Germany

About the Flag

Located in central Europe, Germany borders the Baltic Sea and the North Sea between the Netherlands and Poland. A German-speaking federal republic, Germany has a civil law system with judicial review of legislative acts in the Federal Constitutional Court. The Head of State is the President, and the Head of Government is the Chancellor. The Capital City is Berlin.

Progress towards economic integration between Western and Eastern ­Germany (the previous German Democratic Republic) following reunification in October 1990 is clearly evident, but the Eastern Region will no doubt continue to depend on subsidies funded by the Western Region for many more years. Germany has a highly urbanized and skilled population and enjoys excellent living standards. It has an advanced market economy and is a world leader in exports, particularly machines and machine tools, motor vehicles, chemicals, and iron and steel products. Its major trading partners are the EC nations and the United States. The unit of currency is the EURO. Germany is a member of the EU, NATO, UN, and IMO.

The registration of seagoing ships is governed by the “Flaggenrechtsgesetz” and the “Schiffsregisterordnung.” In general, the law of registration applies to vessels with a hull of over 15 meters in length but shorter ships may also be registered. War ships and ships of public authorities are excluded. There are separate official registers for seagoing vessels (“Seeschiffsregister”), for inland waterway vessels (“Binnenschiffsregister”), and for ships under construction in German shipyards as well as for floating docks (“Schiffsbauregister”) governed by similar though not identical rules.

Germany also has a second, “International Register.” All vessels have to be registered in the Ordinary Ship Register, and vessels “internationally registered” are additionally entered in the German International Ship Register.

The OGSR staff gratefully acknowledges the kind assistance of Reinhard Schale of Dr. Schackow & Partner with the preparation of this summary | Domehof 17, 28196 Bremen, Germany | Telephone [49] (421) 36990 | Fax: [49] (421) 3699 144 | Email:reception.bremen@schackow.de | http://www.schackow.de