Germany – 125 Years of Automobile 2011 F Silver 10 Euro 32mm (14.05 grams) 0.625 Silver (0.3215 oz. ASW) Reference: KM# 296a 10 EURO F 2011 BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND, Heraldic Eagle. 125 JAHRE AUTOMOBILE JT, Hand on steering wheel. Edge Lettering: WAS UNS BEWEGT
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The automotive industry in Germany is one of the largest employers in the world, with a labor force of over 857,336 (2016) working in the industry.
Being home to the modern car, the German automobile industry is regarded as the most competitive and innovative in the world, and has the third highest car production in the world, and fourth highest total motor vehicle production. With an annual output close to six million and a 31.5% share of the European Union (2017),
German-designed cars won in the European Car of the Year, the International Car of the Year, the World Car of the Year annual awards the most times among all countries. The Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 911 took 4th and 5th places in the Car of the Century award.
Early History
Motor-car pioneers Karl Benz (who later went on to start Mercedes-Benz) and Nikolaus Otto developed four-stroke internal combustion engines in the late 1870s, with Benz fitting his design to a coach in 1887, which led to the modern day motor car. By 1901, Germany was producing about 900 cars a year. In 1926, Daimler-Benz was formed from the predecessor companies of Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler and produced cars under the marque of Mercedes-Benz. In 1916 BMW was founded, but didn’t start auto production until 1928.
American economist Robert A. Brady extensively documented the rationalization movement that shaped German industry in the 1920s, and although his general model of the movement applied to the automotive industry, the sector was in poor health in the later years of the Weimar Republic. Germany’s slow development of the industry left the market open for major American auto manufacturers such as General Motors who took over German company Opel in 1929, and the Ford Motor Company which maintained the successful German subsidiary Ford-Werke, beginning in 1925.
The collapse of the global economy during the Great Depression in the early 1930s plunged Germany’s auto industry into a severe crisis. While eighty-six auto companies had existed in Germany during the 1920s, barely twelve survived the depression, including Daimler-Benz, Opel and Ford’s factory in Cologne. In addition, four of the country’s major car manufacturers – Horch, Dampf Kraft Wagen (DKW), Wanderer and Audi – formed a joint venture known as the Auto Union in 1932, which was to play a leading role in Germany’s comeback from the depression.
The turnabout for the German motor industry came about in the mid 1930s following the election of the Nazi Party to power. The Nazis instituted a policy known as Motorisierung [de] (“motorization”), a transport policy which Adolf Hitler himself considered a key element of attempts to legitimise the Nazi government by raising the people’s standard of living. In addition to development and extensions of major highway schemes (which saw the completion of the first Autobahn in 1935), the Volkswagen project was also conceived to design and construct a robust but inexpensive “people’s car”, the product of which was the Volkswagen Beetle, launched in 1937. A new city (known as Wolfsburg from 1945) was developed around the factory to house its huge workforce.
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany is a federal parliamentary republic in western-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 81 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 CE. 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.
The rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states in 1871 into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918-1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The establishment of the Third Reich in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After 1945, Germany split into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990, the country was reunified.
In the 21st century, Germany is a great power and has the world’s fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the fifth-largest by PPP. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world’s third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a developed country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled and productive society. It upholds a social security and universal health care system, environmental protection and a tuition free university education.
Germany was a founding member of the European Union in 1993. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999. Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world. Known for its rich cultural history, Germany has been continuously the home of influential artists, philosophers, musicians, sportsmen, entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors.
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