Home of the “Beetle” : Germany

center of alternative energy produc- tion. Two thirds of the state’s total area is given over
to farming; the food industry produces a wide variety of delicacies . Nevertheless, Lowe Saxony cannot be
Classfied as an agricultural state: In addition to tradi- tional industries such as steel, chemicals and shipbuilding, it now also has thriving electronics and computer industries. The VWBeetle, made in Wolfs-burg, is the most frequently built car in the world; it still rolls off the line in Mexico. Volkswagen AG is the state’s biggest company and has manufactured more than 50 million automobiles in Lower Saxony to date. The Volkswagen Foundation is the largest non-governmental foundation for the promotion of science and scholarship in Germany. Schimmel pianos and Rollei cameras are made in Brunswick (253,000 inhabitants). Brunswick is also the home of the Federal Institute of Physics and Metrology, which determines the exact

Central European Time (CET) per radio signal. Video recorders and CD players are built in Peine and in Osterode. The firm MAN in Salzgitter manufactures trucks; Wilhelmshaven is the only German deepwater port for supertankers. The Transrapid magnetic levi-tation train is currently being tested in Emsland. Hanover, the state capital, is an industrial and service center. Each year the latest developments are presented at the Hanover Fair, the world’s largest industrial fair, and at “CeBIT”, the international fair for communications technology. At the turn of the millennium, Hanover will be the venue of the World Exposition EXPO 2000, which will have the theme “Humankind - Nature - Technology”. Natural gas from Lower Saxony satisfies one fifth of the Federal Republic’s requirement. Between the Ems and the Elbe rivers, the Lower Saxony Energy Agency is already exploring alternatives for the next millennium: electricity generated by wind power, solar power, landfill gas and animal excrement.