Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Germany
Germany has at least 7 million foreign residents, including those granted political asylum, guest workers (Gastarbeiter), and their dependants. Germany is a primary destination for political and economic refugees from many developing countries.
An ethnic Danish minority lives in the north, a small Slavic minority known as the Sorbs lives chiefly in Saxony. The Frisian language, considered the language closest to English language, is mother tongue for about 12,000 speakers in Germany. In rural areas of Northern Germany Low Saxon widely is spoken.
Immigration has also created a sizeable Turkish minority, and other smaller minorities including Croats, Italians, Russians and Poles.
Christianity is the major religion, with Protestants (particularly in the north) comprising 38% of the population and Catholics (particularly in the south) 34%. There is also a noticeable Islamic minority of 1.7%, while the rest (26.3%) is either unaffiliated or belongs to smaller religious minorities.
Germany has one of the world's highest levels of education, technological development, and economic productivity. Since the end of World War II, the number of youths entering universities has more than tripled, and the trade and technical schools of Germany are among the world's best. With a per capita income level of about $25,000, Germany is a broadly middle class society. A generous social welfare system provides for universal medical care, unemployment compensation, and other social needs. Germans also are mobile; millions travel abroad each year.
Culture
Main article: Culture of Germany
Germany's contributions to the world's cultural heritage are numerous. Germany was the birthplace of composers such as Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and Wagner; poets such as Goethe and Schiller; philosophers including Kant, Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche; and scientists including Einstein, Born and Planck. It was also the birthplace of the Bauhaus movement.
The German language was once the lingua franca of central Europe. Many important historical figures, though not German in the modern sense, were nevertheless immersed in the German culture, for example Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Kafka and Copernicus.
Religion
Roman Catholicism was Germany's top religion in the 15th century, but the religious movement commonly known as the Reformation changed this drastically. In 1517 Martin Luther challenged this religion as he saw it as a commercialization of his faith. Through this, he altered the course of European and world history and established Protestantism, the largest confession in Germany today.
Before World War II, about two-thirds of the German population was Protestant and one-third was Roman Catholic. In the north and northeast of Germany especially, Protestants dominated.
The Grundgesetz, Germany's constitution, guarantees freedom of faith and religion. It also states that no one may be discriminated against due to their faith or religious opinions.
Today Germany, especially its capital Berlin, has the fastest growing Jewish community worldwide. Some ten thousands of Jews from the former Eastern Bloc settled in Germany since the fall of the Berlin wall. The experiences during the Nazi era, a cosmopolitan and anti-nationalistic post-war education and especially the political 68ies movement created just the right tolerant atmosphere in Germany, which still is missing in some post-communist states.
Currently about two thirds of the German population, more than 55 million people, officially belong to a Christian denomination, although most of them take no part in church life. Nearly half of them are Protestants and nearly half of them Roman Catholics. Most German Protestants are members of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Approximately three million Muslims and 160,000 Jews live in Germany.
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