DE — Germany

Germany is the most populous country in the European Union and Europe's largest economy. Berlin, the capital, is a global city for culture, politics, and technology. Germany is known for engineering excellence, automotive innovation (BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen), and being a founding EU member. The Euro is the currency. For developers, the DE country code (from 'Deutschland') maps to the de-DE locale — the reference German locale. The .de domain is the world's most registered ccTLD with over 17 million domains. The +49 dialing code is one of the most dialed European codes. German formatting uses comma for decimal separators and period for thousands. Germany's strong privacy culture is reflected in strict GDPR enforcement. German compound words can be extremely long, requiring flexible UI layouts. The German tax ID (Steuer-ID) and VAT number (USt-IdNr.) have specific formats. Germany's massive e-commerce market and tech sector make de-DE one of the most important European locales for international applications.