Germany enjoys a central location in Europe. It marks a transition from west Europe to east Europe. Climatically this means a gradual change from the equable and wet oceanic climate of Western Europe to that of Eastern Europe. The latter is marked by its dry and extreme or continental type of climate. It also marks a transition from the cold north to the warm south.
Germany is surrounded by as many as nine countries. Barring its southern part is mostly a plain level land. It has a mountainous frontier only with two southern neighbors –Switzerland and Austria. Its frontiers with all other countries pass through level lowlands, at best marked by meandering rivers. This explains why central Europe is called a region of ever changing political boundaries and makes Germany a country of shrinking and expanding frontiers.
Germany divided into three physical divisions. They are
- the northern lowlands
- the central uplands
- the rugged Bavarian
The north lowlands
They extend from Netherlands in the west to Poland in the east. They are covered with sand, gravel pebbles left behind by retreating ice sheets of the distant past. The rivers flow across the plains from south to north. They fall into the North Sea in the North West sand the Baltic Sea in the North West Sea. Name the river act partly as bounders between Germany and France on the one hand and Germany and Germany and Poland on the other.
The central upland
This is a region of worn down low plateaus and hills of ancient heard dissected by revere flowing through them. On the western sides lies a well known rift vallly.throgh rift valley flows the Rhine the busiest river of Europe. To its east leis a horst are a tableland called Black Forest Mountains. East of this mountains flows another important international river the Danube.
The Bavarian Alps: they are young fold mountains. They are both high and very rugged. These mountains are well forested and provide ample water power to the country. These mountains lay to the south of the Bavarian Alps stand the Swiss Austrian Alps.
Climate and vegetation
The north lowlands enjoy maritime or ocean climate. The summers here are pleasantly cool and winters fairly mild. They receive a rainfall of about 50 to 70 centimeters well distributed over the year. As one moves from west to east and from north to south, the climate becomes more continental or extreme in character. The rainfall, however, goes on increasing towards the south with gradual increase in altitude. In the mountainous south it is as high as 200 cm per annum.
The north plains are often marshy and covered with grasses. The central hilly lands have mixed deciduous and some coniferous forests. The high mountains of the south are the most thickly forested with a wide variety of coniferous of trees