Germany

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tensive passenger and freight rail system played a major role in German economic development. Most of the railroads were government-owned until 1993, when legislation was approved to privatize them. They are now under private ownership as Bundesbahn A.G. High-speed intercity lines serve major German cities such as Hamburg and Munich, Frankfurt and Dresden, and Hannover and Bremen.
Germany has major navigable inland waterways and canals. The canals, such as the Mittellandkanal, supplement the traffic routes of the major rivers; some canals, such as the Kiel Canal and the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, connect major bodies of water. Duisburg, Magdeburg, Mannheim, and Berlin are large inland ports, and Hamburg, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Emden, Lübeck, Rostock, and Stralsund are major seaports. An extensive underground pipeline system conveys crude oil, petroleum products, and natural gas.
Several international airports, including Frankfurt and Munich, and many regional airports, serve air transportation of passengers and goods. There are 660 airports, including 13 major ones. Germany's principal airline, Deutsche Lufthansa A.G., was formerly operated by the government but is now privately owned.


Energy
German industrial development in the 19th century was fueled by coal. The use of coal declined in the 1970s and 1980s. However, East German brown coal remained important in the 1990s for electricity production and as fuel, despite being a major source of air pollution. Oil and natural gas and hydroelectric power were only a small source of electrical energy, but were major energy sources for heating and manufacturing.
German dependence on petroleum imports, the oil crisis of the 1970s, and an expanding appetite for more energy shifted attention to the potential of nuclear energy. By the mid-1980s, 19 nuclear plants were supplying 36 percent of the public electricity needs in West Germany, and more plants were in the planning stage. Followi...