Area: 356,954 sq km (137,820 sq ml).
Population: 81,912,000.
Currency: 1 Deutschmark = 100 Pfennige.
Religions: Protestant 47% Roman Catholic 43%.
Ethnic Groups: German 93% Turkish 2.3% Others 4.7%.
Language: German.
The whole of northern Germany, through which run the Weser, the Elbe, and smaller rivers, is set in the North European Plain. The Rhine Basin encompasses some of the most beautiful landscape and best wine-growing regions in Europe. Towards the east, this consists of morainic hills containing fertile soil. More than a quarter of the whole of Germany is covered with forest. Among the major ranges of the mid-German highlands are the Teutoburger Wald, the Harz Mountains, the Sauerland, Westerwald, and Taunusgebirge. In the west are the Ruhr coalfields, while in the east there are large lignite deposits, Southward the ground gradually rises to the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), and the Swabian Jura, with dense pine forests and moorland, and potash, salt, and other minerals. In Baveria, further south, the land becomes rugged. Here are patches of mountain pasture and lakes; to the east is the deep Danube Valley.