Germany
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7correct to beat the crowd
This German trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers and covers the country from every angle: the Berlin Wall and reunification, the Rhine and the Alps, Oktoberfest, Bratwurst and Black Forest cake, Bach and Beethoven, the Autobahn and the carmakers, the Bundesliga and the national team, and the words the German language has lent to English. Questions run from easy ones anyone who has visited Germany can answer to hard ones for people who have lived there. Each question is multiple choice with an explanation after you answer, and every answer has been checked against a real source. Play it solo, or use it as a ready-made Germany round for a trivia night.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which German-born physicist developed the theory of relativity?
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein became famous for relativity, yet his 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for his law of the photoelectric effect instead.
Q 02Which major river flows through the German cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf?
Rhine
The Rhine flows past the Lorelei rock, where Heinrich Heine's poem imagined a siren whose song made boatmen crash.
Q 03Who led the Soviet Union when the Berlin Wall fell?
Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev declined to intervene militarily as Eastern Europe abandoned communism, and he won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize.
Q 04What Munich festival is celebrated with pretzels and lederhosen?
Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest, the world's largest Volksfest, has been held in Munich since 1810 and mostly runs in late September, ending around the first Sunday of October.
Q 05Which is the least populous of Germany's 16 federal states?
Bremen
Bremen is two cities, Bremen and Bremerhaven, and in the fairy tale the Town Musicians of Bremen never actually get there.
Q 06Who was the first Chancellor of West Germany after World War II?
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer became the Federal Republic's first Chancellor in September 1949 at age 73 and served until 1963, steering West Germany into NATO and the European Economic Community.
Q 07Germany's southern border with Austria runs through which mountain range?
Alps
The Alps along the Austrian border hold Berchtesgaden National Park, the only German national park in the Alps, around the Königssee lake.
Q 08Which German composer is famous for works such as Brandenburg Concertos and The Well-Tempered Clavier?
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach composed both; the Brandenburg Concertos (1721) and the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier (1722) date from his years at the Calvinist court of Köthen, where elaborate church music was not wanted.
Q 09Which German car manufacturer produces the iconic 911 model?
Porsche
Porsche first sold the 911 as the 901, but Peugeot claimed rights to three-digit car names with a zero in the middle, so it was renamed.
Q 10Which two German cities hosted the 1648 negotiations that ended the Thirty Years' War?
Münster and Osnabrück
The Peace of Westphalia, the two treaties that ended the Thirty Years' War, was signed in the Westphalian cities of Münster and Osnabrück in 1648.
Q 11What is the highest mountain in Germany?
Zugspitze
The Zugspitze, 2,962 metres high, carries the Austrian border over its western summit, and surveyor Josef Naus made the first recorded ascent in 1820.
Q 12Germany's 1949 constitution is known by what modest-sounding name?
Basic Law
The Grundgesetz, or Basic Law, was deliberately called a 'law' rather than a constitution because it was meant to be provisional pending reunification, yet it still governs the united country.
Q 13Which German inventor is credited with developing the movable type printing press around 1440?
Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz adapted the screw press and devised a process for mass-producing metal type around 1440, printing his 42-line Bible by about 1455 and transforming how knowledge spread.
Q 21Where no limit is posted on Germany's Autobahn, what is 130 km/h?
Recommended speed
Since 1978, 130 km/h has been only a recommended speed there, but drivers who exceed it can be held partly liable if they crash.
Q 22Which Bavarian king commissioned Neuschwanstein Castle, partly honouring Wagner?
Ludwig II
Ludwig II paid for Neuschwanstein from his own fortune and heavy borrowing rather than public funds; he died in 1886 with the castle unfinished, and it joined UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2025.
Q 23The design of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate is based on the gateway to which ancient site?
The Acropolis of Athens
Q 14Which German philosopher is known for the concept of the 'categorical imperative'?
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant spent almost his whole life in Königsberg, now Kaliningrad in Russia, where he taught philosophy for four decades.
Q 15What was the currency of Germany immediately before the introduction of the Euro?
Deutsche Mark
The Deutsche Mark, introduced in the western occupation zones in June 1948, remained legal tender until euro notes and coins replaced it at the start of 2002.
Q 16Which of Germany's nine land neighbours is the world's only remaining grand duchy?
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, just 2,586 square kilometres, is the smallest of Germany's nine land neighbours and has a grand duke as its head of state.
Q 17Which German city has the nation's largest seaport, third in Europe by containers in 2024?
Hamburg
Hamburg, nicknamed the Gateway to the World, lies about 110 km up the Elbe from the North Sea and in 2024 ranked third among European container ports, behind only Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges.
Q 18Who wrote the classic German children's book 'Max and Moritz'?
Wilhelm Busch
Wilhelm Busch published Max and Moritz in 1865; the picture story of two mischievous boys is often cited as an ancestor of the comic strip and inspired the Katzenjammer Kids.
Q 19Which German Nobel laureate wrote the novel 'The Tin Drum'?
Günter Grass
In 1959 Günter Grass published his debut novel, The Tin Drum, whose narrator Oskar decides never to grow up; Grass won the Nobel Prize in 1999.
Q 20Which chancellor led West Germany into reunification?
Kohl
Helmut Kohl steered reunification, which took effect on 3 October 1990, a date Germany now marks as its national holiday, German Unity Day.
Langhans modelled the gate on the Propylaea, the gateway to the Acropolis of Athens, and Napoleon carried its quadriga off to Paris in 1806; it came back in 1814.
Q 24Cologne Cathedral was begun in 1248 to house the relics of whom?
The Three Wise Men
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa took the relics of the Three Wise Men from Milan in 1164, and Cologne Cathedral took 632 years to finish.
Q 25Which German confectioner invented the gummy bear, first sold as the 'dancing bear'?
Haribo
Haribo founder Hans Riegel created the 'dancing bear' in 1922, and it was much larger than the Gold-Bears that later replaced it.
Q 26After the Dassler brothers split, Adolf founded Adidas and Rudolf founded which rival?
Puma
Rudolf Dassler founded Puma in 1948 after falling out with his brother Adolf; both companies were based in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, on opposite banks of the Aurach river.
Q 27Which country built the last original Volkswagen Beetle, in July 2003?
Mexico
Mexico built the last original Beetle in Puebla in July 2003, more than 25 years after the last Beetle saloon left Germany's Emden plant.
Q 28German has four grammatical cases: nominative, accusative, dative and which other?
Genitive
Bastian Sick's 2004 bestseller mocked speakers who swap the genitive for the dative by using the dative in its own title.
Q 29The Black Forest lies entirely within which German state?
Baden-Württemberg
The Black Forest lies wholly within Baden-Württemberg, and its clockmakers have built cuckoo clocks since the mid-1700s, making them world-famous.
Q 30Which German city hosts the European Central Bank and the country's main stock exchange?
Frankfurt
Frankfurt has so many skyscrapers that it is nicknamed 'Mainhattan', a blend of Manhattan and the Main river that runs through the city.