Germany: Friend Or Foe

6 Pages 1418 Words

Germany is Europe’s largest economy and most populous nation; it remains a key member of the continent’s economic, political, and defense organization. European power struggles absorbed 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 United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the beginning of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949, West and East Germany. West Germany (democratic) surrounded itself in key western economic and security organizations, the European Union and NATO. While East Germany (communist) was on the front line of the Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War allowed for Germany to unify in 1990. Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other European Union introduced a common European exchange currency called the Euro. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the important issues in Germany focusing on the type of government, economy, military, and foreign relations.
The government is a parliamentary and a democratic constitution emphasizes the protection of individual liberty and division of powers in a federal structure. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government. The duties of the president are largely ceremonial, the prime minister exercises executive power. The Bundestag is the principal chamber of the parliament. It elects the prime minister and cannot remove the prime minister from office during a 4 year term unless it has agreed on a successor. The president is elected every 5 years by the Federal Assembly, its only for this purpose, comprising the entire Bundestag and an equal number of state delegates. The Bundestag, which serves a 4 year term, consists of at least tw...