Germany’s total area is 357,022 square kilometres. This figure includes both the country’s land area and its inland waters, and it is the standard total-area figure used in the cited reference.
Germany lies in Central and Western Europe, stretching from the North Sea and Baltic Sea in the north to the Alps in the south. Its territory contains coastal lowlands, central uplands and alpine terrain, with the Zugspitze rising to 2,963 metres.
The number is often rounded to 357,000 square kilometres in general references, which can make nearby answer choices look plausible. It is also sometimes confused with figures presented in different statistical tables or with the area of Germany’s 16 federal states summed under another measurement convention.
Germany became a unified nation-state in 1871 under Prussian leadership, though the region had a much longer history that included the Roman frontier, the Holy Roman Empire and numerous independent German states. Today it is the seventh-largest country in Europe by area and the European Union’s most populous member state.