How much do you know about Germany? Take our quiz!

Lying in the heart of Europe, the territory that is now Germany has since the Middle Ages been the crossroads of the continent, a wellspring of art and music, science and war. Since its unification in the 19th century, no nation has arguably had a greater say in the economic and political fate of Europe than Germany.

How much do you know about the land of Beethoven, Kant, and schnitzel?

14. The German state has seen many iterations of borders and styles of government since unification in 1871. The Germany we know today took form in what year?

Gero Breloer / AP
A fireworks display in 2009 over Berlin's Brandenburg Gate commemorates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

1945, following the defeat of the Nazis by the Allies in World War II

1989, following the fall of the Berlin Wall

1990, following East Germany’s accession into the Federal Republic of Germany

2002, following the adoption of the euro to replace the Deutsche mark

Javascript is disabled. Quiz scoring requires Javascript.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.