Germany

Australia's closest neighbour is Papua New Guinea. Other neighbouring countries are New Zealand and Indonesia.

Bismarck

Yes

The Munich Conference of 1938 was an agreement among France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Nazi Germany that allowed for the annexation of the Sudetenland, a section of land in western Czechoslovakia.

It's sometimes viewed negatively because the United Kingdom and France were accused of giving the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany so that Adolf Hitler would not provoke a large-scale war (thus appeasing him). The Munich Pact (Conference) is often viewed as a failed attempt at appeasement; some even see it as another event that escalated the tensions between the future Allied Powers and the future Axis Powers of World War II.

both

The only countries to share a border with Germany are Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland.

cucko clocks

According to the 2011 census, 50 million (61 per cent) Germans identified as Christians, while other statistics indicate that the real proportion of Christians is now less than 50 per cent. Substantially less than 10 per cent of the total population attend churches on Sundays.

Initially, because of their role in World War 2. Later, the vested interests of some of the existing members also played a part.

German occupation of Paris began on June 14, 1940.

Rome is not in Germany, it is in Italy.

Initially there was some chaos, as Germany went through a revolution- there was a huge military mutiny going on, the Kaiser fled, and no new government had formed. Not only that, Communists were trying to take control of the country, as had happened in Russia about a year earlier. This resulted in bloody street battles between the Communists and right-wing militias called "Freikorps".

However, some officials from the Kaiser's old regime met in the city of Weimar and created a republic, which would be called the Weimar Republic. The Republic had elected leaders, and their system worked pretty similar to how the British system works- except instead of having a Queen, Germany had a "President" who was the symbolic leader of the country; the person who runs the government was called "Chancellor", and still is to this day.

The Weimar Republic was Germany's first attempt at democracy, and was immediately met with problems. Their system of government needed political parties to work together to get things done; however, there were many parties and they often refused to work together. Eventually things got so bad that President Hindenburg had to use his special emergency powers to issue executive orders, which forced the government to do things it needed to do. This was very undemocratic though, and made the Republic look very weak. Economic problems, especially those caused by the result of World War I and then the Great Depression, further exacerbated this weakness.

The Republic lasted until Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party were able to take control and wipe away any sense of "democracy". By 1935, the Weimar Republic had virtually ceased to exist, replaced by Hitler's dictatorial "Third Reich".

Yes, the two countries share a long land border.

The largest German city, closest to Trier, is Saarbrücken, with a population of more than 176,000 and the capital of the German state of the Saarland.

about 1,5 hours by car

When I attended U of M, '67-'69, at McGraw there were two out the gate to the right, the smaller was Fischer's, the larger I do not remember. The one out of the gate to the left was called the Blue Room. I drank plenty of beer at all. At 25 cents a liter, why not.

Jerry, Baumholder 1967 and U of M Munich 1967-1969

I was there '69-'71. I remember the Blue Room. There was another across the street the other direction which I think we call the Elbow Room. The Blue Room had the best Farmer's Omelets whcch were great way to end all nighter writing papers.

Here's a link to a photo of the Blue Room from around 1970. http://www.flickr.com/photos/orpost/2254180634/

George Brett UMD-Munich 69-71

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the German name for the blue room was "transtiener stubel" and we called the one further down on the left "joe"s bar"

Gary Ferguson 1962- 1963

The Blue Room was Lukulu's gasthaus. David Roberts 30th Army Band 1975-1967. The owner Bobbie let me run a tab.

Yes. The German Chancellor is, indeed, a publicly elected official.

Owen Hargreaves, Mark Hughes

i don't know, i was looking for this too but it end up telling me to write ,sorry if i angered you

Big dummy

The correct term is "stollen", pronounced almost shtollen, and it is the shortened form of Christstollen. It is a sweet yeast bread, packed with fruit, sometimes nuts, and sometimes with a band of marzipan.

The Rhineland was is a part of Germany.

There is a German state Rhineland-Palatinate.

The northern part of this state is the Rhineland and further north, up to the region around cologne is the Rhineland.

Germany is a country*. It is in the continent of Europe.

It refers to the paragraph of the German Criminal Code that made homsexual acts illegal. It has been repealed.