As Europe's largest economy and second most-populous nation (after Russia), Germany is a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany in two devastating world wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key western economic and security organizations, including the EC (now the EU) and NATO, while the communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War allowed German reunification to occur in 1990. Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring eastern productivity and wages up to western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.

German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR; established 1997) (2025)

Has one of Europe’s largest space programs and is a top contributor to the ESA; builds and operates satellites, satellite/space launch vehicles (SLVs), probes, and unmanned orbiters; researches and develops a range of capabilities and technologies, including reusable space planes, satellite payloads, rockets, propulsion-assisted landing technologies, and aeronautics; participates in EU and ESA programs, including the Cassini-Huygens research mission to Saturn, Mars and Venus exploration missions, and the Galileo global navigation satellite system; participates in ESA’s astronaut training program and human space flight operations; hosts the European Astronaut Center; participates in international programs such as the International Space Station (ISS) and the James Webb Space Telescope; hosts mission control centers for the ISS, the ESA, and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT); has ties to foreign space programs, including those of China, Japan, Russia, and the US; has a robust commercial space sector  (2025)