United States of America

• Political relations
• Economic relations
• Cultural relations
• Military relations

Last updated in March 2012

Political relations

Germany and the United States of America are bound by a vigorous and robust friendship founded on shared experience, values and interests. In the recent US census, conducted in 2010, 15.2 per cent of those surveyed stated that they had German roots.

Germany owes a great deal to the United States. In the aftermath of the Second World War, it provided political support and economic assistance to West Germany under the Marshall Plan. Without the United States as guarantor of freedom in the decades of the Cold War and a champion of German reunification, Germany would not have been able to regain its national unity as a free nation.

As leading examples, both countries embody the principles of individual freedom on the one hand and the rule of law and participation on the other. In organizations such as the United Nations, both pursue the goals of freedom, democracy and human rights – but also free trade, prosperity and sustainable development.

An important pillar of bilateral relations is the transatlantic security community NATO. There is intensive and comprehensive cooperation between Germany and the US in the fight against international terrorism. Together with its allies, Germany is assisting in conflict management worldwide, for instance in Afghanistan, the Balkans or the Middle East, through both military engagement and civilian assistance, such as support in building up police forces and the provision of development aid.

Bilateral relations currently focus on overcoming the economic and financial crisis, supporting the democratization processes in North Africa and the Middle East and, as part of the E3 plus 3 process, preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapon capability.

The close contacts between government agencies on both sides are underlined by the regular visits to the US by Federal Chancellor Merkel and her government ministers. In her address to a joint session of Congress on 3 November 2009 – only the second by a German head of government after Konrad Adenauer’s 1957 address to both houses of the US Congress – and during her visit to Washington in June 2011, the Federal Chancellor emphasized the quality of relations between the two countries. President Obama visited Germany twice during his first year in office. Another important element of bilateral relations is the intensive exchange of views between German and American parliamentarians.

The important relationship with the approximately six million Jewish Americans is a special facet of bilateral relations. The German government and parliament maintain intensive contacts and encourage dialogue with Jewish-American organizations to foster mutual understanding.

Economic relations

Economic relations between Germany and the US are largely untroubled. The Transatlantic Economic Partnership between the USA and the EU, which was launched in 2007 on Germany’s initiative, and the subsequently created Transatlantic Economic Council open up additional opportunities. The US is Germany’s principal trading partner outside the EU and Germany is the US’s most important trading partner in Europe. In terms of the total volume of US bilateral trade (imports and exports), Germany remains in fifth place, behind Canada, China, Mexico and Japan. Speaking of Germany, trade with the US is in fourth place, behind France, the Netherlands and China. At the end of 2011, bilateral trade was worth USD 147.5 billion, US exports to Germany amounting to USD 49.1 billion and US imports from Germany USD 98.4 billion.

(Figures from the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis)

The two countries are important to each other as investment destinations. At the end of 2010, bilateral investment was worth USD 317 billion, German direct investment in the US amounting to USD 212 billion and US direct investment in Germany USD 105 billion.

At the end of 2010, US direct investment in Germany stood at approximately USD 105 billion, a decline of 9.4 per cent compared with the previous year (approximately USD 116 billion). Also at the end of 2010, German direct investment in the US amounted to around USD 212 billion, below the previous year’s level (around USD 218 billion). Germany is the fifth largest foreign investor in the US, after the United Kingdom, Japan, the Netherlands and Canada, and ranks eleventh as a destination for US direct foreign investment.

(Figures from the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis)

Cultural relations

Cultural relations are wide-ranging. Every year hundreds of thousands of people travel across the Atlantic – as tourists, participants in the numerous exchange programmes or as artists and performers, scientists, academics and students and pupils.

Some 17 million American soldiers lived in Germany with their families in the years after the Second World War, coming to appreciate the country and bringing the American way of life to Germany. German takes third place after Spanish and French among the foreign languages taught at private secondary schools, colleges and universities in the US.

More than 50 million Americans, or nearly 17 per cent of the population, are of German descent. However, German Americans do not constitute a cohesive interest group. There are numerous German-American associations devoted to cultivating German customs and traditions.

Military relations

Germany is a close ally of the US in the fight against international terrorism. There is also close cooperation between the two countries in international conflict management and disaster relief . Prime examples are the deployments in Afghanistan and the Balkans, where Germany has made available a total of more than 7,000 soldiers, making it one of the largest providers of troops after the US.

Even after completion of measures for the global redeployment of American troops abroad, Germany remains the country hosting the largest peace-time contingent of American forces outside the US. This situation fosters close relations with the Federal Armed Forces, reflected in joint manoeuvres and the intensive exchange between the two sides on the further development of deployment procedures and weapon systems.

The Federal Armed Forces maintain stationary training units in the US, in which German troops are trained in close contact with their American counterparts. In addition, German units are sent to the US every year to take part in joint manoeuvres there.

A network of exchange and liaison officers in both countries further contributes to the good military relations between Germany and the US.

The traditionally close military cooperation between the two countries is supported by a liaison office in the Washington area as well as by a number of liaison officers in important sections of the armed forces. Since 1964, more than 1,500 members of the armaments section have been deployed for a year with the US armed forces under various exchange programmes.