COMPARISON BETWEEN MEXICO AND GERMANY

1. Introduction

“Culture is always a collective phenomenon, because it is at least partly shared with people who live or lived within in the same social environment, which is where it was learned. It is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.” (Hofstede, 1991)

In this essay, it is exposed two different cultures that over time they have been able to unify one with the other: Germany and Mexico, two countries, which have different customs, systems of government and ways of life and at first glance, it would be difficult to find similarities between them, however, the union between them is getting bigger.

1. Germany

Its official name is Federal Republic of Germany (in german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) and it is the most populous member of the European Union and a known country because of their industrialization and their commitment to the environment.

1. Geography

Germany is a country in west-central Europe, that stretches from the Alps, across the North European Plain to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

[pic 1]

 Illustration 1. Germany's boarders

It is the seventh largest country in area in Europe with a total area of 356,959 square kilometers and it is divided in 16 constituent states and Berlin is the capital of this country.

The North Sea coastline is low, marshy wet land, with dikes, mudlads and scattered islands. Germany’s longest island, Rügen, is forested and rather hilly with steep cliffs and sandy beaches.

The country is drained by dozen of rivers. Rising in the Alps of Switzerland, the Rhine, Germany’s longest river, is 820 miles long (1,319 km) and along it path numerous tributaries and branches stretch in all directions. The land remains mostly hilly in the far south with heavily forested mountains. In this country we can find natural resources like Natural coal, lignite, natural gas, iron ore, copper, nickel, uranium, potash, salt, construction materials, timber, arable land.

1. Demography

Germany has the second largest population in Europe (after Russia), and it is gaining more population along the years, according with the information of the Statistisches Bundesamt.

Table 1. Statistisches Bundesamt Census Population

In the year of 2015, the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs anounced Germany as the host county to the second-highest number of international migrants worldwide.^[1] The main migrants come from Turkey.

Germany is also known for the way the help foreing people to find a job in their country or for being a place for protection for refugees.

1. Culture

Due to Germany's excellence in education, this country has always witnessed important artists, scientists and thinkers for the whole world. It is also a intercultural country, where a lot of students from different origins go to study.

Germany is a country where almost all of the schools and universities are free pay. The students respect their teachers and there is admiration among them.  

The main religions are based on Christianity (64% of the population belongs to a Christian  religion): 33% of the population is Protestant, 31,4% are catholic, 29,6% of them they have not registered a religious denomination.^[2]

1. Politics and Government

Germany is a federal, democratic republic. Power is distributed between the federal and state governments. Its structure and authority are derived from the country’s constitution called Basic Law, which went into force on May 23, 1949, after formal consent to the establishment of the Federal Republic had been given by the military governments of the West occupying Powers and upon the assent of the parliaments of the states (Länder) to form the Bund (federation).

At the federal level, the German constitution divides power between the executive Branch, the legislative branch and the judiciary: within the executive branch, the most powerful official is the Federal Chancellor, who acts as head of state, controls the federal government, and appoints Federal Ministers. In addition to the Chancellor, the German government elects a Federal President who acts in a mainly ceremonial capacity.

The highest bodies in the legislative branch are the two chambers of parliament, the Bundestag (Federal Assembly) and Bundesrat (Federal Council).

The federal Chancellor is Angela Merkel since December 2013 from the CDU Party (Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands)

1. Economy

Their currency is Euros, which is 1.18494 USD. Germany is the third largest economy in the world by volume of GDP and one of the countries with the lowest percentage of unemployed people in the world, according to the World Bank.

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Illustration 2. Germany´s GDP

Germany is the largest economy in Europe and the fourth largest economic power in the world. The main economy sources are: the industrial sector (30% of the GDP), based on mechanical engineering, electrical and electronic quipment, automotive sector (most important industrial sector) and chemical products. The tertiary sector represents approximately 70% of GDP and employs 70% of the active population. The German economic model relies mainly on a dense network of SMEs: there are more than 3.6 million SMEs that employ 68% of workers. The other approximately 0,1% belongs to the agricultural sector.

1. Mexico

Its official name is United Mexican States, in spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos. But Mexico is a word with a special meaning; the name comes from two words of the language Nahuatl (indigenous language spoken in this country), metztli that means moon, and xictli that means center. Literally and metaphorically, it means “in the center of the moon”.^[3] This is because the outline of the ancient lakes that were occupied by the basin of Mexico, resembled the figure of a rabbit, like the silhouette formed by lunar spots seen from the ground. And since the great city was in the center of these lakes, symbolically it was also located in the "navel" of the rabbit of the moon.

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