and forests.
3. Germany is a member of the European Union.
4. 65% of highways in Germany (Autobahn, as the Germans call them) don’t have a speed limit. However, they do have a recommended speed limit of 130 km/h.
5. Most public universities in Germany offer high quality education with low or no tuition, apart from admin fees.
6. There used to be more than 20,000 castles in Germany. However, 60% of them are in ruins, leaving around 15,000 castles.
7. Germany has around 1,500 breweries with more than 7,000 types of beer to choose from.
8. Germany is the seventh-largest country in Europe. It covers a surface of 137,847 square miles (357,022 km2), of which 34,836 square miles (90,224 km2) is land and 7,798 square miles (20,196 km2) is water.
9. The Germans’ love for beer is expressed in a popular saying, “Durst wird durch Bier erst schön”, which translates to “Thirst is only beautiful when accompanied by beer”.
10. Berlin is nine times larger than Paris and has more bridges than Venice, with 1,700 bridges in Berlin to Venice’s 409.
11. Germany consists of 16 federal states. Each state has its own constitution and is divided into 403 administrative districts (Kreis or Landkreis), of which 294 are rural and 102 are urban. Bavaria is the largest state, with 27,240 square miles or 70,550.19 km2.
12. Germany is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with 77% of its population in urban areas.
13. Germany shares a border with nine countries. Denmark, Poland, Czechia, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
14. According to the latest statistics, Germany has the largest economy in the European Union, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $4.2 trillion, and fourth-largest in the world, trailing the United States, China and Japan.
15. Germany is one of the largest car manufacturers in the world. 3.4 million cars were sold in 2011. The Volkswagen Golf has been one of the top-selling cars since 1981, with more than 240,702 Golfs sold across Europe in 2012. The top-selling car brands in Germany in 2013 were Volkswagen, Mercedes, Audi and BMW.
16. The first printed book in the world, Gutenberg’s Bible in Latin, was printed in Germany.
17. Germany is one of the leading countries in the world when it comes to books. 94,000 titles are published each year.
18. The first-ever magazine was launched in 1663 in Germany, called Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen and started by a poet and theologist by the name of Johann Rist.
19. Germany was the first country in the world to introduce Daylight Saving Time, also known as summer time. This happened on 30 April 1916, in the midst of World War I.
20. When John F. Kennedy visited Berlin on 26 June 1963, he said “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am one with the people of Berlin). A long-standing myth falsely reported that this sentence is translated as “I am a jelly donut”. Even though the word ‘Berliner’ does traditionally refer to a jelly donut in the north, west and southwest of Germany, that is not the case in Berlin. In Berlin, this type of donut is known as “Pfannkuchen”. So, no Berliner would have misinterpreted John F. Kennedy’s statement. 
21. German is the fifth most learned language in the world, after Spanish.
22. German remains the language with the most native speakers in Europe, with around 100 million native speakers, trailing Russian which has 120 million native speakers.
23. German is the official language in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.
24. The longest word ever printed is “Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft” It has 79 characters.
25. There are 35 dialects of German.
26. Germany has more than 300 different types of bread and more than 1,200 types of cake.
27. There are over 1,000 types of sausage in Germany.
28. Beer is officially considered as food in Bavaria.
29. Smoking is banned in public spaces, with some exceptions in several states.
30. Germany is in the top ten countries in the world in beer consumption.
31. Oktoberfest in Munich, Bavaria is the biggest beer festival in the world, where the size of a beer stein is a full liter rather than 500 ml!
32. The real German way of ordering three drinks (originally three beers) is by raising three fingers: the thumb, index and middle fingers, which is common among Western Europeans.
33. Germany has more soccer clubs than any other nation.
34. Germany (once) lost a penalty shootout in a major soccer competition. It was in 1976, when West Germany lost 5-3 to Czechoslovakia in a shootout at the European Championship.
35. The Christmas tree tradition (Tannenbaum) comes from Germany, and it is believed that Martin Luther, a 16th century German Protestant, was the one who started this tradition.
36. Germany has more than 400 zoos, the most in the world.
37. Chancellor Angela Merkel had a Barbie doll made in her likeness, designed by Mattel in 2009.
38. Germans celebrate the beginning of the school year by gifting their children cardboard cones filled with sweets, known as Schultüte, commonly filled with candy, toys, school supplies, etc.
39. Most taxi cabs in Germany are Mercedes because they offer excellent deals to taxi companies.
40. Holocaust denial is an implicit or explicit crime in 17 countries, including Germany and Austria.
41. The Guinness Book of World Records says that the narrowest street in the world is in Reutlingen in Germany. It’s called Spreuerhofstrasse and it is 31 centimeters wide at its narrowest point.
42. The Chancellor’s Office in Berlin is known as “the washing machine” because of its unusual architecture.
43. Germany is a leader in climate and energy policies — in 2011, it decided to decommission all of its nuclear power plants by 2022 and replace them with renewable energy sources and new green energy storage.

There is no penalty for a prisoner caught attempting to escape from prison in Germany because it is a basic human instinct to be free