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 Germany |  El Salvador |
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El Salvador–Germany relations are relations betweenGermany andEl Salvador.
In 1851,Franz Hugo Hesse became thePrussian ambassador toCentral America, and in 1853 he appointed his own consular agent for El Salvador and concluded a trade agreement with the country. In the period that followed, Germany became an important trading partner for the Central American states, although German investment was more concentrated inCosta Rica andGuatemala, where some German immigrants also settled. Occasionally, Germans also came to El Salvador. The name of the Salvadoran municipalityBerlín is said to come from Serafín Brennen, a German who, after a ship accident, is said to have been stranded on the Salvadoran coast. He settled in the village of Agua Caliente, which is now called Berlín, and convinced the inhabitants to rename the village after the German capital. For this reason, the municipality's current flag is an almost identical copy of theGerman flag.
The events of the two world wars destroyed Germany's influence in the region. DuringWorld War II, El Salvador declared war onNazi Germany in December 1941. Relations were finally resumed in 1951, when Eugen Klee became the envoy of the Federal Republic of Germany in El Salvador. In the 1960s, Germany began providing development aid in the country and in 1965 a German school was opened in the country.[1]
In 1979,José Napoleón Duarte came to power in El Salvador and abrutal civil war broke out between the government and theFMLN. East Germany supported the FMLN, as did left-wing groups in West Germany, which formed solidarity committees. The German left-wing newspaperDie Tageszeitung even launched a fundraising campaign called “Arms for El Salvador” and collected 4.7 millionGerman Marks in private donations to arm the FMLN guerrillas, handing the funds over to the group in 1992, shortly before a ceasefire was signed.[2] In 1982, members of the conservativeCDU party in theBundestag questioned the legality of theTageszeitung's actions.[3]
After theGerman reunification, both sides signed a financial cooperation agreement in 1993.[1] In 2000, El Salvador moved its embassy fromBonn to Berlin.
In 2024, German exports of goods to El Salvador amounted to 155 million euros and imports from the country to 79 million euros. This put El Salvador in 123rd place in the ranking of Germany's trading partners.[4] Germany is one of the most important importers of Salvadoran coffee. A German Chamber of Industry and Commerce inSan Salvador promotes mutual trade relations.[5]
Germany provided development assistance to El Salvador for over 50 years. In recent times, project funding has been provided primarily through theCentral American Integration System.[5]
The German-Salvadoran Cultural Forum is entrusted with promoting mutual cultural relations.[6] There is a German school in El Salvador. In addition, several political foundations, church institutions and non-governmental organizations from Germany are active in the country.[5]
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