Germany - Overview 

Capital: Berlin
Area: 357,020 km²
Population: 82.2 million (December 2000 est.)
Ethnic groups: 91.5% Germans, 2.4% Turkish and other 6.1%
Official language(s): German
Religion(s): Protestant (38%), Roman Catholic (34%), Muslim (1.7%), other or not affiliated to any religious denomination (26.3%)
Currency: 1 euro = 100 cents

Our Facilities

The SOS Children's Village idea crossed the border from Austria to neighbouring Germany at the beginning of the 1950s. Soon a German SOS Children's Village association was founded and in 1958, the first SOS Children's Village was officially opened in Diessen at lake Ammer (Ammersee).

A total of thirteen more SOS Children's Villages were built in Germany within the following forty years: Schwarzwald, Pfalz, Saar, Württemberg, Harksheide, Worpswede, Oberpfalz, Sauerland, Lippe, Schleswig-Holstein, Niederrhein, Sachsen and Brandenburg.

Additionally, many ancillary facilities were launched, e.g. youth care facilities, vocational training centres, social centres, counselling centres for mothers and families, homes for mentally and physically handicapped people, etc.

Websites (available in German):

• Hermann-Gmeiner-Fonds Deutschland e.V.
  (SOS Children's Villages worldwide)
• SOS-Kinderdorf e.V.
  (SOS Children's Villages in Germany)