Fragen 211 bis 240

The Eastern Treaties with Moscow and Warsaw of 1970 were concluded by Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt and his social-liberal government. Helmut Kohl stands for reunification, Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet head of state, and Ludwig Erhard was chancellor during the economic miracle.

The official name of the state is Federal Republic of Germany, as laid down in Article 20 of the Basic Law. The other formulations are not state names: "federal state" describes the form of government, "federal states" the constituent states, and there is no "federal district".

Germany has around 84 million inhabitants. 70 and 78 million are clearly too low, 90 million clearly too high. The other figures are therefore either too low or too high and are incorrect.

The federal flag is black-red-gold; this is laid down in Article 22 paragraph 2 of the Basic Law. Red-white-black were the colours of the German Empire, and the other combinations do not correspond to any German flag.

Helmut Kohl was Federal Chancellor from 1982 to 1998 and shaped the reunification of 1990, which is why he is known as the "Chancellor of Unity". Gerhard Schröder and Helmut Schmidt were chancellors in other periods, and Konrad Adenauer was the first Federal Chancellor.

The large federal eagle, the heraldic animal of the Federal Republic, hangs in the plenary hall of the Bundestag. The imperial eagle and the imperial crown are symbols of the old German Empire and are not used. The Berlin flag is the symbol of the state of Berlin, not of the parliament.

The GDR was founded on 7 October 1949 and existed until its accession to the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990. 1933 to 1945 was the period of National Socialism, 1919 to 1933 the Weimar Republic, and 1945 to 1949 Germany was occupied by the Allies.

In 1990 five states acceded: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. There were no four, six or seven states at reunification; East Berlin was merged with the existing state of Berlin and was not a new federal state.

Today's borders have applied since reunification on 3 October 1990, when the five eastern states acceded. In 1949 the Federal Republic was founded within the borders of the western occupation zones, and in 1971 the Four Power Agreement on Berlin was concluded, which brought no change of borders; 1933 marks the beginning of Nazi rule.

On 27 January 1945 the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz extermination camp; since 1996 this day has been the official day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism in Germany. The end of the Second World War is commemorated on 8 May, the Basic Law was promulgated on 23 May 1949, and reunification is celebrated on 3 October.

The Schengen Agreement abolishes stationary identity checks at the internal borders between the participating states, so that travellers can move without passport checks. It does not apply to all countries in the world or to all countries in Europe, and it does not allow everyone to enter without any checks at all. The euro, moreover, is used only in the eurozone, not in every country.

Switzerland borders Germany in the south and is therefore a neighbouring country. Hungary, Portugal and Spain lie further away and share no border with Germany.

Poland borders Germany in the east and is a neighbouring country. Romania, Bulgaria and Greece lie in south-eastern Europe and share no border with Germany.

EU stands for European Union, the association of states to which Germany has belonged since 1993. The other expansions are not names of any existing organisation.

In Austria most people speak German, so there is a large German-speaking population there. In Czechia, Norway and Spain, German is not a widely spoken native language.

The flag of the European Union is blue and shows a circle of twelve golden stars; only Image 2 shows it. The other images show different flags, for example national flags or the German black-red-gold.

Denmark borders Schleswig-Holstein in the north and is a neighbour of Germany. Finland, Norway and Sweden lie in northern Europe and share no border with Germany.

The accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990 is called German reunification. NATO and EU eastern enlargement concern other states in eastern Europe, and "European Community" is the earlier name of the EU, not the name of this event.

Luxembourg borders Rhineland-Palatinate in the west and is a neighbour of Germany. Spain, Bulgaria and Norway share no border with Germany.

The European Parliament is directly elected every five years, most recently in 2024. Six, seven and eight years are not the electoral terms of the European Parliament.

European integration means the joining together of European states into a community from which today's EU emerged. The term has nothing to do with immigration or emigration, and it does not mean a stop to immigration to Europe either.

In the European elections, citizens elect the members of the European Parliament. The European Commission is not directly elected, decisions on EU accession are taken by the member states, and a European constitution never entered into force.

Czechia borders Saxony and Bavaria in the east and is therefore a neighbour of Germany. Bulgaria, Greece and Portugal lie further away and share no border with Germany.

The European Parliament has its official seat in Strasbourg, where the plenary sessions are held. London and Paris are not seats of the parliament, and Berlin is the seat of the German Bundestag.

The joint commemoration in Verdun stands for reconciliation between Germany and France and for the goal of securing peace and security in Europe. England was not involved in this meeting, and freedom of travel and uniform public holidays are different EU matters.

Since the United Kingdom left in 2020, the European Union has had a total of 27 member states. The figures 21 and 23 never existed, and the EU had 25 members only from 2004 to 2006.

The Treaties of Rome of 1957 founded the European Economic Community (EEC) and Euratom. Germany joined NATO in 1955, reparations were settled in other treaties, and the Oder-Neisse border was only definitively confirmed in 1990 in the treaty with Poland.

The European Parliament works in Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Brussels: the plenary meets in Strasbourg, committee meetings are held in Brussels, and the administration is based in Luxembourg. The other cities are not places where the parliament works.

In 1957 the Federal Republic was one of the founding states of the EEC, which was created by the Treaties of Rome. There are no "Hamburg Treaties"; the Paris and London Treaties of the 1950s concerned the end of the occupation statute and Western integration, not the EEC.

Euro cash has existed in Germany since 1 January 2002; before that, people paid with Deutschmarks. The euro was already introduced as book money in 1999, and by 2005 the cash had long been in circulation.