Last updated in January 2010
Political relations
Germany and the United States of America are bound by a robust friendship founded on shared experience, values and interests.
Germany owes much to the US: In the post-war period the United States initially provided political support and economic assistance under the Marshall Plan to West Germany. Without the United States as guarantor of freedom in the decades of the Cold War, 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, inviolable freedom on the one hand and the rule of law and participation on the other. In associations such as the United Nations, both pursue freedom, democracy and human rights – but also free trade, prosperity and sustainable development for all the world’s peoples.
There is intensive cooperation between Germany and the US in the fight against international terrorism. Together with its allies, Germany is assisting in conflict management, 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 development aid. In connection with Iraq, Germany is providing humanitarian assistance and is prepared, in cooperation with the United Nations, to support civilian and economic reconstruction and the training of Iraqi security forces.
Alongside the war on terrorism, close cooperation between the security services and the future of the Middle East, bilateral US-German relations focus on security issues, in particular the transatlantic security alliance (NATO), the joint mission in Afghanistan and preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapon capability as part of the E3 plus 3 process.
The good professional 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 meeting 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 – 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 sensitive relationship with six million Jewish Americans is a special facet of our bilateral relations. The German government and parliament maintain active contacts and dialogue with Jewish-American organizations to foster mutual understanding.
Economic relations
There are few problems in German-US economic relations. The Transatlantic Economic Partnership between the USA and the EU, which was launched in 2007 on Germany’s initiative, opens 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. 2007 saw once again an increase in the volume of bilateral trade in goods (on a dollar basis). German exports to the US grew by 5.9% and German imports from the US by as much as 20.2% compared with 2006. This trend is due in part to the favourable effect of the dollar/euro exchange rate on US exports.
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
German exports to US (USD billion) | 84.8 | 89.1 | 94.4 |
German imports from US (USD billion) | 34.1 | 41.3 | 49.7 |
(Figures from the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis)
The two countries are important to each other as locations for investment: the US is the main investment destination for German companies and the second-largest foreign investor in Germany, after the Netherlands. According to the latest figures available from the German Federal Bank, American direct investment in Germany was worth approx. EUR 74 billion at the end of 2005, a slight decrease compared with the previous year (approx. EUR 86 billion). On the other hand, German direct investment in the US amounted to around EUR 155 billion at the end of 2005, a marked increase over the previous year (approx. EUR 135 billion). According to figures issued by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2005 Germany ranked third among foreign direct investors in the US, after the United Kingdom and Japan. By contrast, Germany ranks only sixth as a destination for American direct investment, after the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and Bermuda.
| 2004 (EUR billion) | 2005 (EUR billion) |
German direct investment in US | 135 | 155 |
US direct investment in Germany | 86 | 74 |
(Figures from the German Federal Bank)
Cultural relations
Cultural relations are wide-ranging. Every year hundreds of thousands of people travel across the Atlantic – as tourists, visitors in the many exchange programmes or as artists and performers, scientists, academics and students.
Some 16 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 us. Hundreds of thousands of German students have studied in the US. German takes third place after Spanish and French among the foreign languages taught at private secondary schools, colleges and universities in the US.
Today, some 46 million Americans are of German descent. However, unlike the Italians, Poles or Irish, for instance, German-Americans are not a cohesive group exerting an influence on political life in the US. While there are an almost endless number of German-American associations, they are devoted more or less exclusively 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 disaster relief and efforts to settle international conflicts. 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, 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.
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 a number of liaison officers in important sections of the armed forces. Since 1964, over 1,500 members of the armaments section have been deployed for a year with the US armed forces under various exchange programmes.
