IS427 cities wiki: 2013T1 Munich/Enter

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Ghent, Belgium	Lille, France	Munich, Germany

General

Germany is in Western and Central Europe, with Denmark bordering to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France and Luxembourg to the southwest, and Belgium and the Netherlands to the northwest. It lies mostly between latitudes 47° and 55° N (the tip of Sylt is just north of 55°), and longitudes 5° and 16° E. The territory covers 357,021 km2 (137,847 sq mi), consisting of 349,223 km2 (134,836 sq mi) of land and 7,798 km2 (3,011 sq mi) of water. It is the seventh largest country by area in Europe and the 62nd largest in the world.

As we know Germany owns 16 Federated States. The two main religions are Roman Catholic and Protestant. The German renowned companies include: Deutsche Bank, Siemens, BMW, Volkswagen, SAP, Bertelsmann and so on.

Munich

Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, behind Berlin and Hamburg. About 1.42 million people live within the city limits. Its inhabitants are sometimes called Munichers in English.

Its native name, München, is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat of arms. Black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the city's official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian. Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes, it was an imperial residence from 1328 and in 1506 became the sole capital of Bavaria. Munich was the host city of the 1972 Summer Olympics. Munich is home to many national and international authorities and major universities, major museums and theaters. By a large number of architecture worth seeing, international sports events, exhibitions and congresses and the Munich Oktoberfest is an attraction for tourism. The city's motto is "München mag dich" (Munich loves you). Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" (Cosmopolitan city with a heart).

Modern Munich is a financial and publishing hub, and a frequently top-ranked destination for migration and expatriate location in livability rankings. Munich achieved 4th place in frequently quoted Mercer livability rankings in 2011 and 2012. Munich is one of the economically most successful and fastest growing cities in Germany and the seat of numerous corporations and insurance companies. For economic and social innovation, the city was ranked 15th globally out of 289 cities in 2010, and 5th in Germany by the 2thinknow Innovation Cities Index based on analysis of 162 indicators. In 2010, Monocle ranked Munich as the world's most livable city (in 2012, Munich was ranked fifth in Monocle's ranking, yet remained the highest ranked city in Germany).

People

German generally looks very formal and has strongly individualistic value, for example hand-written note to thank host, bring a gift flowers/chocolates if invited to a house. They believe in equality and opportunity, and thus they most of them are very good planners. They do not like surprises and do not want to exposure their life privacy. Titles and credentials are very important to them. They are very proud of their nationality and they love their rules very much. What's more, they also love their cars and dogs.

Bavarians

They are pride in Local Customs & Traditions Bavarian Zest for Life, Highly Opinionated Oktoberfest (Wiesn)

Local Customs & Traditions: folk songs, dances,music practiced by many Bavarian towns and townships Kinderzeche – pageant designed especially for children. Tanzelfest (dance festival) & various medieval knight tournaments

Oktoberfest – originated in 1810 as a wedding feast in honor of the marriage of the crown prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen (other states emulate it, but munich has “the original”)

Attitudes

To Foreigners: Some anti-foreigner sentiment (more so to specific races/religions) East & North – higher intolerance Nationalistic, though varied

Local: Public drunkenness in not acceptable The hand shake & greeting Praise is the absence of criticism Doesn’t matter even if you are a stranger...

The hand shake & greeting – you shake hands with everyone (familiar or not, friends or not, everytime you meet) & you greet everyone in a room/place – no exceptions!

No praises – all good unless stated otherwise (therefore you have to eat everything on your plate else people will think something is wrong – or you will be scolded for not eating enough)

Doesn’t matter even if you are a stranger – they won’t hesitate to give you their opinion

Investment Scene

• Positive government policy that encourage share ownership

Government policy is to encourage a wide spread of share ownership among general public, and a number of incentive programs in order to support the objective. Nevertheless these programs are all rather small in scale and have little effect.

• Banks posses greater power

Virtually all shares of publicly held corporation are bearer shares and are usually deposited with banks.Therefore the banks offer caretaking services to the shareholders,which include collecting dividends on their behalf and also acting as proxies at shareholder’s meetings. The bank generally recommend how shareholder’s votes should be cast and often seen with greater voting power than how  their own portfolios should justify.

• Encouraging regulation for foreign participation in industry

There are no significant controls preventing or restricting foreign investment as such and the typical form of foreign participation in German industry is that of a wholly or substantially majority owned subsidiary. Joint venture or minority investments are comparatively rare and are usually the result of special circumstances.