Question: Where was the first Eurovision Song Contest Germany offically participated in?

Context articles: Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008
Portugal in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Festivali i Këngës 42
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1985
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
Kids Jury in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Poli Genova
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Eurovision Song Contest 1956

Croatia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 and placed twenty-first in the final.
 Having missed their first Eurovision final, Croatia hoped for a better result in Belgrade.
 Ten songs pre-qualified for the final of the Dora that was held in Opatija on 23 February 2008.
 They were joined by six qualifiers from a semi-final on 22 February 2008.
 A jury/televoting mix chose the entry.
 Kraljevi Ulice & 75 Cents were declared the winners, even though they had the same number of points as Antonija Šola, because they were the jury's favorites.
 Among the performers in competition were Emilija Kokić the lead singer of the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 winners Riva and 1996 Croatian entrant Maja Blagdan.
The participation of Portugal in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest first began at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 which took place in Bucharest, Romania.
 Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP), a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), were responsible for the selection process of their participation.
 Portugal used a national selection format, broadcasting a show entitled ""Festival da Canção Junior"", for their participation at the contests.
 This was a junior version of Festival da Canção, the national music competition organised by broadcaster RTP to choose the Portuguese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.
 The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2006 contest was Pedro Madeira with the song "Deixa-me sentir", which finished in second-last place out of fifteen participating entries, achieving a score of twenty-two points.
 Portugal withdrew from competing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, and will return for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Festivali i Këngës 42 took place in the Palace of Congresses in Tirana, Albania.
 There were two semifinals (18 & 19 December 2003) and a final (20 December 2003).
 This contest was used to select the first Eurovision Song Contest entry for Albania.
 30 songs competed but only 18 made it to the final.
 In the end, Anjeza Shahini won the first prize and went on to represent Albania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Istanbul, Turkey.
 Mariza Ikonomi achieved a disappointing second place and left the stage without receiving her award.
 The amount of points for each singer was not announced.
 Instead, only the Top 3 places were made public.
 The winner was determined by a 50% jury vote and 50% televote.
 The RTSH orchestra was present, but the option of playback was also available.
 The director was Pali Kuke, and 2003 Eurovision Song Contest winner Sertab Erener made a guest appearance.
Austria was represented by Gary Lux, with the song "Kinder dieser Welt", at the 1985 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 4 May in Gothenburg, Sweden.
 The song was chosen internally by broadcaster ORF.
 This was the first Eurovision appearance for Lux in which he represented Austria in the ESC as a solo artist.
 The last time he represented Austria in Eurovision had been in the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest in Brussels, Belgium with his song "Nur noch Gefühl" (Only Feelings).
Germany has officially participated in every Eurovision Song Contest since its beginning in 1956, except in 1996 when its entry did not qualify past the audio-only pre‐selection round, and consequently was not seen in the broadcast final and does not count as one of Germany's 61 appearances.
 No other country has been represented as often.
 France and the United Kingdom come in a close second, missing only two contests each.
 Before German reunification in 1990, it occasionally presented as West Germany, representing the Federal Republic of Germany.
 East Germany (the German Democratic Republic) did not compete.
 Germany has won two contests, in 1982 and 2010.
The use of a Kids' Jury in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was first introduced at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2012, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, as part of a new voting system for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest following discussions between the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), KidsRights Foundation, and the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2012 host broadcaster Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep (AVRO).
 Three of the four spokespersons who announced the jury points at each annual contest were former winners of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
 As of 2016, the results of each country's Kids' Jury have been integrated with the adult jury to give out two sets of 1-8, 10, and 12 points per country.
Australia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria.
 Owing to its cultural and political ties to European countries, the Eurovision Song Contest has been televised in Australia by the public broadcaster SBS for over thirty years.
 In honour of the contest's 60th running and in recognition of the event's popularity in Australia, it was announced on 10 February 2015 that Australia was to be invited to compete in the 2015 contest as a special guest participant.
 Australians have participated in and even won Eurovision as representatives of other countries.
 In 2015 for example, the Australian coloratura soprano of Armenian descent Mary-Jean O'Doherty participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 contest as part of the group Genealogy representing Armenia.
 But this marked the first time that the country has officially participated.
Poli Plamenova Genova (Bulgarian: Поли Пламенова Генова , born 10 February 1987 in Sofia, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian singer who represented her country in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Germany.
 Genova performed her entry "Na inat" ("Out of Spite") in the second semifinal.
 Although failing to qualify to the final Genova would return to the Eurovision five years later, representing Bulgaria for the second time in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, with the song "If Love Was a Crime", and reached fourth place in the finals – a record for the country.
 It was also the first time Bulgaria qualified for almost a decade.
 Genova's first Eurovision entry reached Number 8 on the Bulgarian charts and in 2016 she gained her first Bulgarian Number 1 single with "If Love Was a Crime".
 In the aftermath of her Eurovision success Genova has gone on to become a coach on The Voice of Bulgaria and also voiced the Bulgarian version of Judy Hopps in the worldwide box office smash "Zootopia".
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the thirteenth annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and took place, for the first time, in Bulgaria.
 The Bulgarian national broadcaster BNT was the host broadcaster for the event.
 The final took place on 21 November 2015 and was held at the Arena Armeec in Sofia.
 Poli Genova, a Bulgarian singer and former representative of Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 and the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, hosted the show.
 A total of seventeen countries participated, with Australia and Ireland making their debuts.
 Albania and Macedonia returned after being absent since the 2012 and 2013 contests, respectively.
 Croatia and Cyprus withdrew after returning in the 2014 edition , while Sweden withdrew for the first time since 2008.
The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was the first Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland on Thursday 24 May.