Natural Features : Germany

The Federal Republic of Germany is situated in the heart of Europe. It has nine neighbors: Denmark in the north, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France in the west, Switzerland and Austria in the south, and the Czech Republic as well as Poland in the east. This central location has been more pronounced since 3 October 1990, when Germany was reunited. The Federal Republic is more than ever a link between East and West, but also between Scandinavia and the Mediterranean. As an integral part of the European Union and NATO, Germany is a bridge to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The Federal Republic of Germany covers an area of about 357,000 square kilometers. The longest distance from north to south as the crow flies is 876 kilometers, from west to east 640 kilometers. Its extremities are List on the island of Sylt in the north, Deschka, Saxony, in the east, Oberstdorf, Bavaria, in the south, and Self-kant, North Rhine-Westphalia, in the west. The total length of the country’s borders is 3,758 kilometers.
Germany has a population of about 82.0 million, the largest in Europe after the Russian Federation, followed by the United Kingdom (58.7 million), France (58.3 million) and Italy (57.3 million). In size, however, Germany is smaller than France (544,000 square kilometers) and Spain (505,000 square kilometers).