Germany

Portions of three federal states—Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony—form the metropolitan region of Central Germany. The region’s location is of unique importance to the logistics sector because it is situated at the intersection of Germany and its Eastern European neighbors. Some 2.4 million people live in the metropolitan region of Central Germany, which includes mid-size cities, such as Kassel, Erfurt and the resort town of Bad Hersfeld.

Cologne, the fourth-largest city in Germany, is located in the most densely populated federal state, North Rhine-Westphalia. The region along the rivers Rhine and Ruhr is the largest conurbation nationwide and—with its 10 million inhabitants, about 1.08 million in Cologne itself—one of the 40 largest metropolises in the world.

Dusseldorf, with almost 636.000 inhabitants, is the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most densely populated federal state. The metropolitan area along the rivers Rhine and Ruhr has 10 million inhabitants. Some 155 million people, 31 percent of the total population of the European Union, live within a 500-kilometer radius of Dusseldorf.

Hamburg, a cosmopolitan and historic port city on the River Elbe near the North Sea, is a key cog in the economy of the 21st century. With a population of 1.86 million, Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany.

Hamburg sits astride a series of transportation axes—shipping lanes, motorways, rail and air—that connect Scandinavia and Western, Eastern and Southern Europe. Aerospace is a major industry in the Hamburg region, employing some 40,000 people.

Set on the River Leine, Hanover is the capital of the German state of Lower Saxony. With a population of about 550,000 people, and within 100 miles of the vital North Sea ports of Bremen and Hamburg, Hanover is an important logistics hub for Germany.

Hanover has a diversified economy that is broadly representative of the German economy at large. It is home to operations for automakers and insurance companies.

Munich, the capital of Germany’s innovative and wealthy state of Bavaria, is one of the most important commercial centers in Europe, as well as Germany’s leading high-tech location. Munich is the third-largest city in Germany, with a population of approximately 1.54 million and about 6 million in the metropolitan area.

Greater Munich is a diverse, cosmopolitan metropolis where 28.3 percent of residents are foreign nationals. The Greater Munich region has a GDP of 156.3 billion euros.

The metropolitan region of Rhine-Neckar—at the intersection point of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate—is an economic powerhouse for Germany and Europe.

Rhine-Ruhr is a highly industrialized, densely populated region of Western Germany that includes the major cities of Bonn, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Dortmund and Essen. With a population of about 10 million, the region is one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Europe. Rhine-Ruhr also is one of the world’s 10 largest economic regions.

The federal state of Bremen, with the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven, has about 671,000 inhabitants; 557,000 of them are in Bremen alone. As a metropolis for northwest Germany, Bremen is the only German city to have an international airport only 10 minutes from the city center. Excellent connections to the port and motorways make Bremen an easily accessible logistics hub. Nowhere else are so many decision-makers, corporations and world brands concentrated in only 326 square kilometers.

Frankfurt am Main is a vital international financial center and a European traffic hub. It is an important industrial, service and exhibition location and is listed among the world cities under economic criteria. With a population of 730,000, Frankfurt am Main is the largest city in the state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany. In addition, the city is the center of the metropolitan area of ​​Frankfurt/Rhine-Main with about 5.5 million inhabitants.