On the other hand, the German Democratic Republic in the east allied itself with the Soviet Union and the other members of the Warsaw Pact and became a socialist follower of the Soviet Bloc. Right before the fall of the iron curtain, and the ending of the cold war, on a very joyful day for Germans in 1990, the two states were reunified with the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Since then, Germany has developed and prospered greatly and in January of 2002 Germany and 11 other nations from the forming European Union integrated themselves economically by adopting the use of a common currency; The Euro.
Quite contrary to the common stereotypes, German people are not really that tall. In fact the average German is 174.5cm, which is 1cm shorter then the average American. The average age of Germans has been shifting lately, with a decreasing growth rate that now hovers around .26%. Germany's average age is increasing and less people are being born then are dying. The age breakdown looks something like this:.
0-14 years: 15.4%.
15-64 years: 67.6%.
65 years and over: 17%.
With a 8.99/1000 birthrate and a 10.36/1000 deathrate (Cia.gov, 2002), only the small amount of foreign-born immigrants that come to Germany each year are keeping the population growth rate in the positive. Germany has even been considering performing a 180-degree turn on their current immigration policy by passing legislation to allow orderly immigration of highly skilled foreigners into the country. Anti-foreigner sentiment is high with the right-of-center Christian Democratic Union, the dominating political party in Germany, but it seems pragmatism will prevail and the legislation will pass regardless. If not, Germany's population has been predicted to drop from 86 to 60 million in the next 50 years without new immigration legislation, this would mean economic disaster for the country. After years of only allowing immigrants with German Ancestry to enter the country, Germany is finally upgrading its policy.