GERMANY TODAY INTRODUCTION

Here, Deep in the heart of Europe, is reunited Germany - a country full of attractions. Delightful countryside, towns and cities with an abundance of historic buildings and art treasures, romantic monasteries and churches, places, castles, town walls, gates and towers and a wide and varied range of relaxing leisure-time amenities.

In The North, along the shores of the North Sea and Baltic, is a contrast between mile upon mile sandy beaches interposed with steep cliffs. There are numerous offshore islands and beyond them countless inland lakes set amidst the delightful undulating hills of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg. Here, too, are the city states of Bremen and Hamburg as well as Berlin which, as the new capital of the Federal Republic, is now a greater source of attraction than ever before.

To the South of the North German Plain are the regions of medium-altitude mountains - North Rhine-Westphalia, Hessen, Thuringia, Sachsen-Anhalt and Saxony. These mountain which, together with the frequently deeply indented valleys of the great rivers, from areas of superb scenic beauty, continue into the Rhineland-Palatinate, the Saarland, Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria until, south of the Danube, comes the series of lakes extending along the northern edge of the Alps from Lake Constance in the west to the Chiemsee in the east and, beyond them, the Alpine peaks themselves, marking Germany's southern limits.

The many cities are cultural centres where opera-houses, concert halls, theatres, interesting museums and galleries rival the allurement of elegant shops and the culinary delights to be enjoyed in the many different types of restaurants. The hotel and catering trades in the western federal are designed to meet the most exacting demands, and every effort is being made in the new states in the east to equal this standard.

The Regions of Germany

NORTHEN GERMANY Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, The Free Hansatic City of Hamburg, The Free Hansatic City of Bremen, Lower Saxony	WESTERN GERMANY Saarland, North-Rhine/Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate	EASTERN GERMANY Brandenburg Berlin The Free State of Saxony
CENTRAL GERMANY Hessen, Thuringia, Sachsen-Anhalt	SOUTH GERMANY Baden-Wurttemberg, The Free State of Baveria