1. Germany’s Physical Geography
South - Alps Mountains
Center – Plateaus
North – N. European Plain
Danube & Rhine River
Humid continental climate

2. Germany’s Economy Farming – livestock, grain, vegetables, fruit
Manufacturing & trade
Industry – iron, lignite coal, steel, chemicals, textiles
Auto industry – BMW, Volkswagon, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes
Autobahn - superhighways

3. Germany’s Government
Federal republic – national & state government share powers
Chancellor Angela Merkel – 1st woman to lead Germany (since 2005)
Most powerful woman in the world!

4. Germany’s Culture Language: German Population: 80 million
Food: Sausage, rye bread, beer
Religion: half Catholic, half Protestant
Famous musicians:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Ludwig van Beethoven
Second most populous in Europe – after Russia’s 142 million

5. Germany’s Black Forest & Schloss Neuschwanstein

6. Fun Facts about Germany:
Oktoberfest – yearly festival in Munich
Originally to celebrate a royal marriage
Food, beer, music, games, horse races

7. Koln (Cologne) Cathedral
2nd largest cathedral in the world

8. “Fighting” the Cold War in Germany
After WWII, Germany was divided into occupation zones managed by France, the UK, USA, & the Soviet Union
The Berlin Airlift, 1948
France, G.B. & USA merged their zones into West Germany
was democratic & independent!
The Soviet Union protested
by blockading (cutting off
access to) Berlin
Allies flew in 2 million tons
of food, medicine, & coal
for 11 months
Germany was split into
East & West Germany and
East & West Berlin
Berlin Blockade – story about candy drops

9. “Fighting” the Cold War in Germany
The Berlin Wall
Built around West Berlin to keep East Germans from pouring into West Berlin to escape communism
Lasted almost 30 yrs!
Heavily patrolled by Soviet soldiers on the East’s side
When the Berlin wall was starting to be constructed is consisted mainly of barbed wire and armed guards. It did not take much time for the wall to be fortified. After it was done the wall was 107 km long and 4 m high in most places. It was constructed with a concrete wall with a concrete tube placed on top. On the East Berlin side was a lighted control area. Anyone who reached this area were shot on sight, without warning. This is where most people were caught. Then moving away from the control area toward East Berlin was a deep trench to prevent vehicles from breaking through the wall. In front of this was a patrol track that had attack dogs, bunkers, and guard towers. Finally there was a second, smaller wall. In total the wall cut through 192 streets.

10. Escaping East Berlin Tunnel Escapes
In an attempt to escape and gain access to West Berlin a large network of tunnels were built. They were dug mostly by college students but many people used them. The first known successful tunnel was dug in a grave yard. People brought flowers to a grave and pretended to mourn. Then they would drop out of sight and would never be seen on that side of the wall again. This tunnel was found after a women accidentally dropped into the tunnel and left her baby in a carriage on top. The tunnel was then sealed off. The most successful tunnel was in a basement of a house at 60 Westerstrasse. There were 29 people freed from this location alone.
Flying over the Wall
Some people even tried to fly over the wall. The families of Wetzels and Strlzycks bought small amounts of nylon cloth. The buying of the cloth secretly and in small amounts didn't raise any suspicion. When they had enough cloth they sewed it together to form a hot air balloon. They had just enough fuel to get in the air and just floated over the wall. They reached West Berlin in a few hours. Due to this attempt the purchase of light weight cloth was strictly controlled.
Climbing over the Wall
At first a large number of people were climbing over the wall with little trouble. The government in East Berlin then outlawed the sale of rope and twine. One of the most well know people who tried to get over was Peter Fetcher, age 18, who tried to climb over the wall on August 17, He was shot and left to bleed to death. This caused a outcry from the press throughout the world. Over 5,000 people tried to escape by climbing over the wall. About 100 died in the process, most were shot. The last person to get killed trying to climb the wall was Chris Gueffroy.
Artist Renate Hagen escaped East Berlin in a loudspeaker box as her musician husband drove her across the border. A guard admired the speaker and said, "That's very nice what you've got there.”
This Volkswagen 1200 served as an escape vehicle for 55 courageous East Germans. A dummy model shows how they squeezed in

11. Fall of the Berlin Wall
Nov. 9, 1989 – Government weakened & guards opened the gates
People flooded into West Berlin

12. What effect did the division of Germany have on the country?
Reunification has been a challenge – the East is way behind in technology and industry.

13. The Alpine Countries: Austria, Switzerland, & Liechtenstein
Physical Geography
The Alps
The Matterhorn 
Eastern lowlands in Austria
Continental divide in Switzerland

14. Switzerland A stable democratic government for 700 years
made up of 26 cantons (states)
Has been neutral during all wars since 1515
Geneva & Zurich - important international cities
Capital: Bern
Population: 8 million
4 national languages!
German, French, Italian, & Romansch

15. Switzerland’s Economy
Hydroelectric power
Very few natural resources, so imports raw materials to make high-quality products
cheese, chocolate, clocks, jewelry, microscopes
Banking & finance
Tourism – skiing & hiking in the Alps

16. Austria’s Economy Hydroelectric power Lumber Tourism in the Alps
Agriculture
Some natural resources
Strip mining – strip away the earth’s surface to get at resources

17. Austria’s Culture Population: 9 million Religion: mostly Catholic
Language – German
Mozart, Schubert, Hayden
Vienna Boys Choir
Very high standard of living