Social rituals

In Germany, the national celebrations are mainly corresponding to the Christian calendar with Easter or Christmas holidays for example. But the main celebration is on the 3rd of October with the German Unification Day, celebrating the unification of East and West Germany in 1990.

Moreover, the main German cultural event is the Oktoberfest starting on Saturday, 16 to 18 days before the first Sunday of October. Mainly happening in Bavaria, the Oktoberfest is a huge cultural and social gathering where people enjoy cultural activities. Even if it is also composed of many activities (such as concerts, games…) the key point of this event is the beer ! In fact, during these days, people from Germany and around the world, are drinking huge quantities of beer and activities are made around it. As an example, Oliver Strümpfel broke a world record by carrying 31 glasses of beer during this event !

Since I arrived in Berlin, I also noticed the following cultural elements:

·         Many Berliners are dressed in simple dark clothes; I’ve almost never seen people wearing clothes that catches the attention.

·         The well-known German desire for orderliness is not a legend and can be seen almost everywhere: The streets and the public transportations are looking way more clean than in France; everyone is respecting the traffic lights even when walking; a shop or an office is always respecting its opening hours and won’t close 10 minutes before…

·         Berliners are stoic people who could look a bit cold for foreigners. But the fact is that they don’t want to annoy you and they let you leave your life. But if you need them, they will help you when asking. As an example, I’ve lived in 3 different places and every time I was asking the owner about who the neighbor are; they always tell me that they don’t know each other !

·         German students are really direct when working in groups. If something doesn’t meet their expectations, they won’t be so diplomatic and will easily criticize someone’s work.

·         The German government is acting a lot against gender inequalities or other discriminations. Many adverts (especially on TV) contain the symbols of a community in order to represent it and avoid more discrimination by showing it every time in a suitable context. As a good consequence, Berliners are really open-minded and is willing to mix with everyone.  

Geopolitics

POLITICAL SYSTEM

Before the 9th of November 1918, Germany was ruled by the Prussian royal family. But at the end of the First World War, Kaiser Wilhelm II had to abdicate, for the Germany to become a republic even though the word “republic” wasn’t officially used before the end of the Second Word War. The Social Democrat Frank-Walter Steinmeier, elected in 2017, is currently the President.

Germany is a federal system made up of 16 states (called Länders) lead by Minister-Presidents. Each one of these states also have its own parliament. So the power in Germany is decentralized as the states have their own health and education system, police force and are responsible for some social issues. Moreover, every federal ministry have both an office in Berlin and in Bonn which were the capitals of East and West Germany during the Cold War. Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen are also city states. It gives them even more power than the 13 other Länders.

Every four years since 1949, national elections are held as well as State votes. In Germany, the mixed-member proportional representation system is used. It consists in having two votes, one for a candidate and another for a party. It permits to avoid a majority made up with one single party in parliament. So the two biggest parties (CDU and SPD) are looking for coalition partners in order to obtain the majority.

The parliament is divided in two houses: the Bundestag is the lower one in which directly elected politicians are drafting laws and the Bundesrat is the upper one. Its role is to approve the laws concerning state decisions or the constitution. The Bundestag is also responsible for electing the Chancellor who is proposed by the President within the lead candidate of each party (Spitzenkandidaten). 

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Germany is a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the G20, the G8, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It maintains relations with approximately 200 countries and has a major role in the European Union. At the end of the last century, Germany built strong relationships with many countries, mainly with France, but is also very close to the United States thanks to the interests and similarities that exist between the two countries. Moreover, since the last decades, they provide a lot of aid all around the world during conflicts or crisis.

The country is the 3^rd largest contributor to the budget of the United Nations by providing 8% and is also the largest for the European Union with 20%.