James Baquet “Germany,” “Deutschland” and “Allemagne” are all nomenclature for the same country (in English, German and French, respectively). The Chinese name de guo (德国) is derived from “Deutschland.” The northernmost portion of Germany is south of Denmark on the Cimbric Peninsula (also called Jutland). The North Sea is on the west of the peninsula, and the Baltic Sea to the east. Continuing clockwise, Poland and Czechia lie to the east of Germany; Austria and Switzerland to the south; then France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands on the west side. In some people’s minds, especially older Westerners, Germany will forever be associated with the brief dozen or so years it was under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi rule. But the country has a long and glorious past, producing great artists like Durer and Holbein and musicians that include Bach and Beethoven; philosophers like Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and of course, Karl Marx; theologians such as Martin Luther; innovators like Johannes Gutenberg, who brought movable type printing to Europe; and finally, such scientists as Fahrenheit, Rontgen and Hertz, after all of whom scientific units were named, as well as Einstein, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrodinger. And it is not only the past which was glorious: Germany still sets the standard for engineering in the world, and is still a vital contributor to world culture. Germany was once a loosely-allied cultural matrix, later unified under Charlemagne, and still later was the center of the Holy Roman Empire. After Napoleon’s defeat, the German Confederation emerged. Germany more-or-less as we know it was unified in 1871, and a little over four decades later an assassination in Austria-Hungary triggered World War I, in which Germany was one of the leading Central Powers opposing the Allied Powers represented by France, the British Empire, Russia, Japan and the United States, among others. Divided into East Germany (allied with Russia) and West Germany (formerly zones controlled by France, the United Kingdom and the United States) after World War II, the country was reunified in 1990. Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. extremely important 2. piece of land surround on three sides by water 3. context out of which something grows 4. started, set off 5. twelve 6. set of names 7. one who studies God 8. moving in a circle to the right from the top 9. model for comparison 10. killing for political reasons |