Since the Revolution of 1979, Iran has been ruled by a distinctive governmental structure. At the top is the Supreme Leader, selected by the Assembly of Experts, who is Commander-in-Chief of the military and oversees the civilian government.

Next is the elected President of Iran, who serves for a maximum of two 4-year terms. Candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council.

Iran has a unicameral legislature called the Majlis, which has 290 members. Laws are written in accordance with sharia law, as interpreted by the Guardian Council. The Supreme Leader appoints the Head of Judiciary, who appoints judges and prosecutors.

Iran is home to approximately 76 million people of dozens of different ethnic backgrounds.

Important ethnic groups include the Persians (51%), Azeris (24%), Mazandarani and Gilaki (8%), Kurds (7%), Iraqi Arabs (3%), and Lurs, Balochis and Turkmens (2% each).

Smaller populations of Armenians, Persian Jews, Assyrians, Circassians, Georgians, Mandaeans, Hazaras, Kazakhs, and Romany also live in various enclaves within Iran.

With increased educational opportunity for women, Iran’s birth rate has declined markedly in recent years after booming in the late 20th century.

Iran also hosts over 1 million Iraqi and Afghan refugees.

Not surprisingly in such an ethnically diverse nation, Iranians speak dozens of different languages and dialects.

The official language is Persian (Farsi), which is part of the Indo-European language family. Along with the closely related Luri, Gilaki and Mazandarani, Farsi is the native tongue of 58% of Iranians.

Azeri and other Turkic languages account for 26%; Kurdish, 9%; and languages like Balochi and Arabic make up about 1% each.

Some Iranian languages are critically endangered, such as Senaya, of the Aramaic family, with only about 500 speakers. Senaya is spoken by Assyrians from the western Kurdish region of Iran.

With varying statistics, approximately 89% of Iranians are Shi’a Muslim, while 9% more are Sunni. The remaining 2% are Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian.

Since 1501, the Shi’a Twelver sect has dominated in Iran. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 placed Shi’a clergy in positions of political power; the Supreme Leader of Iran is a Shi’a ayatollah, or Islamic scholar and judge.

Iran’s constitution recognizes Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism (Persia’s main pre-Islamic faith) as protected belief systems.

At the pivot point between the Middle East and Central Asia, Iran borders on the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Caspian Sea.  It shares land borders with Iraq and Turkey to the west; Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to the north; and Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east.

Iran covers 1.6 million square kilometers (636,295 square miles).  Iran is a mountainous land, with two large salt deserts (Dasht-e Lut and Dasht-e Kavir) in the east-central section.

The highest point in Iran is Mt. Damavand, at 5,610 meters (18,400 feet). The lowest point is sea level.

Iran experiences four seasons each year. Spring and fall are mild, while winters bring heavy snowfall to the mountains. In the summer, temperatures routinely top 38°C (100°F).

Precipitation is scarce across Iran, with the national yearly average at about 25 centimeters (10 inches). However, the high mountain peaks and valleys get at least twice that amount, and offer opportunities for downhill skiing in the winter.

Iran’s majority centrally-planned economy depends upon oil and gas exports for between 50 and 70% of its revenue. The per capita GDP is a robust $12,800 US, but 18% of Iranians live below the poverty line and 20% are unemployed.

About 80% of Iran’s export income comes from fossil fuels. The country also exports small amounts of fruit, vehicles, and carpets.

Even before diplomatic ties, unofficial relations had already taken root between the two nations. Goethe’s dedication of his West-östlicher Divan (West-Eastern Divan) to Hafez in 1819 is an illustration of how far back such cultural ties went.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher was the first Western foreign minister to visit the Middle Eastern nation after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, visiting Iran in 1984. However, after the revolution many Iranians who immigrated to or visited Germany faced prejudice as a result of political events in Iran.

After the Iran-Iraq war, Germany increasingly became a primary trading partner of Iran, and is still Iran’s biggest trading partner after China.