Last updated in March 2009
Political relations
Relations between Germany and Ethiopia have traditionally been good. In 2005, the 100th anniversary of the establishment of official relations was celebrated. The visit by Emperor Heile Selassie in 1954 was one of the first by a head of state to the young Federal Republic of Germany. Federal President Lübke made a return visit in 1964 and President Herzog was in Ethiopia in 1996. Federal President Köhler visited Ethiopia and the African Union in December 2004. During this visit, he laid the foundation stone for the construction/renovation of the Goethe Institute premises. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Ethiopia and the African Union in October 2007 during Germany’s G8 Presidency. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has made several visits to Germany, the most recent in early June 2007 to attend the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm. Ethiopia’s President Girma Woldegiorgis paid an official visit to Germany in March 2008. In 2008, there were mutual visits by the German Bundestag and the Ethiopian Parliament.
Economic relations
Recent years have seen near-constant growth in the volume of foreign trade. According to Federal Statistical Office figures, in 2008 German imported goods worth EUR 108.3 million (2007: EUR 82 million) from Ethiopia and exported goods worth EUR 107.4 million (2007: EUR 119.8 million) to Ethiopia.
From the Ethiopian point of view, Germany was the biggest buyer of Ethiopian goods in the financial year 2007/2008. Ethiopia’s main export to Germany is coffee, and Germany is traditionally the largest buyer here, taking over 30 per cent of the country’s total coffee exports. The main exports in the other direction are finished products such as machinery, engines, motor vehicles, chemicals and medicines. As deregulation of the economy progresses, German enterprises are beginning to invest in Ethiopia, especially in the flower sector and the leather processing industry.
An investment protection agreement was signed in January 2004.
Development cooperation
Ethiopia is a priority country of German development cooperation, Germany having provided some EUR 1.3 billion for development projects in Ethiopia since aid began more than 50 years ago. At the most recent intergovernmental negotiations in 2008, EUR 96 million were pledged to Ethiopia for the period 2009-2011.
Development cooperation focuses on three priority areas:
- urban development and decentralization
- sustainable land management
- sustainable economic development
There are in addition various other areas in which German development cooperation is asked for support by the Ethiopian government or other donors, for example in abolishing female genital mutilation (FGM), which is still widespread despite being a punishable offence.
Along with numerous other donors, Germany is participating in a World Bank project to guarantee the provision of basic social services at district and municipal level. Funding is provided for basic services in the health, education, water supply and agricultural sectors.
Cultural relations
German-Ethiopian cultural relations look back on a long tradition of German research interest, as evidenced by the many university partnerships. Outstanding projects by German academic and scientific institutions are the South Omo Research Centre, which looks into the different ethnic and cultural groups in southern Ethiopia, and the compilation of a multi-volume Encyclopaedia Aethiopica by the University of Hamburg. Following the sensational finds of traces of Sabean culture in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, an excavation campaign by the German Archaeological Institute lasting several years in preparation.
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) supports nearly 200 Ethiopian students every year and also funds several short-term and long-term lectureships for German academics. Since the summer semester of 2006, German has been offered as a regular minor subject at Addis Ababa University. Outside Ethiopia’s Goethe Institute, German has so far only been taught at the German, French and Norwegian schools there.
Germany made a visible contribution to Ethiopia’s cultural landscape by restoring a Modern Art Museum in Addis Ababa with funds from the Federal Foreign Office’s Cultural Preservation Programme. The museum was opened in 2008.
The programme work of the Goethe Institute in Addis Ababa focuses in particular on linking culture and development. Issues relating to cultural identity and cultural modernization are an important feature of its programmes. The Institute also has an information centre and language course department.
The German Embassy School in Addis Ababa currently has nearly 150 pupils and about 50 young children in its kindergarten. All German qualifications can be obtained up to and including grade 10. Since the 2004/05 school year, the school has again had an extended upper school section leading to the International Baccalaureat (IB). Since the 2007/08 school year, the School has once again been allowed to admit Ethiopian nationals.
