Germany's economic success since World War II is to a large extent built on its potent export industries, fiscal discipline and consensus-driven industrial relations and welfare policies. It is particularly famed for its high-quality and high-tech goods.
Germany's export-dependent economy was initially hit hard by the global financial crisis of 2008-9, which triggered the worst recession since 1949. But by 2010, its exports had helped the country to rebound more robustly than most other EU members.
However, an ageing population has led to concern over the continued viability of Germany's high welfare and health spending. There is also a debate about how to improve integration of the many post-war immigrants whose labour helped fuel the economic boom.
In addition, what was once the German Democratic Republic, the former Soviet-dominated east, has struggled to catch up with the more affluent west after reunification, while people in west had to pay a higher than expected financial price.
The pain of Germany's Nazi-era history remains a sensitive element in the country's collective modern-day psyche. Out of the devastation of World War II grew an awareness of the need to guard against any such catastrophe recurring on the continent.
In the 1950s Germany was one of the six founding nations in the original European Economic Community from which the European Union was eventually to develop and in which Germany is a key player. Franco-German cooperation was central to European economic integration in the 1980s and 90s.
After decades of lagging behind its economic strength, Germany's international profile has been growing. The country sent peacekeepers to the Balkans and its forces have been involved in operations in Afghanistan.
The country has famous beer brewing traditions. Beer purity laws dating back to 1516 limit the fermentation ingredients to malted grain, hops, yeast and water.
As the birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, among others, Germany's gift to European classical music is colossal, while Goethe, Heine, Kant and Thomas Mann are giants in the world of letters and philosophy.
(BBC)
(BBC)
President: Christian Wulff
Christian Wulff was elected as Germany's 10th post-war president in July 2010 to replace Horst Koehler, who resigned after he appeared to suggest German troops abroad were defending Berlin's economic interests.
Mr Wulff, 51 at the time of his election, was once seen as possible future chancellor. He became premier of the northern state of Lower Saxony in 2003 and was re-elected in 2008. He kept his standing in the dominant Christian Democrats (CDU) after leaving his wife of 18 years to marry a press spokeswoman.
The post of president is largely ceremonial.
Chancellor: Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel, Germany's first female chancellor, swept back to power in general elections in September 2009.
Mrs Merkel, leader of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), first took office in an 2005. As a result of the vote's close result, she became chancellor in a "grand coalition" involving the CDU, its Christian Social Union (CSU) allies and the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
In 2009, her party secured another four-year mandate with enough votes to dump the previous awkward coalition with the SPD in favour of an alliance with the smaller, pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).
The coalition faced the tough challenge of dealing with the fallout from the 2008 global economic crisis. Mrs Merkel won plaudits for her calm handling of the situation, and in 2009, Forbes magazine put her at the top of its list of the world's 100 most powerful women for the fourth year in a row.
However, her ability to weather a storm was put to an even more severe test once the full scale of the crisis in the eurozone began to emerge early in 2010.
As one of the richer countries in the EU, Germany was faced with the prospect of having to make huge contributions to bailouts for debt-ridden countries such as Greece, and popular resentment over this triggered a political backlash at home.
In May 2010, Mrs Merkel's coalition lost a key regional vote, and with it her majority in the powerful upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat. The following March, her party also lost the key state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, traditionally a CDU stronghold.
During her first term in office, Mrs Merkel steered a centrist course at home and earned a reputation as a talented mediator at the international level. She became leader of the CDU in 2000 after Helmut Kohl was brought down by a party funding scandal.
She was born in Hamburg in 1954 but grew up in East Germany where her father was a Protestant clergyman. She holds a doctorate in physics.
She divorced her first husband Ulrich Merkel in 1982 and has been married to publicity-shy chemistry professor Joachim Sauer since 1998. She has no children.
(BBC)