``IN Germany one breathes in love of order with the air...''
From the 1900 novel Three Men on the Bummel by English writer Jerome K. Jerome
Tree-clad gorges and dramatic river views of Bad Schandau, in the Bastesti region
© AA Photo Library
Germany is not easily summed up. Before 1871 there was no single, unified German state: the area was made up of several territories, loosely knit together in alliance. Their local languages and loyalties still have first claim on many Germans' hearts. After World War II, the country was split between two opposed powers: the West, whose territory was known as the Federal Republic of Germany; and the Soviets, who created the German Democratic Republic (G.D.R.). In 1989, faced with popular protests and a retreating Soviet authority, the G.D.R.'s government opened the Berlin Wall, which had divided the city's eastern and western zones since 1961. A year later the country was reunited, and a new Germany was born. But within its unified political boundaries, this is still a nation of diversity, where the people and cultures vary as dramatically as the landscapes.
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