Nickname: The team
Manager: Joachim Loew
Previous World Cup appearances: 16
Best finish: Winners, 1954, 1974, 1990
Key players:
Michael Ballack
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Lukas Podolski
Rule number one of any World Cup is never write off Germany.
The three-time winners arrived at each of the last two tournaments on a wave of public derision. The result? A runners-up spot in 2002 followed by third place on home turf in 2006.
And in the latter case, coach Jurgen Klinsmann even acheived the seemingly impossible by transforming Der Mannschaft into many neutrals' favourite team, with a brand of open, attacking football that was as un-German as train delays.
That said, it is now nearly 14 years since Germany last lifted a major trophy, their longest drought (if you can call it that) since the early 1970s.
If the gung-ho heroics of Klinsmann's team provided the high point of that period, normal service was resumed at Euro 2008 when Joachim Loew's team ground their way to the final in typically stubborn style before losing 1-0 to Spain.
Loew is still in charge, and his side's progress to the 2010 finals was typically efficient. Qualification was clinched with a game to spare, albeit in a backs-to-the-wall 1-0 win against Russia in Moscow, in which the Germans had to play the last 20 minutes with 10 men.
But not all has been harmonious in the German camp. Loew recently had a very public spat with his captain Michael Ballack over the coach's efforts to reinvigorate his aging squad.
And while Ballack may still be unhappy about the 'disrespectful' treatment meted out to the disgarded Torsten Frings and Kevin Kuranyi among others, Loew has succeeded in bringing on some younger talent, including Werder Bremen's exciting midfielder Mesut Ozil.
Most of all, Loew has sought to inject some fresh blood into his side's creaking backline by drafting in the likes of Heiko Westermann, Serdar Tasci and goalkeeper Rene Adler.
The result was just five goals conceded in 10 qualification matches, although England proved in their 2008 friendly victory in Berlin that the Germans are still vulnerable to pace and, perhaps more surprisingly, at set pieces.
Leverkusen's Simon Rolfes has taken over from Frings in the holding role alongside Ballack in central midfield while, up front, Loew still tends to prefer the tried-and-tested combination of Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose to Mario Gomez of Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga's most expensive player.
But whatever the make-up of the Germany squad that travels to South Africa, you can rest assured that the world's premier tournament team will be a major threat.
