Germany

What you've always wanted to know about Germany ... or what I'm able to tell you about Germany that you may not know:

Germany produces more than 5,000 varieties of beer.

After Irish, Germans are the second biggest consumers of beer in the world. The average beer consumption of the country is 119 liters per person per year.

In World War II, the German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.

Football is the most popular sport in Germany and ‘The German Football Association’ is the largest association of its kind in the world.

Adolf Hitler was one of the people that was responsible in the creation of the Volkswagen Beetle.

Germany is one of the few countries of the world where Holocaust Denial has been declared as a crime.

The name Vaseline is a combination of the German word for water, wasser, and the Greek word for olive oil, elaion.

World's most colorful caves (as per Guinness Book of Records), Fairy Grottoes, are in Germany.

Germany was the first European country to establish a system for health insurance for its workers in 1888.

The Federal states that comprise Germany are: Baden-Wuerttemberg (capital: Stuttgart), Bavaria (capital: Munich), Berlin (3.45), Brandenburg (capital: Potsdam), Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse (capital: Wiesbaden), Lower Saxony (capital: Hanover), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (capital:Schwerin), North Rhine-Westphalia (capital: Duesseldorf), Rhineland-Palatinate (capital: Mainz),Saarland (capital: Saarbruecken), Saxony (capital: Dresden), Saxony-Anhalt (capital: Magdeburg), Schleswig-Holstein (capital: Kiel), Thuringia (capital: Erfurt).

The first Oktoberfest actually began as a wedding celebration for Crown Prince Luitpold I and Princess Theressa of Bavaria on October 17, 1810. A large meadow in Munich was taken over as the royal reception site and featured a horse race, music, dancing, singing -- and lots and lots of beer drinking. (That's my birthday!!)



http://www.alltrivia.net/facts/germany.htm
http://german.about.com/library/bltrivia_index.htm
http://www.chiff.com/beer/oktoberfest.htm
http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/facts-about-germany-1207.html
http://www.oktoberfest.de/en/02/