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As Europe's largest economy and most populous nation, Germany remains a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945.

With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO.

Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.

The German language is one of the world's major languages and a member of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 110 million native speakers and another 18 million non-native speakers, primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and in two-thirds of Switzerland.

German is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French.

The German language was once the primary language of central, eastern and northern Europe and remains one of the most popular foreign languages taught worldwide, being more popular than French as a foreign language in Europe.