On account of its central location, Germany provides an important link between all parts of Europe. The unification on 3 October 1990 meant that Germany became the most populated Member State in the European Community, with 80 million inhabitants.
At the end of the Second World War in 1945 Germany was divided into four zones, from which the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic emerged in 1949. Berlin had special status and in practice was divided into East and West Berlin. The Saarland joined the Federal Republic in 1957 following a referendum. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, the division of Germany was finally ended on 3 October 1990 when the five newly established Bundesländer in the former GDR became subject to the Basic Law, and Berlin was reunited to form a Bundesland.
The Basic Law sets out the division of responsibility between the Federal Government and the Länder, with a strong emphasis on the principle of subsidiarity. The 16 Länder are subdivided into Regierungsbezirke (administrative divisions), which are in turn divided into Kreise (Landkreise and kreisfreie Städte). Next come the Gemeinden (municipalities), some of which have combined to form Gemeindeverbände (municipal associations).
There are wide differences at all levels of this regional structure. For example, the population of the smallest Bundesland is just under 700 000, whereas that of the largest is over 18 million. The largest municipality has a population of 3.4 million and the smallest has only four (Wiedenborstel - Kreis Steinburg in Schleswig-Holstein).
The Federal Republic has a few, albeit minor, administrative peculiarities. The North Sea island of Helgoland is a duty-free area; the small municipality of Büsingen on the Upper Rhine is a German enclave which lies in Swiss territory and comes under the Swiss customs area; and finally Kleinwalsertal in the Allgäu Alps, with a population of around 5 000, is part of the German customs area but is in Austrian territory.
