Index
People in Baden-Wurttemberg are not keen to talk in superlatives, even though the state continually sets records. The region around Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Tübingen is one of those in the EU where the most research is conducted. Baden-Wurttemberg is the German leader for patent registrations in terms of population, and famed for its inventors, such as Gottlieb Daimler, Carl Benz and Robert Bosch. Not only companies such as Bosch, Daimler, Porsche and Boss, but also small and medium-sized businesses such as Fischer (dowels), Stihl (saws) and Würth (screws) export their goods worldwide. Yet here, there is more to life than just work: Nowhere else in the country do so many starred chefs ply their trade. And the local wines are so good as to be an inside tip.
Capital: Stuttgart
Population: 11.280.257
Surface area: 35,751 km2
Once a year, during the Berlinale film festival, the world of the silver screen focuses its attention on Berlin. And the city’s inhabitants are used to global interest. After all, the people of Berlin have lived in a capital city since 1458. However, there is also a shady side to the city’s history: the rule of the National Socialists and the East German regime, which built a wall right through the heart of the city. Since German unification in 1990, Berlin has once again been the undivided capital city. The Museum Island, the Berlin Philharmonic and more than 50 theaters ensure the city is unique in terms of cultural life. The “academic capital” boasts 39 universities and institutes of higher education, while also being home to businesses such as Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, while ITB, the worlds leading travel trade show, accentuates the slogan “Berlin is worth seeing”.
Capital: Berlin
Population: 3,866,385
Surface area: 892 km2
The Federal Government and cabinet is made up of the Federal Chancellor and the Federal Ministers. While the Chancellor holds the power to issue directives, the ministers have departmental powers, meaning that they independently run their respective ministries in the framework of those directives. Moreover, the cabinet abides by the collegial principle, in disputes the Federal Government decides by majority. The affairs of state are managed by the Chancellor.
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft conducts applied research. Clients include industrial companies and service providers as well as the public sector. More than 30,000 employees are involved in generating the annual research volume of 3 billion euros. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft operates 76 institutes and research facilities in Germany, as well as cooperating with independent foreign organisations in Europe, North and South America and Asia.
In the city and state of Hamburg it is the port that is the power-house of the economy, though with Airbus, Otto Versand and Beiersdorf also located here, this is not immediately apparent. The tanker terminals, mean that almost all the major oil-refining companies are represented in the port. For pleasure-seekers, there is the entertainment district of St. Pauli. Yet Hamburg’s reputation as a media and science center is of greater importance to its inhabitants. The need for culture is satisfied by renowned institutes such as the Kunsthalle and more than 30 theaters – including the state opera company with world ballet star John Neumeier. On a national basis Hamburg leads the way when it comes to musicals, which every month bring thousands of visitors thronging to the city.
Capital: Hamburg
Population: 1,892,122
Surface area: 755 km2
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation was founded in 1860 and today promotes academic collaboration between excellent foreign and German researchers. Every year it enables 2,000 international researchers to spend time working in Germany and maintains a worldwide network of some 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in over 140 countries – including 61 Nobel Prize winners.
The Max Planck Society was founded on 26 February 1948 – as the successor to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften, established in 1911. The 85 Max Planck institutes conduct basic research in the natural, biological and social sciences and in the humanities. The Max Planck Society founded along with partner universities the Max Planck Research Schools with their international focus. The Max Planck Society employs a total of 24,000 staff (2015), around 60 percent of them work in scientific disciplines.
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The German federal state is a complex entity. It consists of a central Federal Government and 16 federal states. The Basic Law lays out which issues fall within the ambit of the Federal Government and which devolve to the federal states. As such the federal system in Germany is similar to that of other federal countries. Public life in Germany is predominantly based on central laws. In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity citizens, on the other hand, deal almost exclusively with state and local authorities acting on behalf of the federal states. The reason for this is the aim of the Basic Law to combine the advantages of a unified state with those of a federal state. In everyday life the citizens of other federal states have far more frequent dealings with representatives of central government.
The Basic Law stipulates that it be possible to compare living conditions throughout Germany. Essentially these are determined by economic and social policy. With regard to financial policy the German constitution accords the federal states considerable leeway in the financing of their duties. All high-revenue taxes are decreed by law, though this needs the approval of the Bundesrat, which represents the states at federal level. Part of these taxes goes to central government alone or to the federal states and another part, including the particularly lucrative taxes, is divided up between central government and the federal states. To this extent the German federal state resembles a centralized state. Nonetheless it is the federal states that control the major part of pan-state administration. This means that federalist elements dominate the state administrative systems. First, its own administrative system enforces the laws that apply in that particular state. In addition they also execute most central laws. Given the large number of duties passed down from central government to the federal states several of them have, in the past, had to take on enormous debts. In 2009 an amendment was made to the constitution forbidding them to raise further loans as of 2020 and limiting the amount of new debts central government can take on from 2016 – with a proviso for economic crisis situations – to a maximum of 0.35 percent of the gross domestic product (the debt ceiling).
There are three pan-state functions the individual federal states exercise on their own: schooling and tertiary education, internal security, including policing, as well as the organization of local self-government. Thanks to the wide-ranging rights pertaining to guaranteed participation they enjoy in the Bundesrat, the federal states receive a form of compensation for the fact that central government is the primary body determining legislation.