Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany, Bundesrepublik Deutschland in German) is a country situated in Central Europe. It borders Denmark to the North, Poland and the Czech Republic to the East, Austria and Switzerland to the South and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the West. It covers the total area of 357,021 square km and has population of about 82,217,800 inhabitants. The official language is German.

The capital and the largest city is Berlin. It has population of about 3,400,000 inhabitants (about 5,000,000 people including Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan area). Since the 13th century Berlin was first the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, then Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. After the Second World War it was divided into communist East Berlin, which became the capital of GDR, and West Berlin, which in fact was an enclave surrounded by the Berlin Wall. The city of Berlin was united in 1990 and became the capital of the whole Germany.

Country’s landscapes are rather diverse and vary from the lowlands of the Northern region to the uplands of central Germany and the Alps on the South (the highest point is the Zugspitze having 2,962 meters of altitude). The majority of Germany’s territory has a temperate seasonal climate. The climate of the areas neighbouring the North Sea is immensely affected by the rather warm North Atlantic Drift, the northern extension of the Gulf Stream. In the East of the country the climate becomes more continental.

As winters in Germany are rather cold and snowy, especially in mountainous regions of the country, winter sports are very popular there. There are more than 400 ski resorts in Germany providing a wide range of skiing possibilities – from easy downhill pistes of Hartz to the Olympic level slopes of the Zugspitz. The most popular German ski resorts are situated in the Bavarian Alps where ski season lasts from December to March.