Germany in Europe and the World

This topic covers Germany's role in Europe and in international organizations. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957, which later grew into today's European Union. It joined NATO in 1955 and the United Nations in 1973. Since 2002, the euro has been the cash currency in Germany and in many, though not all, EU member states.

For the test, what matters is the basic idea behind European cooperation (peace and economic integration after two world wars), the free movement of people and goods within the EU, and the difference between EU institutions such as the European Parliament and national institutions such as the Bundestag.

A common trap: not every EU country uses the euro, and not every country in the Schengen area (free travel without border checks) is automatically an EU member either, the two do not fully overlap. The exact number of EU member states also changes occasionally as countries join or leave, so it is worth checking a current source rather than relying on a fixed number. NATO and the EU are also easy to confuse, they are two different organizations with different membership and different purposes, a defense alliance versus an economic and political union.