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Germany

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Germany, formally the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in Central Europe, governed by a chancellor accountable to the Bundestag and a president who serves as head of state. The Federal Republic was founded on 23 May 1949 in the three Western occupation zones as the Basic Law came into force, while the Soviet zone became the separate German Democratic Republic that October. East Germany's constituent states acceded to the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990 under the Basic Law's own accession clause, extending the same state's institutions to the reunified country rather than creating a new one. The atlas dates Germany's founding to 1949, the government whose constitution and institutions still hold today; German unification in 1871 created a different state, the German Empire, which did not survive intact through the Weimar Republic and Nazi periods to the present, and the entity description narrates 1990 as the reunification of the continuous postwar state rather than its founding.

Facts
Founding Year
1949 1
1949 is the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, whose Basic Law and institutions are the government holding the country today. It is not offered as the founding of a German state generally: German unification in 1871 created the German Empire, a different state that did not survive intact through the Weimar Republic and Nazi periods, and 1990 reunification extended the Federal Republic's existing institutions to former East German territory under the Basic Law's own accession clause rather than founding a new state, which the entity description narrates rather than compressing into this one field.
Foreign relations and policy

Current government: Merz Government (since 2025)

Earlier governments

Party positions (proposed or ideological, not state policy)

Christian Democratic Union of Germany (proposed or ideological position, not state policy; governs as Merz Government)

Social Democratic Party of Germany (proposed or ideological position, not state policy; governs as Scholz Government)

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

This source names Germany directly: "and the distribution of ministries. Germany, the Netherlands and most Nordic legislatures have governed through coalition for most of their postwar histories, while Israel has not had a single-party..."

Confederation, Systems of Government

The Germanic Confederation (1815-1866), a loose association of German states after the Congress of Vienna, is a documented historical confederation.

This source names Germany directly: "1920 constitution, and later spread to Germany, Italy, South Korea and many other countries as an alternative to judicial review by an ordinary supreme court."

Germany is discussed as an "integrated" federal structure, contrasted with the US "dualistic" model.

This source names Germany directly: "country overview article for Germany, covering its formation, government and history."

This source names Germany directly: "1945, to try major officials of Nazi Germany for war crimes committed during the Second World War."

This source names Germany directly: "ideology and rise to power in Germany."

This source names Germany directly: "proceedings that began in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1945, in which the victorious Allied powers, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union, prosecuted surviving leaders and..."

This source names Germany directly: "was the first chancellor of a unified Germany, serving from 1871 to 1890."

Germany's additional-member system, adopted after World War II, is a party-list hybrid.

Referendum, Political Mechanisms

Germany adopted some direct-democracy elements after World War I.

This source names Germany directly: "the revisionism of Eduard Bernstein in Germany."

This source names Germany directly: "Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany, and in force from 23 July 1952 until its fifty-year term expired on 23 July 2002, this treaty established the European Coal and Steel Community, the..."

This source names Germany directly: "Its modern institutional cornerstone was laid in Germany under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who enacted a sickness and maternity insurance law in 1883, a work-injury law in 1884, and an old-age..."

This source names Germany directly: "of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, a close collaborator of Marx and Engels in exile, who in 1896 coined the term state capitalism to distinguish mere state ownership of enterprise, such as..."

Governed By

Practices

Shaped By

In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Germany (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaView the Source
Germany: The Original Mixed Member Proportional System (ACE Project)
ACE Electoral Knowledge NetworkAssociated With: Mixed-Member Proportional RepresentationView the Source
Vote of Confidence (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaAssociated With: Motion of No ConfidenceView the Source
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