Geography

Germany is a large country in Central Europe, stretching from the Alps, across the North European Plain to the North Sea (Nordsee) and the Baltic Sea (Ostsee). It covers a total of 357,050 sq km, making it the 63rd largest country, after Japan, and approximately one and a half times the size of the UK.

Borders

It has a total of 2,389 km of coastline, and borders totalling 3,621 km (clockwise from north: Denmark 68 km, Poland 456 km, Czech Republic 646 km, Austria 784 km, Switzerland 334 km, France 451 km, Luxembourg 138 km, Belgium 167 km, Netherlands 577 km). The German-Austrian border crosses itself near Jungholz. The border with Belgium includes 5 German exclaves because the Vennbahn railway is on Belgian territory crossing in and out of Germany.

Terrain

4,750 sq km of the land area is irrigated, and 7,798 sq km is covered by water, the largest lakes being Lake Constance (total area of 536 sq km, with 62% of the shore being German; international borders are not defined on the lake itself), Müritz (117 sq km) and Chiemsee (80 sq km). The majority of Germany is covered by either arable land (33%) or forestry and woodland (31%). Only 15% is covered by permanent pastures.

The northern third of the country lies in the North European Plain, with flat terrain crossed by northward-flowing watercourses (Elbe, Ems, Weser, Oder). Wetlands and marshy conditions are found close to the Dutch border and along the Frisian coast. Sandy Mecklenburg in the northeast has many glacier-formed lakes dating to the last ice age.

Moving south, central Germany features rough and somewhat patternless hilly and mountainous countryside, some of it formed by ancient volcanic activity. The Rhine valley cuts through the western part of this region. The central uplands continue east and north as far as the Saale and merge with the Ore Mountains on the border with the Czech Republic. Upland regions include the Eifel and Hunsrück west of the Rhine, the Taunus hills north of Frankfurt, the Vogelsberghi massif, the Rhön, and the Thüringer Wald. South of Berlin, the east-central part of the country is more like the low northern areas, with sandy soil and river wetlands such as the Spreewald region.

Southern Germany's landforms are defined by various linear hill and mountain ranges. The Alps on the southern border are the largest, but relatively little Alpine terrain lies within Germany compared with Switzerland and Austria. The Black Forest, on the southwestern border with France, separates the Rhine from the headwaters of the Danube on its eastern slopes.

The Danube cuts across central Bavaria, relatively flat land, before curving to the southeast around the southern tip of the Bavarian Forest - another range on the border between Bavaria and the Czech Republic.

Rivers

The three main rivers in Germany are the Rhine (Rhein in German) with a German part of 865 km (main tributaries including the Neckar, the Main and the Moselle (Mosel)), the Elbe with a German part of 727 km (also drains into the North Sea), and the Danube (Donau) with a German part of 687 km. Further important rivers include the Weser River and the Ems.