 | |
 Germany |  United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Diplomatic mission | |
| Embassy of Germany, London | Embassy of the United Kingdom, Berlin |
| Envoy | |
| AmbassadorMiguel Berger since March 2022[1] | AmbassadorAndrew Jonathan MitchellCMG since September 2024 |
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The bilateral relations betweenGermany and theUnited Kingdom span hundreds of years. The countries were allied for hundreds of years in theLate Middle Ages[citation needed] and, while they were on opposite sites in the two world wars in the 20th century, they have been aligned since the end of World War II.
DuringClassical antiquity and theMigration Period, the progenitors of the populations of the United Kingdom and Germany consisted of the sameIngvaeonic andElbe Germanic peoples.
Relations were very strong in theLate Middle Ages when the German cities of theHanseatic League traded withEngland andScotland.
Before theUnification of Germany in 1871, Britain was often allied in wartime with German states, includingPrussia. The royal families often intermarried. TheHouse of Hanover (1714–1837) ruled the smallElectorate of Hanover, later theKingdom of Hanover, as well as Britain.Queen Victoria, known as thegrandmother of Europe, marriedPrince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and further diplomatic marriages would result in their grandchildren occupying both the British and German thrones.
Historians have long focused on the diplomatic and naval rivalries between Germany and Britain after 1871 to search for the root causes of the growing antagonism that led toWorld War I. In recent years, historians have paid greater attention to the mutual cultural, ideological and technological influences.[2]
Germany, as theGerman Empire, fought against the United Kingdom andits allies inWorld War I between 1914 and 1918; and, asNazi Germany, against the United Kingdom andallied forces inWorld War II between 1939 and 1945. Germany was defeated by the United Kingdom and its allies in both wars. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, Germany wasoccupied by the allied forces, including the United Kingdom, from 1945 to 1955, after which it was divided intoWest Germany andEast Germany.
The United Kingdom became close allies with West Germany during theCold War, through West Germany's integration into the 'Western world'. Contrastingly, relations between East Germany and the United Kingdom were poor owing to the former’s alliance with theSoviet Union during the Cold War.
West Germany was a founding member of theEuropean Communities, later to become theEuropean Union, which the United Kingdom joined in 1973. West Germany and the United Kingdom were among the most powerful countries in the organisation, both having significant influence on its development. Germany broadly favouredEuropean integration, whereas the United Kingdom generallyopposed it.
East and West Germany reunified in 1990 following the fall of theBerlin Wall in 1989, which marked the end of the Cold War, hence an improvement of the relationship between East Germany and the United Kingdom, with which she had developed along with West Germany.
Through membership of the European Union, trade and cooperation with the United Kingdom significantly increased in many areas, particularly inresearch and development which has created enduring links between the science and university communities of Germany and the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is the second largest consumer of Germanmotor vehicles after Germany herself.
In areferendum on continued membership of the European Union in 2016, the United Kingdom voted to withdraw from the European Union andleft the bloc on 31 January 2020 after 47 years of membership. Despite a slight reduction in trade afterwards, the amity between the countries remain strong in many areas, which has been reinforced by their joint response to theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[3]
UK Government data reports 126,000 German nationals were living in the United Kingdom in 2013[4] and German Government data reports 107,000 British nationals living in Germany in 2016.[5]Both countries are members of theCouncil of Europe andNATO. Germany is aEuropean Union member and the United Kingdom is aformer European Union member.
English and German are bothWest Germanic languages. Modern English has diverged significantly after absorbing more French influence after 1066. English has its roots in the languages spoken byGermanic peoples from mainland Europe, more specifically various peoples that came from what is now the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, including a people called theAngles after whom theEnglish are named. Many everyday words in English are of Germanic origin and are similar to their German counterparts, and more intellectual and formal words are of French, Latin or Greek origin, but German tends to formcalques of many of these. English has become a dominant world language and is widely studied in Germany. German, in the 19th and the early 20th centuries, was an important language of science and technology, but it has now largely lost that role. In English schools, German was a niche language and much less important than French. German is no longer widely studied in Britain, except at the A-level in secondary schools.[6]
There is a long history of trade relations between the Germans and the British. TheHanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds, and its market towns dominated trade along the coast ofNorthern Europe. It stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea in the 13th to the 17th centuries, and it included London. The main centre wasLübeck. The League facilitated trade between London and its numerous cities, most of them controlled by German merchants. It also opened up trade with the Baltic.[7]
Until the late 17th century, marriages between the English and German royal families were uncommon.Empress Matilda, the daughter ofHenry I of England, was married between 1114 and 1125 toHenry V, Holy Roman Emperor, but they had no issue. In 1256,Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, was electedKing of Germany, and his sons were surnamed Almain. Throughout this period, thesteelyard of London was a typical German business settlement. German mercenaries were hired in theWars of the Roses.
Anne of Cleves was the consort ofHenry VIII, but it was not untilWilliam III of England that a king of German origin came to reign, from theHouse of Nassau.Prince George of Denmark, from theHouse of Oldenburg, was the consort of his successorQueen Anne who had no surviving children.
In 1714,George I, a German-speaking Hanoverian prince of mixed British and German descent, ascended to the British throne, founding theHouse of Hanover.[8] For over a century, Britain's monarchs were also rulers of Hanover (first asPrince Electors of the Holy Roman Empire and then asKings of Hanover). There was only apersonal union, and both countries remained quite separate, but the king lived in London. British leaders often complained that Kings George I, who barely spoke any English, and George II were heavily involved in Hanover and distorted British foreign policy for the benefit of Hanover, a small, poor, rural and unimportant country inWestern Europe.[9] In contrast,King George III never visited Hanover in the 60 years (1760–1820) that he ruled it. Hanover was occupied by France during theNapoleonic Wars, but some Hanoverian troops fled to England to form theKing's German Legion, an ethnic German unit in theBritish army. The personal link with Hanover finally ended in 1837, with the accession ofQueen Victoria to the British throne, while obtainingHeligoland fromDenmark. The semi-Salic law prevented her from being on the throne of Hanover since a male relative was available.
Every British monarch from George I toGeorge V in the 20th century took a German consort. Queen Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother,Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and married her first cousinPrince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Their daughter,Princess Victoria, marriedPrince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia in 1858, who became Crown Prince three years later. Both were liberals, admired Britain and detested German ChancellorOtto von Bismarck, but Bismarck had the ear of the elderly GermanEmperor Wilhelm I, who died in 1888. Friedrich Wilhelm now became Emperor Fredrich III until he died only 99 days later, and Princess Victoria became Empress of Germany. Her son became EmperorWilhelm II and forced Bismarck to retire two years later.[10]
Wilhelm, the grandson of Queen Victoria, had a love-hate relationship with Britain. He visited it often and was well-known in its higher circles, but he recklessly promoted the great expansion of theImperial German Navy, which was a potential threat that the British government could not overlook. A humiliating crisis came with theDaily Telegraph Affair of 1908. While on an extended visit to Britain, the Kaiser had a series of conversations with his host,Edward Stuart-Wortley. In the hope that it would help improve British–German relations, he gave his notes, with Wilhelm's permission, toThe Daily Telegraph, which wrote them up in the form of an interview. The result, which Wilhelm approved, was full of his bombast and exaggerations. He was quoted as calling the British populace "mad, mad as March hares" for questioning his peaceful intentions and sincere desire for peace with England, although he admitted that the German populace was in general "not friendly" toward England. The "interview" caused a sensation around Europe, demonstrating that the Kaiser was utterly without tact in diplomatic affairs. The British had already decided that Wilhelm was at least somewhat mentally disturbed and saw the interview as further evidence of his unstable personality rather than an indication of official German hostility.[11] The affair was much more serious in Germany, where he was nearly unanimously ridiculed. He thereafter played mostly a ceremonial role in major state affairs.[12]
The British Royal family retained the German surnamevon Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha until 1917, when, in response to anti-German feelings during World War I, it was legally changed to the more British nameHouse of Windsor. In the same year, all members of the British Royal Family gave up their German titles, and all German relatives who were fighting against the British in the war were stripped of their British titles by theTitles Deprivation Act 1917.
Ideas flowed back and forth between the two nations.[2] Refugees from Germany's repressive regimes often settled in Britain, most notablyKarl Marx andFriedrich Engels. Advances in technology were shared, as in chemistry.[13] Over 100,000 German immigrants also came to Britain. Germany was one of the world's main centres for innovative social ideas in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. The BritishLiberal welfare reforms, around 1910, led by theLiberalsH. H. Asquith andDavid Lloyd George, adoptedBismarck's system ofsocial welfare.[14] Ideas ontown planning were also exchanged.[15]
The British Foreign Office at first was poorly served by a series of ambassadors who provided only superficial reports on the dramatic internal German developments of the 1860s. That changed with the appointment ofOdo Russell (1871–1884), who developed a close rapport with Bismarck and provided in depth coverage of German developments.[16]
Britain gave passive support to the unification under Prussian domination for strategic, ideological and business reasons. The German Empire was considered a useful counterbalance on the Continent to both France and Russia, the two powers that worried Britain the most. The threat from France in the Mediterranean and from Russia inCentral Asia could be neutralised by a judicious relationship with Germany. The new nation would be a stabilising force, and Bismarck especially promoted his role in stabilising Europe and in preventing any major war on the continent. British Prime MinisterWilliam Ewart Gladstone, however, was always suspicious of Germany, disliked its authoritarianism and feared that it would eventually start a war with a weaker neighbour.[17] The ideological gulf was stressed byLord Arthur Russell in 1872:
Britain was looking inward and avoided picking any disputes with Germany but made it clear, in the"war in sight" crisis of 1875, that it would not tolerate apre-emptive war by Germany on France.[19]
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Bismarck built a complex network of European alliances that kept the peace in the 1870s and 1880s. The British were building up their empire, but Bismarck strongly opposed colonies as too expensive. When public opinion and elite demand finally made him, in the 1880s,grab colonies in Africa and the Pacific, he ensured that conflicts with Britain were minimal.[20][21]
Relations between Britain and Germany improved as the key policymakers,Prime Minister Lord Salisbury and Chancellor Bismarck, were both realistic conservatives and largely both agreed on policies.[22] There were even several proposals for a formal treaty relationship between Germany and Britain, but they went nowhere, as Britain preferred to stand in what it called "splendid isolation."[23] Nevertheless, a series of developments steadily improved their relations down to 1890, when Bismarck was pushed out by the aggressive Wilhelm II.
Coming to power in 1888, the young Wilhelm dismissed Bismarck in 1890 and sought aggressively to increase Germany's influence in the world (Weltpolitik). Foreign policy was controlled by the erratic Kaiser, who played an increasingly-reckless hand[24] and by the leadership ofFriedrich von Holstein, a powerful civil servant in the Foreign Office.[25] Wilhelm argued that a long-term coalition between France and Russia had to fall apart, Russia and Britain would never get together and Britain would eventually seek an alliance with Germany. Russia could not get Germany to renew its mutual treaties and so formed a closer relationship with France in the 1894Franco-Russian Alliance since both were worried about German aggression. Britain refused to agree to the formal alliance that Germany sought. Since Germany's analysis was mistaken on every point, the nation was increasingly dependent on theTriple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy. That was undermined by the ethnic diversity of Austria-Hungary and its differences with Italy. The latter, in 1915, would switch sides.[26]
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In January 1896 Wilhelm escalated tensions with hisKruger telegram, congratulating BoerPresident Kruger of theTransvaal for beating off theJameson raid. German officials in Berlin had managed to stop the Kaiser from proposing a Germanprotectorate over the Transvaal. In theSecond Boer War, Germany sympathised with the Boers.[27]
Under German Foreign MinisterBernhard von Bülow, it was the new policy for Germany to assert its claim to be a global power. Bismarck's conservativism was abandoned, as Germany was intent on challenging and upsetting international order.[28][29] Thereafter relations deteriorated steadily. Britain began to see Germany as a hostile force and moved to friendlier relationships with France.[30]
TheRoyal Navy dominated the globe in the 19th century, but after 1890, Germany attempted to achieve parity. The resulting naval race heightened tensions between the two nations. In 1897 Admiral Tirpitz became German Naval Secretary of State and began the transformation of German Navy from small, coastal defence force to a fleet that was meant to challenge British naval power. Tirpitz calls forRisikoflotte (Risk Fleet) that would make it too risky for Britain to take on Germany, as part of a wider bid to alter the international balance of power decisively in Germany's favour.[31][32][33]
TheGerman Navy, under Tirpitz, had ambitions to rival the greatBritish Navy and dramatically expanded its fleet in the early 20th century to protect the colonies and to exert power worldwide.[34] Tirpitz started a programme of warship construction in 1898. In 1890, to protect its new fleet. Germany traded the strategic island ofHeligoland in theNorth Sea with Britain. In exchange, Britain gained theEastern African island ofZanzibar, where it proceeded to construct a naval base.[35] The British, however, were always well ahead in thenaval race and introduced the highly advancedDreadnought battleship in 1907.[36]
In theFirst Moroccan Crisis of 1905, there was nearly war between Germany against Britain and France over a French attempt to establish a protectorate overMorocco. The Germans were upset at not being informed. Wilhelm made a highly provocative speech for Moroccan independence. The following year, a conference was held at Algeciras in which all of the European powers except Austria-Hungary (now increasingly seen as little more than a German satellite) sided with France. A compromise was brokered by theUnited States for the French to relinquish some of their control over Morocco.[37]
In 1911, France prepared to send more troops into Morocco. German Foreign MinisterAlfred von Kiderlen-Waechter was not opposed to that if Germany had compensation elsewhere inAfrica, in theFrench Congo. He sent a small warship, theSMS Panther, toAgadir, made saber-rattling threats and whipped up anger by German nationalists. France and Germany soon agreed on a compromise, with France gaining control of Morocco and Germany gaining some of the French Congo. TheBritish cabinet, however, was angry and alarmed at Germany's aggression. Lloyd George made a dramatic "Mansion House" speech that denounced the German move as an intolerable humiliation. There was talk of war until Germany backed down, and relations remained sour.[38]
The Liberal Party controlled the British government in 1914 and was averse to war with anyone and wanted to remain neutral as the First World War suddenly erupted inJuly 1914. Since relations with Germany regarding colonies and the naval race had improved in 1914 it did not expect trouble. However Liberal Prime MinisterH.H. Asquith and especially Foreign MinisterEdward Grey were committed to defending France, which was weaker than Germany. The Conservative Party was very hostile to Germany as a threat both to Britain and to France. The emerging Labour Party and other socialists denounced the war as a capitalist device to maximize profits.
In 1907, the leading German expert in the Foreign Office,Eyre Crowe, wrote a memorandum for senior officials that warned vigorously against German intentions.[39] Crowe argued that Berlin wanted "hegemony... in Europe, and eventually in the world". Crowe argued that Germany presented a threat to thebalance of power as that ofNapoleon. Germany would expand its power unless the 1904Entente Cordiale with France was upgraded to a fullmilitary alliance.[40] Crowe was taken seriously, especially because he was born in Germany. During a secret diplomatic mission in 1914,Baron Sir Tyrrell negotiated with diplomatGottlieb von Jagow on a security trade agreement and military alliance with Germany.[41]
In Germany, left-wing parties, especially theSocial Democratic Party (SPD), in the1912 German election, won a third of the vote and the most seats for the first time. German historianFritz Fischer famously argued that theJunkers, who dominated Germany, wanted an external war to distract the population and to whip up patriotic support for the government.[42] Other scholars, likeNiall Ferguson, think that German conservatives were ambivalent about war and that they worried that losing a war would have disastrous consequences and that even a successful war might alienate the population if it was long or difficult.[43]
In explaining why neutral Britain went to war with Germany,Paul Kennedy, inThe Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860–1914 (1980), argued Germany had become economically more powerful than Britain. Kennedy downplayed the disputes over economic trade and imperialism. There had long been disputes over theBaghdad Railway which Germany proposed to build through theOttoman Empire. An amicable compromise on the railway was reached in early 1914 so it played no role in starting the July Crisis. Germany relied upon time and again on sheer military power, but Britain began to appeal to moral sensibilities. Germany saw its invasion of Belgium as a necessary military tactic, and Britain saw it as a profound moral crime, a major cause of British entry into the war. Kennedy argues that by far the main reason for the war was London's fear that a repeat of 1870, when Prussia led other German states to smash France, would mean Germany, with a powerful army and navy, would control theEnglish Channel and northwestern France. British policymakers thought that would be a catastrophe for British security.[44]
In 1839, Britain, Prussia, France, and the Netherlands agreed to theTreaty of London that guaranteed the neutrality ofBelgium. Germany violated that treaty in 1914, with its chancellorTheobald von Bethmann Hollweg ridiculing the treaty a "scrap of paper". That ensured that Liberals would join Conservatives in calling for war. HistorianZara Steiner says that in response to the German invasion of Belgium:
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The great German offensive on the Western Front in spring 1918 almost succeeded. The Germans broke through into open country but outran their supplies and artillery support. By summer 1918, American soldiers were arriving on the front at 10,000 a day, but Germany was unable to replace its casualties and its army shrank every day.[citation needed] A series of huge battles in September and October produced sweeping Allied victories, and the German High Command, under Field MarshalPaul von Hindenburg, saw it had lost and told Wilhelm to abdicate and go into exile.[citation needed]
In November, the new republic negotiated an armistice, hoping to obtain lenient terms based on theFourteen Points of US PresidentWoodrow Wilson. Instead, the terms amounted almost to a surrender: Allied forces occupied Germany up the River Rhine, and Germany was required to disarm, losing its war gains, colonies and navy. By keeping the food blockade in place, the Allies were determined to starve Germany until it agreed to peace terms.[46][47]
In the1918 election, only days later, British Prime MinisterLloyd George promised to impose a harsh treaty on Germany. At theParis Peace Conference in early 1919, however, Lloyd George was much more moderate than France and Italy, but he still agreed to force Germany to admit starting the war and to commit to paying the entire cost of the Allies in the war, including veterans' benefits and interest.[48]
From 1920 to 1933, Britain and Germany were on generally good terms, as shown by theLocarno Treaties[49] and theKellogg–Briand Pact, which helped reintegrate Germany into Europe.
At the 1922Genoa Conference, Britain clashed openly with France over the amount of reparations to be collected from Germany. In 1923, Franceoccupied the Ruhr industrial area of Germany after Germany defaulted in its reparations. Britain condemned the French move and largely supported Germany in theRuhrkampf (Ruhr Struggle) between the Germans and the French. In 1924, Britain forced France to make major reductions on the amount of reparations Germany had to pay.[50]
The Dawes Plan (1924–1929) stabilised the German currency and lowered reparations payments, allowing Germany to access capital markets (mostly American) for the money it owed the Allies in reparations, although the payments came at the price of a high foreign debt.[51] Much of the money returned to Britain, which then paid off its American loans. From 1931, German payments to Britain were suspended. Eventually, in 1951, West Germany would pay off the World War I reparations that it owed to Britain.[52]
With the coming to power ofHitler and the Nazis in 1933, relations worsened. In 1934, a secret report by the British Defence Requirements Committee called Germany the "ultimate potential enemy against whom all our 'long range' defence policy must be directed,"[53][54] and called for an expeditionary force of five mechanised divisions and fourteen infantry divisions. However, budget restraints prevented the formation of a large force.[55]
In 1935, the two nations agreed to theAnglo-German Naval Agreement to avoid a repeat of the pre-1914 naval race.[56]
By 1936,appeasement was British effort to prevent war or at least to postpone it until the British military was ready. Appeasement has been the subject of intense debate for 70 years by academics, politicians and diplomats. Historians' assessments have ranged from condemnation for allowing Hitler's Germany to grow too strong to the judgement that it was in Britain's best interests and that there was no alternative.
At the time, the concessions were very popular, especially theMunich Agreement in 1938 of Germany, Britain, France and Italy.[57]
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Germany and Britain fought each other from the British declaration of war, in September 1939, to the German surrender, in May 1945.[58][59] The war continues to loom large in the British public memory.[60]
At the beginning of the war, Germany crushedPoland. In spring 1940, Germany astonished the world by quicklyinvadingtheLow Countries andFrance, driving the British army off the Continent and seizing most of its weapons, vehicles and supplies. War was brought to the British skies in theBattle of Britain in late summer 1940, but the aerial assault was repulsed, which stoppedOperation Sealion, the plans for the invasion of Britain.
The British Empire was standing alone against Germany, but the United States greatly funded and supplied the British. In December 1941, United States entered the war against Germany and Japan after the attack onPearl Harbor by Japan, which also later overwhelmed British outposts in the Pacific fromHong Kong toSingapore.
The Allied invasion of France onD-Day in June 1944 as well asstrategic bombing and land forces all contributed to the final defeat of Germany.[61]
As part of theYalta Agreement andPotsdam Agreement, Britain took control ofits own sector inoccupied Germany. It soon merged its sector with theAmerican andFrench sectors, and that territory became the independent nation ofWest Germany in 1949. The British played a central role in theNuremberg trials of major war criminals in 1946. In Berlin, the British, American, and French zones were joined intoWest Berlin, and the four occupying powers kept official control of the city until 1991.[62][63]
Much of Germany's industrial plant fell within the British zone and there was trepidation that rebuilding the old enemy's industrial powerhouse would eventually prove a danger to British security and compete with the battered British economy. One solution was to build up a strong, freetrade union movement in Germany. Another was to rely primarily on American money, through theMarshall Plan, that modernised both the British and German economies, and reduced traditional barriers to trade and efficiency. It was Washington, not London, that pushed Germany and France to reconcile and join in theSchumann Plan of 1950 by which they agreed to pool their coal and steel industries.[64]
With the United States taking the lead, Britain with itsRoyal Air Force played a major supporting role in providing food and coal to Berlin in theBerlin airlift of 1948–1949. The airlift broke the Soviet blockade which was designed to force the Western Allies out of the city.[65]
In 1955, West Germany joinedNATO, whileEast Germany joined theWarsaw Pact. Britain at this point did not officially recognise East Germany. However the left wing of theLabour Party, breaking with the anti-communism of the postwar years, called for its recognition. This call heightened tensions between the British Labour Party and theGerman Social Democratic Party (SPD).[66]
After 1955, Britain decided to rely on relatively inexpensivenuclear weapons as a deterrent against the Soviet Union, and a way to reduce its very expensive troop commitments in West Germany. London gained support from Washington and went ahead with the reductions while insisting it was maintaining its commitment to the defence of Western Europe.[67]
Britain made two applications for membership in the Common Market (European Community). It failed in the face of the French veto in 1961, but its reapplication in 1967 was eventually successful, with negotiations being concluded in 1972. The diplomatic support of West Germany proved decisive.
In 1962, Britain secretly assured Poland of its acceptance ofthe latter's western boundary. West Germany had been ambiguous about the matter. Britain had long been uneasy with West Germany's insistence on the provisional nature of the boundary. On the other hand, it was kept secret so as not to antagonise Britain's key ally in its quest to enter the European Community.[68]
In 1970, the West German government under ChancellorWilly Brandt, the former mayor of West Berlin, signeda treaty with Poland recognizing and guaranteeing the borders of Poland.
In 1990, United Kingdom prime ministerMargaret Thatcher at first opposedGerman reunification but eventually accepted theTreaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany.[69]
Since 1945, Germany hosts several British military installations in Western part of the country as part ofBritish Forces Germany. Both countries are members ofNATO, and share strong economic ties.David McAllister, the formerminister-president of the German state ofLower Saxony, son of a Scottish father and a German mother, holds British andGerman citizenship. Similarly, the former leader of theScottish National Party in the BritishHouse of Commons,Angus Robertson is half German, as his mother was from Germany. Robertson speaks fluent German and English.
In 1996, Britain and Germany established a sharedembassy building in Reykjavik. Celebrations to open the building were held on 2 June 1996 and attended by the British Foreign Secretary at the time,Malcolm Rifkind, and the then Minister of State at the German Foreign Ministry,Werner Hoyer, and the Icelandic Foreign MinisterHalldór Ásgrímsson. The commemorative plaque in the building records that it is "the first purpose built co-located British-German chancery building in Europe".[70]
In October 2024 theTrinity House Agreement between both countries defence ministers was signed to "deepen defence cooperation across all domains".[71] In July 2025 both concluded theKensington Treaty deepening relations further. German CancellorFriedrich Merz called the treaty a "historic day for German-British relations".[72]
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Aberdeen,Aberdeenshire and
Regensburg,BavariaAberystwyth,Ceredigion andKronberg im Taunus,HesseAbingdon,Oxfordshire andSchongau,BavariaAmersham,Buckinghamshire andBensheim,HesseAshford,Kent andBad Münstereifel,North Rhine-WestphaliaBarking and Dagenham,London andWitten,North Rhine-WestphaliaBarnet,London andTempelhof-Schöneberg,BerlinBarnsley,South Yorkshire andSchwäbisch Gmünd,Baden-WürttembergBasingstoke,Hampshire andEuskirchen,North Rhine-WestphaliaBath,Somerset andBraunschweig,Lower SaxonyBedford,Bedfordshire andBamberg,BavariaBelfast andBonn,North Rhine WestphaliaBeverley,East Riding of Yorkshire andLemgo,North Rhine WestphaliaBiggleswade,Bedfordshire and,Erlensee,Main-Kinzig-KreisBirmingham andFrankfurt,HesseBlackpool andBottrop,North Rhine-WestphaliaBlyth,Northumberland andSolingen,North Rhine-WestphaliaBolton,Greater Manchester andPaderborn,North Rhine-WestphaliaBracknell,Berkshire andLeverkusen,North Rhine-WestphaliaBrentwood,Essex andRoth,BavariaBristol andHanover,Lower SaxonyBromley,London andNeuwied,Rhineland-PalatinateCambridge,Cambridgeshire andHeidelberg,Baden-WürttembergCannock,Staffordshire andDatteln,Baden-WürttembergCardiff,South Glamorgan andStuttgart,Baden-WürttembergCarlisle,Cumbria andFlensburg,Schleswig-HolsteinChelmsford,Essex andBacknang,Baden-WürttembergCheltenham,Gloucestershire andTrier,MoselleChesham,Buckinghamshire andFriedrichsdorf,HesseChester,Cheshire andLörrach,Baden-WürttembergChesterfield,Derbyshire andDarmstadt,HesseChristchurch,Dorset andAalen,Baden-WürttembergCirencester,Gloucestershire andItzehoe,Schleswig-HolsteinCleethorpes,North East Lincolnshire andKönigswinter,North Rhine-WestphaliaColchester,Essex andWetzlar,HesseCoventry,West Midlands andDresden,Saxony, andKiel,Schleswig-HolsteinCrawley,West Sussex andDorsten,North Rhine-WestphaliaDarlington,County Durham andMülheim an der Ruhr,North Rhine-WestphaliaDerby,Derbyshire andOsnabrück,Lower SaxonyDevizes,Wiltshire andWaiblingen,Baden-Württemberg[73]Dronfield,Derbyshire andSindelfingen,Baden-WürttembergDundee andWürzburg,BavariaDunfermline andWilhelmshaven,Lower SaxonyDurham andTübingen,Baden-WürttembergEaling,London andSteinfurt,North Rhine-WestphaliaEdinburgh andMunich,BavariaElgin,Moray andLandshut,BavariaEllesmere Port,Cheshire andReutlingen,Baden-WürttembergEnniskillen,County Fermanagh andBrackwede,Bielefeld,North Rhine-WestphaliaEpping,Essex andEppingen,Baden-WürttembergExeter,Devon andBad Homburg vor der Höhe,HesseFareham,Hampshire andPulheim,North Rhine-WestphaliaFelixstowe,Suffolk andWesel,North Rhine-WestphaliaGlasgow andNuremberg,BavariaGlossop,Derbyshire andBad Vilbel,HesseGloucester,Gloucestershire andTrier,Rhineland-PalatinateGrantham,Lincolnshire andSankt Augustin,North Rhine-WestphaliaGreenwich,London andReinickendorf,BerlinGuildford,Surrey andFreiburg im Breisgau,Baden-WürttembergHalifax,West Yorkshire andAachen,North Rhine-WestphaliaHammersmith and Fulham,London andNeukölln,BerlinHartlepool,County Durham andHückelhoven,North Rhine-WestphaliaHavering,London andLudwigshafen am Rhein,Rhineland-PalatinateHemel Hempstead andDacorum,Hertfordshire andNeu Isenburg,HesseHereford,Herefordshire andDillenburg,HesseHerne Bay,Kent andWaltrop,North Rhine-WestphaliaHigh Wycombe,Buckinghamshire andKelkheim,HesseHillingdon,London andSchleswig,Schleswig-HolsteinHinckley,Leicestershire andHerford,North Rhine-WestphaliaHitchin,Hertfordshire andBingen am Rhein,Rhineland-PalatinateHurst Green,East Sussex andEllerhoop,Schleswig-HolsteinIlfracombe,Devon andHerxheim bei Landau/Pfalz,Rhineland-PalatinateInverness,Scotland andAugsburg,BavariaKendal,Cumbria andRinteln,Lower SaxonyKettering,Northamptonshire andLahnstein,Rhineland-PalatinateKidderminster,Worcestershire andHusum,Schleswig-HolsteinKilmarnock,Ayrshire andKulmbach,BavariaKingsbridge,Devon andWeilerbach,Rheinland-PfalzKing's Lynn,Norfolk andEmmerich am Rhein,North Rhine-WestphaliaKirkcaldy,Fife andIngolstadt,BavariaKnaresborough,North Yorkshire andBebra,HesseLancaster,Lancashire andRendsburg,Schleswig-HolsteinLeeds,West Yorkshire andDortmund,North Rhine-WestphaliaLeicester,Leicestershire andKrefeld,North Rhine-WestphaliaLeven,Fife andHolzminden,Lower SaxonyLewisham,London andCharlottenburg-Wilmersdorf,BerlinLichfield,Staffordshire andLimburg an der Lahn,HesseLincoln,Lincolnshire andNeustadt an der Weinstraße,Rhineland-PalatinateLittlehampton,West Sussex andDurmersheim,Baden-WürttembergLiverpool andCologne,North Rhine-WestphaliaLondon andBerlinLoughborough andSchwäbisch HallLuton,Bedfordshire andBergisch Gladbach,North Rhine-WestphaliaMaidenhead,Berkshire andBad Godesberg,North Rhine-WestphaliaManchester andChemnitz,SaxonyMargate,Kent andIdar-Oberstein,Rhineland-PalatinateMiddlesbrough,North Yorkshire andOberhausen,North Rhine-WestphaliaMilton Keynes,Buckinghamshire andBernkastel-Kues,Rhineland-PalatinateMorley,West Yorkshire andSiegen,North Rhine-WestphaliaMotherwell,Lanarkshire andSchweinfurt,BavariaNewcastle upon Tyne,Tyne and Wear andGelsenkirchen,North Rhine-WestphaliaNorthampton,Northamptonshire andMarburg,HesseNorwich,Norfolk andKoblenz,Rhineland-PalatinateNottingham,Nottinghamshire andKarlsruhe,Baden-WürttembergNuneaton and Bedworth,Warwickshire andCottbus,BrandenburgOakham,Rutland andBarmstedt,Schleswig-HolsteinOxford,Oxfordshire andBonn,North Rhine-WestphaliaPaisley,Renfrewshire andFürth,BavariaPerth,Perth and Kinross andAschaffenburg,BavariaPeterlee,County Durham andNordenham,Lower SaxonyPortsmouth,Hampshire andDuisburg,North Rhine-WestphaliaPotton,Bedfordshire andLangenlonsheim,Rhineland-PalatinatePreston,Lancashire andRecklinghausen,North Rhine-WestphaliaPrestwick,South Ayrshire andLichtenfels,BavariaReading,Berkshire andDüsseldorf,North Rhine-WestphaliaRedcar and Cleveland,North Yorkshire andTroisdorf,North Rhine-WestphaliaReigate,Surrey andEschweiler,North Rhine-WestphaliaRichmond upon Thames,London andKonstanz,Baden-WürttembergRossendale,Lancashire andBocholt,North Rhine-WestphaliaRoyal Tunbridge Wells,Kent andWiesbaden,HesseBorough of Runnymede,Surrey andBergisch Gladbach,North Rhine-WestphaliaRushmoor,Hampshire andOberursel,HesseSheffield,South Yorkshire andBochum,North Rhine-WestphaliaSkipton,North Yorkshire andSimbach am Inn,BavariaSolihull,West Midlands andMain-Taunus-Kreis,HesseSouth Tyneside,Tyne and Wear andWuppertal,North Rhine-WestphaliaSpalding,Lincolnshire andSpeyer,Rhineland-PalatinateSt Albans,Hertfordshire andWorms,Rhineland-PalatinateSt. Helens,Merseyside andStuttgart,Baden-WürttembergStafford,Staffordshire andDreieich,HesseStevenage,Hertfordshire andIngelheim am Rhein,Bielefeld,Rhineland-PalatinateStockport,Greater Manchester andHeilbronn,Baden-WürttembergStoke-on-Trent,Staffordshire andErlangen,BavariaSunderland,Tyne and Wear andEssen,North Rhine-WestphaliaSutton,London andCharlottenburg-Wilmersdorf,Berlin, andMinden,North Rhine-WestphaliaSwansea,West Glamorgan andMannheim,Baden-WürttembergTodmorden,West Yorkshire andBramsche,Lower SaxonyTorbay,Devon andHamelin,Lower SaxonyThurso,Caithness andBrilon,North Rhine-WestphaliaTruro,Cornwall andBoppard,North Rhine-WestphaliaUckfield,East Sussex andQuickborn,Pinneberg,Schleswig-HolsteinWallingford,Oxfordshire andBad Wurzach,Baden-WürttembergWaltham Forest,London andWandsbek,HamburgWantage,Oxfordshire andSeesen,Lower SaxonyWare,Hertfordshire andWülfrath,North Rhine-WestphaliaWarwick,Warwickshire andVerden (Aller),Lower SaxonyWaverley,Surrey andMayen-Koblenz,Rhineland-PalatinateWaterlooville,Hampshire andHenstedt-Ulzburg,Schleswig-HolsteinWatford,Hertfordshire andMainz,Rhineland-PalatinateWellingborough,Northamptonshire andWittlich,Rhineland-PalatinateWeston-super-Mare,North Somerset andHildesheim,Lower SaxonyWeymouth,Dorset andHolzwickede,North Rhine-WestphaliaWhitstable,Kent andBorken,North Rhine-WestphaliaIsle of Wight andCoburg,BavariaWindsor,Berkshire andGoslar,Lower SaxonyWitney,Oxfordshire andUnterhaching,BavariaWoking,Surrey andRastatt,Baden-WürttembergWokingham,Berkshire andErftstadt,North Rhine-WestphaliaWorcester,Worcestershire andKleve,North Rhine-WestphaliaWorkington,Cumbria andSelm,North Rhine-WestphaliaYork,North Yorkshire andMünster,North Rhine-Westphalia
