Germans

Germans (German: Deutsche) are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history, and speak the German language as their native language. Alternatively, Germans are those who live or were born in Germany.

The English term Germans has historically referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages. Before the collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany in 1990, Germans constituted the largest divided nation in Europe by far. Ever since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, German society has been characterized by a Catholic-Protestant divide.

Of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, roughly 80 million consider themselves Germans. There are an additional 80 million people of German ancestry mainly in the United States, Brazil (mainly in the South Region of the country), Argentina, Canada, South Africa, the post-Soviet states (mainly in Russia and Kazakhstan), and France, each accounting for at least 1 million. Thus, the total number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied (native speakers, single-ancestry ethnic Germans, partial German ancestry, etc.).

Germany

Coordinates: 51°N 9°E / 51°N 9°E / 51; 9

Germany (/ˈdʒɜːrməni/; German: Deutschland [ˈdɔʏtʃlant]), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland,  listen ), is a federal parliamentary republic in West-Central Europe. It includes 16 constituent states and covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi) with a largely temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Berlin. With about 81.5 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state in the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular migration destination in the world.

Various Germanic tribes have occupied northern Germany since classical antiquity. A region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation.

West Germany

West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland or BRD) in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. This period is referred to as the Bonn Republic (German: Bonner Republik) by academic historians, an earlier term being the Bonn State (German: Bonner Staat).

During this period NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border. After 1961, West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states, became known simply as "Germany".

The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France (the "Western Zones"). Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990. The city of Bonn was its de facto capital city (Berlin was symbolically named the de jure capital city in the West German Basic Law). The fourth Allied occupation zone (the East Zone, or Ostzone) was held by the Soviet Union. The parts of this zone lying east of the Oder-Neisse were in fact annexed by the Soviet Union and communist Poland; the remaining central part around Berlin became the communist German Democratic Republic (abbreviated GDR; in German Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR) with its de facto capital in East Berlin. As a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic.

Germany (horse)

Germany (9 May 1991 - December 2013) was a German Thoroughbred racehorse who won 9 of his 17 starts including 2 Group 1's in which he was ridden Frankie Dettori.

Background

Germany was a bay horse with black socks sired by 1987 the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Trempolino, who was bred in United States and bought as a yearling for $70,000 by the British trainer Ben Hanbury on behalf of Jaber Abdullah at the 1992 Keeneland September sales. He was trained by Bruno Schütz and was raced almost all of his career in Germany with an exception of the 1995 British Champion Stakes in which he failed to give his running on the good to firm ground.

Racing career

Germany raced only 4 times in his first 2 seasons and acquired his black type as a 2yo when winning the Kronimus-Rennen listed race in 1993 over a distance of 7 furlongs but was forced into a long absence having sustained a fracture in his off-fore.

He made his reappearance at four year old and was campaigned over middle distance races winning his first 2 starts in listed and group 3 events in the 1995 spring before adding couple more top level wins in the summer including the Group 1's Bayerisches Zuchtrennen and Grosser Preis von Baden, in the latter beating by 8 lengths in 3rd spot the Irish group performer Right Win who had shown great form in previous 2 seasons winning the Group 2 Gallinule Stakes when ridden by jockey Lester Piggott and Group 1 Gran Premio d'Italia. Germany's last and 8th start of the season was in the British Champion Stakes where after a long campaign and standard of opposition better than on home soil he could not finish in the placings.