 | |
 Croatia |  Germany |
|---|---|
| Diplomatic mission | |
| Embassy of Croatia, Berlin | Embassy of Germany, Zagreb |
Croatia andGermany established diplomatic relations on 15 January 1992. Croatia has an embassy inBerlin and five consulates general inDüsseldorf,Frankfurt,Hamburg,Munich andStuttgart. Germany has an embassy inZagreb and an honorary consulate inSplit.
As of 2011[update], there were 360–400,000 people ofCroatian origin resident in Germany.[1] According to the 2011 Croatian census there is 2,902Germans in Croatia.[2] First Croat elected toBundestag isJosip Juratović (SPD) (2004–present).
Croats and other South Slavic peoples have been greatly influenced by German language and culture for centuries, though the Croats were most heavily influenced due to union with German-speaking Austria. During the Cold War,socialist Yugoslavia, of which Croatia was a member republic, enjoyed good relations with bothWest andEast Germany. Hundreds of thousands of Croatian people migrated to West Germany asGastarbeiter, and German tourists began visiting Croatia'sAdriatic coast in large numbers.
Germany has to date had close co-operations with Croatia. When Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991, many German politicians and other leaders declared support, with then German ChancellorHelmut Kohl and Foreign MinisterHans-Dietrich Genscher being one of the strongest advocates of international recognition of the newly independent Croatia.Both countries are full members of theCouncil of Europe, theEuropean Union andNATO. Germany has given full support to Croatia's membership in the European Union and NATO.
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One of the first contacts between Croats and Germans (Francia) was mentioned byGottschalk of Orbais in the description of Croatia KingTrpimir I in the 9th century. At that time, there have been acts of war between the Franks and Croats. For example, in year 838 Bavarian Duke and later KingLouis sent troops against the Croatian DukeRatimir who successfully resisted the attack. In recent times Croats connected with the German speaking countries through theCroatian union with Austria (1527–1918).
In the 17th and 18th centuries planned settlement of German-speaking population ofDanube Swabians onto the Croatian soil was conducted because some of those Croatian parts of theAustrian empire had lost a lot of population due toOttoman–Habsburg wars. Most of these immigrants settled in the Croatian villages in EasternSlavonia, especially inOsijek, and WesternSyrmia.[3]
In theFirst World War Croats fought on the side of theCentral Powers, alongsideGermany, theOttoman Empire andBulgaria. With the collapse of the dual monarchy in 1918, the Croats as well as Croatian Germans first entered theState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and in 1919Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The Germans tried to organize a German party (Partei der Deutschen) so they could be directly represented in theNational Assembly but Government prohibited that.
In 1941Hitler attacked and occupied Yugoslavia. He created a Nazi-puppet stateIndependent State of Croatia (NDH) on part of Yugoslavian territory. Many German soldiers fromWehrmacht had been deployed all across theNDH. During 1942 and 1943 even more soldiers arrived from Germany because of an increase number of attacks on the Nazis by theYugoslav partisans who were led byJosip Broz Tito.
At the end of the war, a large number of Danube Germans withdrew together with the German army. Those who remained were subjected to repression by the Yugoslav authorities which have won the war. The same persecution of Germans was implemented all across Europe by theAllies. These reprisals were caused by the statement that all Germans collectively collaborated with the German-Nazi occupiers which was not true.
In 1955,SFR Yugoslavia andWest Germany severed diplomatic relations after theHallstein Doctrine was accepted by Yugoslavia by which it recognizedEast Germany. In 1968 diplomatic relations were again established. At that year West Germany and Yugoslavia signed an agreement on labour force which allowed a large number of Croats to go to work in Germany asguest workers. Also, a large number of German tourists began coming on holiday to the Croatian coast. This tradition is maintained to this day.
Germany played an important role in 1991 during theCroatian War of Independence in the fight for recognition of newly formedRepublic of Croatia in order to stop ongoing violence in Serb-inhabited areas.Helmut Kohl requested immediate recognition of Croatia in theBundestag on 4 September 1991. Germany was criticized, mostly byUnited Kingdom,France and theNetherlands, that its rapid recognition of Croatia would aggravate finding peace settlement. These remarks were opposed by German Foreign MinisterHans-Dietrich Genscher who claimed that the recognition was arranged with the EU partners. Regardless remarks given by these three countries all of them agreed to pursue a common approach and avoid unilateral actions. On 10 October 1991, two days after the Croatian Parliament confirmed the declaration of independence, the EEC decided to postpone any decision to recognize Croatia for two months. German foreign ministerHans Dietrich Genscher later wrote that the EEC decided to recognize Croatian independence in two months if the war had not ended by then. With the war still ongoing when the deadline expired, Germany presented its decision to recognize Croatia as its "policy and duty". German position was fully supported byItaly andDenmark, while France and the UK attempted to prevent German recognition by drafting aUnited Nations resolution requesting that no country take unilateral actions which might cause the situation in Yugoslavia to get worse. Ultimately, France and the UK backed down during the Security Council debate on the matter on 14 December, when Germany appeared determined to defy the UN resolution. On 17 December 1991 the EEC formally agreed to grant Croatia diplomatic recognition on 15 January 1992 on the basis of its request and a positive opinion of theBadinter Arbitration Commission.Iceland andGermany recognized Croatia on 19 December 1991. They were the first western European countries to do so.[4][5][6][7] In addition, Germany was sending a very large amount of humanitarian aid to Croatia during the war and also received a large number of Croatian refugees.[8]
Germany was one of the strongest advocates of the Croatian accession toNATO (2009) and theEuropean Union (2013).
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