WP 2.1 delivers by Team 18 MIT1HD.

The contribution of each student to that

work package is Chi: 33%, Thanh: 33%, Hung: 33%
Page 1: People in Germany
Federal Republic of Germany is located in central Europe, which borders
with Denmark in the north; with France, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg in
the west; with Switzerland and Austria in the south; with the Czech Republic and
Poland in the east. Germany is in an important position between the East and the
West of Europe.
Germany has a population of approximately 82.4 million (about 7.3 million
foreigners), which the population density of 235 people/km2. It is one of the
countries with the highest density in Europe.
The population density in Germany is distributed improperly. About 88% out
of its 82.4 million lives in 82 big cities. The rest lives in rural areas and small towns
(12%).
Germany belongs to the group of countries with low birth rate in the world.
After World War II, the population growth is mainly due to immigration.
If we compare Germany to Vietnam, a country with nearly 84.4 million
people, we can see the population density in Germany is a bit lower than that in
Vietnam (235/259 people per km2). However, the population distribution in big
cities in Germany is higher than that in Vietnam (88%/26%).
In Germany, there are no ethnic minorities as in Vietnam. However, each
area has its own characteristics, which make it different from the others. The people
in Mecklenburg are considered less open, those in the Rhine delta are more sociable
and the people in Sachsen are fine and hard working. These traditional
characteristics have still been kept up to now.
The German people are famous for their high self discipline, their ability of
planning and the "iron spirit", but sometimes they are indifferent and even rigid. If
we compare these characteristics with those of the Vietnamese, we can easily
recognize that the latter is more emotional; however, their self discipline is not
really high.
Germany is a country with the highest number of licensed patents in the
world. They always lead in new technologies and have had a lot of achievements in
many other different fields such as medicine, education, etc.
The most common feature between the two peoples is that they are intelligent
and hard working.
It is easy to understand the differences between the two countries because
they belong to different continents with different cultural, economical and historical
features such as the German is reserved and cold whereas Vietnamese people are
warm and sociable. The latter often spend time visiting each other when they have
free time but the former only visit others when they have something to do with
them.
However, Vietnamese people are often lacking in self confidence so it is hard
for them to communicate in unfamiliar communities.

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 Page 2: Languages in Germany
German is a powerful language among the Indo-German originated
languages. It belongs to the Netherlandic-German language group within the
western branch of the Germanic languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European
languages. It comprises two main groups of dialects, High German (including
standard literary German) and Low German. Together, they form a continuum from
Switzerland north to the sea; a local dialect can be understood by speakers of
nearby dialects but not necessarily by speakers of far-away dialects.
The official language spoken in Germany is the German, however, in the
adjacent border areas many other languages like Austrian and French are used.
English is one of the main foreign languages taught in Germany and also the
commonest language used in business, education and science.
In remote areas, German people still use their dialects, which are only
understood within their communities and this makes the communication between
them uneasy. When a person in Mecklenburg and one in Bayern chat together using
their own dialects, they will not be able to understand each other. The same
phenomenon occurs in Vietnam when the communication taken place between
different ethnic minorities.
Outside the territory of Germany, the German is also the language of Austria,
Lichtenstein, the large area of the Swiss Confederation, South Tirol (Northern
Italy), the North Schleswig (Denmark) and some small coastal areas of Germany.
After English and French, German is a language commonly used in translation.
Every ten translated books published in the world, there is one into German.
For learners of German, grammar is the most difficult part because of its
neutral genre. On the contrary, the pronunciation and spelling of Vietnamese is
considered to be the most difficult because it is written in one way but pronounced
in another way using different tones. For example, “Bố” (father), “Bồ” (darling or
lover), “Bộ” (ministry), “Bổ” (nutritious) …
In Vietnam, German is not very popular like English or French but some
universities have begun to take it into their curriculum. In the near future, German
will certainly become one of the powerful and commonly used languages in the
Vietnamese education system. This will lay the basics for the development of the
cooperation in economy, education, science and technology… between the two
countries.

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 Page 3. Germany History
The history of Germany has been long and divided into several periods.
Some major events in the history of Germany from 1500 to the present:
From 1500 to 1600: In this period, there are many events such as King’s
power was limited (1493- 1519); church sprang into movement for religious reform
(1517), the first great movement was occurred in May 1525, the Protestantism was
recognized as equal as Christianity in 1530, separation of religion led to many
conflicts of political and military empire in which The Thirty Years' War (1618–
1648) was one of the most destructive conflicts in the history of Germany.
From 1600 to 1800: The thirty years’ war ended with the treaty, a part of the
wider Peace of Westphalia (1648). Behind the ruins of the war, a religious war-the
simple separated by reducing Germany. In the period 1648-1789 many of the
creative arts, science, education were appeared in Germany, brought a new face for
the country. After the Napoleonic Wars, this country was reorganized and the
numbers of states reduce to thirty nine. The French revolution in 1789 sparked a
new war between France and several of its Eastern neighbors; under pressure of the
social the feudal period was deleted.
From 1800 to 1900: After victory of Napoleon, the Congress in Vienna
1814-1815 has adjusted a new order for Europe. Germany Community was
replaced. Revolution in Berlin (1848) required The State to change constitution.
After the revolution, Austria and Prussia had a race to control of Germany which
led to the Germany-Austria war in 1866. After the war, German Union
disintegrated. At this time, the national unity was necessary and Otto von
Bismarck, Prime Minister Prussia was responsible for this unifying. The new
country was born as know as German Empire
From 1900 to 2000: Political crisis in Europe led to The World War I. As
the result, Germany was defeated.
In the Great Economic Crisis, The society in Germany became tumult and
Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany. He led Germany to become a dictatorial
country in 1935 and on the September, Germany invaded Poland and The World
war broke out after this event. The final result was the Defeated of The Nazis in
1945. After the war, Germany was divided into two countries: The Federal
Republic of Germany (9/1949) and German Democratic Republic (10/1949).
The fall of the Berlin Wall led to merge between East and West Germany
and become to The Federal Republic of Germany (on October, 1990).
From that time up to now, Germany was raised quickly and has become one
of the richest countries in Europe.
Nowadays, Viet Nam and Germany have similar views on globalization,
anti-terrorism. Two countries always support and co-coordinate together in
multilateral forums. The Federal Republic of Germany ranks the third, after Japan
and France in the list in sponsors for Vietnam.

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 Page 4. Social welfare in Germany
As in other European countries, Germany has a wide range of social policies
to help people in life, which can be identified as follows:
Policy to foreigners
Germany has proven open policies with foreigners not only by accepting the
refugees, especially war refugees, but also by supporting policies in travelling and
the freedom to work and reside in the countries within the European Union. This is
a big difference compared to Vietnam which still keeps the freedom to travel,
freedom to work and reside in the area under close control.
Policy in education
Germany has always shown the superiority and fairness in their education
which encourages self learning ability of students. Although the education budget
has been cut down recent years, about 10 states in Germany have still tried to
provide their students with free school fees. In addition, German laws have defined
clearly that all students have the right to study and work in the best conditions
aiming at a self reliance and independence which will be very necessary for a better
society.
In Vietnam, the education system has been improved gradually but the
school fees are an obligatory condition.
Birth assistance policy
The government encourages the parents to take care of their babies. If both
of them stop work to take care of the babies, they will be given amount of
allowance within 7 months. If one of the parents wants to work, he or she is
allowed to work less than 30 hours a week and still gets full salary. Children in
Germany will be brought up until they are 18 years old by the social welfare.
In Vietnam, only people who have had social insurance have birth assistance.
The women are allowed to stay free of work within 04 months to raise the babies.
Besides, children under 6 will be given free medical treatment.
Unemployed grant policy
According to Germany Labor Law, the government is responsible for
supporting the unemployed until they find a new job, whereas, in Vietnam their
unemployed will be only given back the rest of their insurance.
Vietnam has had a high birth rate and the government encourages the couples
to have only 1 or 2 children. However, in Germany, the government encourages
their citizens to have as many children as possible.

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 Page 5. Main religions in Germany
As other European countries, Germany has been affected by different
religions distributed in different areas.
The two main religions in Germany are Christianity and Judaism. Islam only
appeared and spread in Germany after World War II. Most of the German follow
Christianity; 32.0% follows Protestant ( mainly in Northern and Eastern Germany);
31.7% follows Catholicism ( mainly in West and South Germany); 1.14% follows
Orthodox Christianity. Approximately 27% of population does not follow any
religions at all (most of them live in the North, especially the areas of old East
Germany). The rest of the population follows other religions.
There have been no state churches in Germany. In other words, the system
operating the state and the churches is not related to each other in such a way that
the state does not control the church. The church and some religious communities
have different independent legal positions. The relation between the church and the
state is only that of partnership. Besides the Constitution, the basis of this relation is
based on their commitments and agreements. The state contributes one part into the
expenses spent on child care and education done by the church. According to
German law, the church has the right to taxation and the state has to revoke the
taxes for the church. Priest training takes place mainly in universities, and the
church has a decisive role in the appointment of the theologians.
The social duties and charity are inseparable functions of the church which
cannot be lacking in the operation of hospitals, old people’s homes as well as the
responsibility to give advice and guidance in all aspects of life to schools and
training centers.
The church of Germany plays an important role in the spiritual life of the
people and is always kept in high respect.
In Vietnam, religious freedom is one of the human rights clearly stated in the
Civil Code issued in 1996.
In Vietnam there has existed many religions originated from the East such as
Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism; the ones from the West such as Christianity,
Protestant and the ones originated inside Vietnam such as Cao Dai, Hoa Hao.
Almost 70% of the Vietnam population follows Buddhism.
In the West, in general (including Germany) the date of birth of a person is
very important so every new born child is baptized in a church and given a
Christian name. In Vietnam, both dates of birth and dates of death are of equal
importance because they are considered to affect not only the lives of that person
but his relatives as well.

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