German-Greek relations

German-Greek relations

Germany	Greece

The German-Greek relations are related to European integration, in its current legal form they exist since 1951, when the Federal Republic of Germany took up with the initial twelve countries has diplomatic relations. Both states are members of NATO , the European Union , the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The Hellenic Republic has an embassy in Berlin and consulates in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart, Germany an embassy in Athens , a consulate general in Thessaloniki and honorary consulates in Chania, Igoumenitsa, Heraklion, Komotini, Corfu, Patras, Rhodes, and Samos Volos.

Since the abolition of the First Hellenic Democracy (1822–1832), German nobles ruled Greece as the absolutist kings of the Greeks (1833–1973). Since then, the majority of large German corporations have been present on Greek markets to this day.

prehistory

Ancient Greece and Byzantium

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The oldest historical reports about Germanic cultures come from encounters with the Greeks and the Roman Empire. The Greek traveler Pytheas from Massalia reported around 330 BC. About the countries around the North Sea and the peoples living there. The historical records of the so-called Germanic tribes begin in the reports of ancient writers in the 1st century BC. The oldest reference can be found around the year 80 BC. At Poseidonios of Apameia in the 30th book. There he describes how the Germanic peoples ate roasted meat as their main meal, drink milk and unmixed wine. For readers of the time, this characterization describes cultureless, uncivilized peoples. Poseidonios apparently only mentioned a people living near the Rhine, close to the Celts , Teutons, to which the Cimbri on the northern edge of the known world ( Oikoumene ) did not belong. Even Strabo labeled Germans a people he saw as a related with the Gauls.

Ύδραυλις is the ancient forerunner of the medieval όργανον, which was given to the Frankish kings as a Greek gift.

In 325 the Roman Augustus Flavius ​​Valerius Constantinus moved the capital of the empire from Ravenna to Greek Byzantium . After the administrative division of the empire in 395 under Theodosius I , the Roman Empire in the east (now known as the Byzantine Empire ) continued to develop unabated. In contrast, only a few years later, the west of the empire with its changing capitals Milan and Ravenna came under increasing pressure from the north. Both the Latin and Greek rulers in Constantinople continued to see the unity of the Roman Empire as a given. Nevertheless, from the 7th century onwards, they gradually stayed out of the day-to-day events in the West, with the result that Frankish kings arrived there, who now referred to themselves as Caesars (emperors) of the Roman Empire. In order to obtain legitimacy from the Roman Augustus, they expanded their diplomatic relations with Constantinople . A lively diplomatic exchange began. So report z. B. Carolingian chronicles that in 757 an embassy from Constantinople Pipin III. (the short one) as a gift from a όργανοv (= organ) Konstantin V. delivered. A keyboard instrument that is over a thousand years old and was played by the Greeks on official occasions (racecourse, military, church, ...) because of its richness of sound. The Franks were so impressed by this gift that later (812) Pipin's son Charles I also received a όργανοv from an embassy of the Roman Empire. Karl's son Ludwig, on the other hand, had his own organ made by a Venetian priest with a Greek name in Aachen in 826. Shortly afterwards, church princes also claimed the “imperial” instrument for their seat, so that the Greek instrument for plaza music in the west became a purely ecclesiastical one.

From the Byzantine-Frankish relations, the efforts of the Frankish king Charles I should also be mentioned in 787, his daughter Rotrud with Constantine VI. to marry the son of Irenes of Athens . Irene was first regent then Augusta of the Roman Empire for more than twenty years . The contemporary chronicler Theophanes even reports that Charles sought the hand of Irene himself. As in four or five other marriages, he planned to achieve legitimation by marrying into the respective ruling families. The applications were rejected by the Greek in order to avoid Frankish claims in the Roman Empire.
Charles I had occupied parts of the Roman Empire during his early reign, including large parts of Italy until 774. However, important centers such as Venice , Naples , Reggio and Brindisi remained free. It was not until Charles broke the Pax Nicefori and incorporated Venice in 804 that Constantinople decided to take action . Nikephorus I sent a fleet that devastated the Frankish-occupied coasts of northern Italy. Then Karl gave in and an agreement was reached in 810. This temporary military conflict is the only historically documented war between Greeks and "Germans" before 1941. As a result, bilateral relations between the Roman Empire and the Frankish Empire improved again. In order to defuse the situation further, Michael I gave Karl the long-awaited imperial title in 812 , but without any succession or hope for an Augustus title and explicitly limited to the Franconian Empire . As a gift he sent him the (above) όργανον as a gift.

Sculpture of Empress Theophano on the city hall tower of Cologne

A marital union only succeeded Otto I when, after three proposals in 972 , he was able to marry his son to the Byzantine princess Theophano , albeit again without a succession for the Roman Empire. The connection between Otto and Theophano was enriching in many ways and in some cases had a decisive effect on cultural life in Eastern Franconia . After the death of her husband, the still young Theophano took over the imperial official duties in full as "Imperator" - completely surprising for the Franks - and ruled together with her mother-in-law Adelheid until her death in 991 . Before that, however, in order to assert her position against the patriarchal structures of the Eastern Franconian Empire, she appointed the Colloquium Dominarum in 985 and secured the support of the most powerful women in the Franconian Empire. Together with Beatrix of Paris and the abbess Mathilde von Quedlinburg , the colloquium obtained the surrender of her three-year-old son Otto III, who had been kidnapped and detained by relatives because of the succession . and the recognition of their imperial power until they come of age. This self-confident demeanor of the Greek was so lasting that even after her death Adelheid was able to continue to rule as empress without any problems in order to give the crown to her grandson, the German-Greek Otto III. / Όθων Γ΄ to secure (reign of the empresses (985–994)) .

This extraordinary German-Greek connection of the tenth century also documents the then, still natural unity of the common religion in the two culturally so different realms, and in a time shortly before the East Franconians tortured the last regularly elected Greek bishop Johannes Philagathos in Rome , blinded and finally dropped in an official act. Against the wishes of the Romans, they installed the first German "Pope" Gregory instead and in 1054 finally let the fourth German Pope initiate the secession of the Roman episcopate from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople . Rome began to establish small, competing parallel churches for the next two centuries in the largest (i.e.) Greek cities of the Roman Empire, but also in Jerusalem.

After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, most of the Greek-speaking area belonged to the Ottoman Empire for four hundred years . The Greek upper class began to intensify its international relations. She established permanent branch offices, especially in European countries, where she increasingly showed presence in the international diplomacy and business world, and founded cultural associations.

Modern times

Renaissance

It is true that the term “rebirth” of the Greek cultural area in Italy was first coined in 1550 by the Sicilian artist Giorgio Vasari . According to Vasari, however, the Rinascimento was brought into being in art and architecture as early as the 13th century , namely during the Crusades . Since the occupation of Constantinople , the capital of the Roman Empire, in 1204–1261 by Frankish and Frankish-born feudal lords from northern Italy, the exodus of Greek elites BC began. a. to Italian cities that had direct relationships (family, economic, political) with the Greeks. By 1423, just 30 years before the fall of the empire, Giovanni Aurispa had traveled to the capital several times and, with the support of Johannes Palaiologos, brought hundreds of ancient texts to Italy, including works by Homer , Herodotus , Thucydides , Plato and Aristotle , before he settled as a Greek teacher at the University of Florence. Vasari's humanistic ideal was, contrary to Frankish influences on church and state, to undo the rapprochement between arts and sciences on the one hand and religion on the other.
Due to his excellent reputation and his numerous journeys between Constantinople, Bologna, Florence, Basel, Mainz, Cologne, Giovanni Aurispa established a cultural bridge in Italy between the Greek and the competing German cultures, a bridge that is currently in the process of awakening of Hellenism in the 18th and 19th centuries and its adaptation among the German cultural elites proved to be extremely positive.

Philhellenism

Card game with the likeness of the protagonists of the Greek struggle for freedom

The founding myth of the city of Frankfurt has existed since the 15th century , according to which it should be founded either as Rome as a result of the Trojan War or in honor of Helena's mother Constantine the Great as Helenopolis (Greek: "City of Helenas"). The myth was widespread until the 18th century. In his commemorative publication for the bicentenary of the first Brandenburg State University Alma Mater Viadrina in 1706 in Frankfurt (Oder), Erdmann Wircker coined the expression Spree-Athens as the name of the Prussian capital Berlin. But the Bavarian capital Munich was also called "Isar-Athens". Around the same time there was a Greek community in Leipzig , which on the one hand worked in trade, on the other hand contributed to friendships between Greeks and Germans. Goethe got to know Greeks there and also translated some poems from modern Greek, Johannes Papadopoulos in turn translated Goethe's Iphigenia from Tauris into Greek. Werner von Haxthausen edited a collection of modern Greek folk songs. In 1811 Beethoven composed The Ruins of Athens .

The preoccupation with current Greek literature was directly related to the concern for the independence of Greece and extended far beyond the mere study of ancient classics. Both Greeks abroad and Philhellenes were organized in the Philomusic Society . Among the members of the Munich branch founded in 1815, belonged to Maximilian I , as well as his son, Crown Prince Ludwig I . This glowing Philhellene even graced the state name Baiern zu Bayern and, for example, had the buildings on Munich's Königsplatz built in the ancient Greek-classical style.

The sympathy for Greece was by no means without opposition, there was already an antipathy against Eastern Christians and Greeks in particular, which was now concentrated in a criticism of philhellenism. In their work The Tyranny of Greece over Germany , Friedrich Paulsen and the British Germanist Eliza Marian Butler addressed the supposedly negative consequences of enthusiasm for Greece for the intellectual development of Germany .

France and Great Britain had already been able to come to terms with an independent Greece, while Prince Metternich tried to prevent the establishment of a state despite events such as the Chios massacre . The fact that Ludwig I was the first monarch to campaign for Greece's independence made a significant contribution to the fact that his son Otto was crowned Greece's first king in 1832 .

First research trips

Until the late 18th century there was no significant tourist traffic, and so Greece was only visited sporadically by German visitors. Hans Jacob Breuning von Buchenbach visited Athens on June 9, 1579, of which, however, no travel report has survived. In 1794 Georg August von Breitenbauch published the first German-language topography of Athens, which was surpassed by the scientific work “Attika” by Karl Otfried Müller .

The Greek Revolution

On the fringes of the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15, the envoy from Corfu and then Foreign Minister of the Russian Tsar Ioannis Antonios Graf Kapodistrias suggested the establishment of a Philomusic Society . Kapodistrias enjoyed a considerable reputation in the high diplomacy of the European monarchies. The Philomusic Society was a Greek cultural association initially established in Ottoman Athens to promote the language and culture of the population with its seat in a local monastery. Until the Congress of Vienna the sponsors were exclusively Greek and English patrons. The Philomusen Society was founded during the congress and its headquarters moved to Munich . The first director was Franz von Baader . The members came from intellectual circles and above all from the Greek bourgeoisie in its centers abroad (including Vienna, Geneva, Zurich, Munich, Leipzig). In addition to France, England and Russia, the German states now also advertised the freedom of the Greeks. With this clever move and after the first successes of the Greek Revolution from 1821, Kapodistrias established a Greek state, the recognition of which by the European states was largely due to the Philomusic Society.

At the first National Assembly in Epidavros , the first constitution was passed, which came into force on January 1, 1822. In 1827 Kapodistrias was appointed governor and two years later carried out the first democratic direct election of modern times to the National Assembly in Greece, which then confirmed him in his office. From 1832 onwards, after the intervention of England, France and Russia, Greek democracy was abolished, the constitution was suspended and a 16-year-old German was appointed absolute ruler.

King Otto and Queen Amalia

Contemporary portrait of Amalia wearing one of her favorite strapless dresses

Advertisement for Mavrodaphne from the Achaia Clauss winery

King Otto further expanded the administrative foundations of the young Greek state created by Count Ioannis Kapodistrias after the founding of the state. He too was able to win wealthy Greeks abroad as patrons for his kingdom. In terms of domestic and foreign policy, however, he did not succeed in ensuring stability. His work was attacked by the European powers that influenced the domestic politics of his country. Due to his neo-absolutist view of politics, he himself had no plans to introduce a constitution and thus enable subjects to participate. On the contrary, after the proclamation of the First Hellenic Democracy (Greek Constitution of 1822), the first democratic election in the newly founded state was held in 1828 under the tenure of its governor Ioannis Kapodistrias . Key political positions in the government and the military were occupied by people from Germany and deserved revolutionaries were persecuted. In addition, there was the contradiction that Otto (in contrast to his successor) had not become Orthodox and nevertheless became head of the newly founded Orthodox Church in Greece. The Church responded by separating from the Ecumenical Patriarchate and electing a Metropolitan of Athens (autocephaly) . Only when the Bavarian mercenary troops were contractually dissolved after 10 years (London Conference) in 1843 , Otto was induced to grant his subjects a constitution and to appoint a local as Prime Minister. As a result, the absolutist form of government was gradually relaxed under pressure from the population.

King Otto also set cultural standards: In 1833, for example, he had two “royal” Christmas trees set up in public places, one in Nauplion and one in Athens. There were crowds of people who wanted to marvel at the decorated trees. It was probably the first Christmas trees outside of the German-speaking area. In the following years the Christmas tree established itself in Greece.

Even after his abdication in 1862, King Otto of Bamberg campaigned for Greece. So he donated his apanage for a whole year to finance the arms deliveries for Cretans for their independence struggle against the Ottomans. The foundations created by Otto were intended to grant his successor George I a functioning state system and a full state treasury, which was useful for financing the wars of liberation in Greek-populated areas of the Ottoman Empire. An orientation towards the German educational system and the German legal system has remained up to the present day. Otto and his wife Amalie von Oldenburg were a popular monarch couple of the Greeks, numerous streets and even places bear their names.

First bilateral agreements

From 1833 a Greek representation was set up in Munich under Otto. The first Greek embassy in Berlin opened in 1834 when Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia . In 1839, a trade and shipping agreement between Prussia and Greece and a trade agreement between Saxony and Greece are concluded. In 1857 an agreement was signed between the Customs Union and the Republic of the Ionian Islands , which acceded to Greece in 1864.

In 1859, the then young company Siemens and Halske supplied telegraph equipment for a telegraph line that connected Greece with Turkey. By the turn of the century and the establishment of our own branch in Greece, there were at least 3 further contracts. The first large-scale export items also included chemical products and semi-finished products. In the beginning, contracts were also awarded for the construction of railways and vehicles. When the Greek state gave preference to those companies that were also prepared to take the entrepreneurial risk of the investment, railroad contracts were given as concessions to French and English investors. Greece was an important market for cannons and artillery for the Krupp company .

Empire and Weimar Republic

Wedding of Prince Andreas of Greece and Princess Alice von Battenberg in Darmstadt, 1903

Venizelos in Berlin, 1929

Tinos verde antico marble from Tinos , used by Mies van der Rohe for the construction of the Barcelona Pavilion , 1929

During colonial policy, Greece was of interest as a port and stopover to the colonies. Kaiser Wilhelm had by the heirs of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) , the Achilleion palace bought in Corfu and used as a holiday home. At the end of the 19th century numerous German institutions were founded in Greece, including the two German schools that still exist today and the German Archaeological Institute in Athens in 1872 . In 1884 a trade and shipping agreement was concluded between the German Empire and Greece.

After the Germans were not invited by the French to found the International Olympic Committee in 1894 at the Paris Sorbonne, Dimitrios Vikelas prevailed against Pierre de Coubertin to invite Germany to the 1896 Olympic Games . But in Germany, too, there was resistance from the bourgeois-nationalist German gymnastics club , which did not want to take part in the Olympic Games. The most important advocate of the Olympic idea in Germany was Willibald Gebhardt, who, with the support of Vikelas, achieved Germany's admission to the IOC. However, Germany's Olympic history begins a few years earlier, because Germany had led the excavations in ancient Olympia.

French companies in Greece took advantage of the start of the First World War and invested heavily, e. B. in railway companies. The Kingdom of Greece refused to join the Allies in the war against the German Empire . This attitude was borne by the royal couple, Konstantin from the House of Glücksburg and Sophie von Prussia - the sister of Kaiser Wilhelm - and Foreign Minister Georgios Streit . There was a split in the country. Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos took control of large parts of the country and declared war in 1917. With the declaration of war, King Constantine resigned and Greece became a republic for the second time after 1821 with Venizelos as prime minister. German-Greek relations normalized quickly immediately after the war. In 1924 the German-Greek Chamber of Commerce and Industry was founded. Venizelos took a trip to Berlin in 1929 with the aim of giving the growing exchange of goods between the two countries a political signal. He also visited the Siemens & Halske company , which had received an order for the self-dialing network in Greece; it was put into operation on February 10, 1930 and was one of the first in the world.

In relation to the previous World War, Venizelos also emphasized to Georges Clemenceau , who visited Athens a year later, that previous aversions towards Germany were exclusively based on German militarism. Venizelos asked the state of Bavaria to take the mathematician Constantin Carathéodory off from teaching for a year so that he could participate in the reform of the Greek higher education system. In 1931 the liberal member of the Reichstag Theodor Heuss visited Greece. Following a conference, he made a tour in which he reported on the country with articles. Since 1932, the German Empire was Greece's most important trading partner, both in exports and in imports. The Athens Charter (Monument Preservation) and the Athens Charter (CIAM) in 1933 were adopted , both of which shaped urban planning in Germany for many decades.

Second World War

At Berlin Airport, 1936: Spiridon Louis (in Greek costume) is admitted to the Greek heir to the throne, Paul

Surrender negotiations in 1941

German tanks in Athens, 1943

Because of its exclusively German kings since 1833, Greek foreign trade was not independent and one-sidedly directed towards Germany. Even at the time of the second Greek democracy under (the royalist) Alexandros Zaimis , Greece and Germany intensified their economic relations in the 1930s, with Greece being in a more difficult position. Its main export products, tobacco and currants, did not find enough buyers in the world because of various luxury taxes, so that Germany benefited accordingly. Greece accepted buying industrial manufactured goods above the world market average. It was economically blackmailed by its exports to Germany, a payment of the surplus was always refused, so that Greece made extensive imports, e.g. B. had to place armaments orders.

On January 30, 1933, after a democratic election in Germany, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor. In Greece there was a stalemate in the parliamentary elections in January 1936. The (German) king took the opportunity and appointed Ioannis Metaxas , the chairman of the Liberal Party (with only 7 parliamentary seats) as Prime Minister on April 13, 1936. Metaxas came from an old politician family loyal to the king and was a graduate of the Prussian War Academy . He immediately set up an authoritarian regime, for which he was given extensive legislative powers by the king before power was finally handed over to Hitler in 1941.
Since the rise of Hitler, however, the raw material deposits in Greece had been targeted by the Germans. In May 1934, Hermann Göring took a vacation trip to Greece as an opportunity to inform the political leadership "Greetings [...] and Hitler's special interest in Greece". Back in Germany, the delegation reported that “no people are more popular in Greece than the Germans”, while the Greeks were raved about the economic and social successes of National Socialism. Goering's initiative was misinterpreted in Greece as a kind of philhellenism . In fact, shortly afterwards Metaxas copied social programs of the National Socialists and introduced minimum wages and the state health and pension insurance IKA . At the same time, relations developed between the governments in the fight against communism . Warmongering and anti-Semitism were still underestimated by the Greek side.

The preliminary highlight of German-Greek relations was the Olympic Games in Berlin . For the first time, the Olympic flame was lit in Olympia and carried to Berlin with a torch relay . The Greek photographer Nelly met Leni Riefenstahl and advised her on the film Olympia . The foreign policy office of the NSDAP acquired image rights from Nelly for his publication Immortal Hellas from 1937, which had the purpose of creating a cultural connection. The games themselves were u. a. Visited by Paul of Greece, Spiridon Louis the Olympic champion from 1896 appeared as a spectator and was admitted to the Greek delegation.

Ioannis Metaxas initially tried to keep Greece out of the events of the Second World War and refused British military aid so as not to impair good relations with his former host country and his (German) King of the Greeks. On the other hand, Greece was an important bridgehead to Africa for the Axis powers and also had immense reserves of mineral resources that were important for the war. After the pro-Hellenic propaganda campaign in Germany, however, it was now difficult for the Chancellor to announce a campaign against Greece. On October 28, 1940, Greece was attacked by Mussolini's troops after an ultimatum. However, it was possible to repel the less motivated Italian troops. The actually Germany-friendly Ioannis Metaxas had organized the national defense in good time and later noted in his diary: "Better we all die than that we are subordinate to Hitler" . Shortly thereafter, in January 1941, he allegedly died of medical malpractice. From April 6, 1941, Germany reacted by invading Greece without any declaration of war. Hitler's troops met with little resistance from the military and reached Athens together with Italians, Bulgarians and volunteer Albanians in a few weeks. The (German) commander-in-chief of the Greek armed forces, George II, King of the Hellenes , had fled to Crete and later to Egypt in order not to get into the predicament of having his (German) compatriots shot. The Greeks immediately organized a National Liberation Front (EAM) against the invader. After a quarter of a million civilians starved to death in the streets of Athens during the first winter of occupation and nothing could be expected from the king, the Greeks took up military combat in the summer of 1942. By the end of the occupation in 1944, 120,000 men and women were under arms. Including numerous Italian, Albanian but also German defectors, such as B. famous members of the Penal Division 999 and the White Rose . The EAM had formed its own democratically elected government and declared the partisan army to be the regular ELAS army . Hitler had to more than double the occupation army, but lost control of the country by 1944. Until 1942, the attitude of Greece met with goodwill in Germany, especially since the king had previously refused to participate in the war on the British side. Reports that were written for soldiers (e.g. by Erhart Kästner ) paint a positive image of the country. Even though Bulgaria and Italy also participated in the occupation of Greece, the Third Reich secured the almost exclusive exploitation of the country.

From 1942 to 1944 there was a German Research Institute for Biology in Piraeus, which had been founded by the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology . The institution had already been planned in the 1930s - also as a foreign policy measure - but its work was overshadowed by the Second World War.

Economic exploitation

Until 1941, the looting of material goods was of a rather arbitrary nature, for example the clearing of Athens' shops and offices by Wehrmacht soldiers. Mussolini scoffed at this situation in Greece, saying that "the Germans themselves wore the Greeks' shoelaces."

The exploitation was then systematized. Henceforth the occupation costs were set so that they exceeded the value of the confiscated goods. Greece had to pay the highest occupation costs of any country occupied by the German Reich . When the amount reached astronomical heights, Hitler decided to rename it to construction costs in the case of Greece.

DEGRIGES (German-Greek goods equalization company) was founded on October 1st, 1942 . The purpose of the company was to withdraw property and assets from the country and to collect the occupation costs after the increase in banknotes in circulation by the Bank of Greece, which was brought into line, could no longer serve this purpose. The confiscation of all food was offset by a ridiculous amount of food distributed. This was particularly noticeable in Athens, where 300,000 people died during the great famine .

Change in war reporting from 1943: From “good” to “bad” Greeks

National Socialist ideology once classified the Greeks as noble and brave . Therefore the fight against partisans was now used as a justification for the economic plunder. Apparently, however, the partisan activity was insufficient to justify the largest looting of an occupied country. From 1943 onwards, the press, which was switched to the same line, began to suggest that the Greeks had a hatred of Germans: "... but they are Greek cafés, you can't ask them to boast a stranger," a year later it says in the Signal : “I believe that a Jew cheats on ten Greeks. Haggling is in the blood of the Greeks. Most of them do not want to know anything about regular work. ” The looming defeat later implies uncontrollability: “ This southern race of people is dominated by commercial profit-seeking and oriental laws . ” 130,000 civilians were immediately murdered by the German occupying forces and 70,000 Greek Jews were deported to extermination camps . Over 150,000 Nazi forced laborers were used both in Greece and deported to Germany. The three-and-a-half-year occupation cost Greece a total of around 500,000 to 800,000 lives, depending on the estimate, with a population of 7.2 million, of which less than 5% were military personnel.

See also : Crimes of the Wehrmacht in Greece

Commemoration and aftermath

The German fallen soldiers are buried in the German military cemetery Maleme on Crete and the German military cemetery Dionyssos-Rapendoza near Athens.

The German government viewed the persecution of perpetrators as a burden on German-Greek relations. One haggled to reduce the number of perpetrators who were to be prosecuted legally in Germany. Of 911 suspects of "murder, assault, rape, robbery, looting and arson", the federal government promised to prosecute 22 people. Most of the proceedings were discontinued after they were passed on to the state authorities.

Relations between Greece and the old Federal Republic

1949 to 1974

On March 25, 1957, the Federal Republic of Germany became a founding member of the EEC , Greece signed an association agreement with the EEC in 1961.

After the World War, Greece found itself in a civil war until 1949 , the year in which Germany was divided and the FRG was founded out of the three western zones . In 1950 the Greek consulate general opened in Bonn, and a year later a diplomatic mission from the Federal Republic of Germany opened in Athens. The Allies dismantled numerous production facilities and awarded Greece an already dismantled turbine facility from Bremen. The city suffered excessive reparations, so Greece's abandonment and reinstallation was of great importance to the economy and jobs. In October 1950 the Deputy Prime Minister of Greece Georgios Papandreou visited Bonn. The focus was on the resumption of trade relations, for example the export of Greek tobacco to Germany. Papandreou only mentioned the world war in a subordinate sentence to Adenauer . Previously, at the request of the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece had dropped numerous proceedings against German Nazis, had them acquitted, or issued pardons. The "Tobacco Agreement" was not adhered to by the German side, but it is still interpreted by both sides as a success in the relationship.

In 1952 the state of war between Germany and Greece was officially ended. Greece joined NATO on February 18, 1952 (the Federal Republic of Germany followed on May 6, 1955). On February 27, 1953, the London Debt Accord was signed. Just twenty years after the Lausanne Conference , Germany again claimed a haircut. At that time about 110 billion Reichsmarks were in debt from the by contractors Britain and France World War I and the Great Depression was adopted. This time, 60 creditor states, including Greece, which had sent delegates to the negotiations, waived a total of 42% of their claims from remaining pre-war debts and new ones from World War II .

Greece made it possible for German institutions to resume work before all other countries, for example the German Archaeological Institute Athens (before Rome and Istanbul) in 1951 , the first foreign branch of the Goethe Institute in 1952 (the activities of a German-Greek association that had existed since 1837 were partly canceled taken over) and the German Evangelical Church in 1953. On the German side, the Greek initiative was honored by the economic agreement of November 11, 1953, in which the Federal Republic granted a loan, which reached a level of 200 million DM and was interest at 2% which capital goods were bought in Germany. Unlike Turkey and Yugoslavia, for example, Greece did not receive any economic aid from the Federal Republic. The Minister Spyros Markezinis had already made contact with German companies and Ludwig Erhard on his own and had to resign when it became known. The Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Papagos , once interned in the Dachau concentration camp , was conciliatory and repeatedly praised the Federal Republic.

The Greek Prime Minister Papagos visits the House of Art in Munich, 1954

At the invitation of Greece, Konrad Adenauer visited the country in March 1954. This friendly invitation was accepted with amazement in view of the consequences of the war on the German side. During an audience with the royal couple, Adenauer's daughter Lotte presented a check for 50,000 marks with precise instructions on how it should benefit the victims of the German massacre in Kalavryta . Queen Friederike saw this as an affront and left the check on a wing, the check was cashed only later after diplomatic efforts by her German brother. After the visit to Athens, the Chancellor took the ferry to Santorini , where he reached the upper town of the island on a donkey, as is customary there. To see the Chancellor farewell, the residents organized a large firework display. In June 1954, the Greek Prime Minister Alexander Papagos visited the Federal Republic. After the federal capital Papagos visited Munich to lay wreaths on the graves of King Otto and Queen Amalie in the Theatine Church. In the fall of 1954 Ludwig Erhard visited Greece and achieved that real estate from the German Empire was only returned to the Federal Republic.

Paul, Friederike and Heuss in Bonn, 1956

The invitation of Federal President Theodor Heuss to a state visit in 1956 was of greater importance , as this broke the formal diplomatic isolation of Germany. The invitation was brought by Ernst August von Hanover , brother of the Greek queen, on behalf of the Greek king Paul . The state visit was a success. Thousands of Athenians greeted the head of state at the train station, where the welcoming ceremony was taking place. On his return to Germany, Heuss described the trip as a return to his own spiritual home . Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano took the euphoric mood as an opportunity to conclude bilateral agreements in the field of culture and education. Foreign ambassadors demonstratively stayed away from the official reception. In the same year the state visit was returned, it was the first state visit to Bonn that was received with military honors. In a parade, King Paul with Theodor Heuss and Queen Friederike followed with Konrad Adenauer in an open Mercedes 300 through the city. Further stops on the trip were Essen, Celle, Hanover, Braunschweig, Lüneburg and Munich. State interest in the visit as a newly won sovereignty, as well as jubilation and enthusiasm in the population over the visit of a royal couple complemented each other.

In 1960 the recruitment agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and Greece was concluded. It regulated the recruitment of guest workers to Germany. This topic was reflected in German popular culture in the song Greek Wine by Udo Jürgens from 1974, which deals with the problems of Greek guest workers in Germany.

Demonstration against the junta in Stuttgart on May 1st, 1967

The time of the Greek junta coincided with the social-liberal coalition and the student revolt. For economic reasons the Federal Republic continued to maintain good relations with the junta. Paul Frank officially visited Greece in September 1972 as State Secretary in the Foreign Office . During the visit the festivities for the 50th anniversary of the German-Greek Chamber of Commerce were held. For 1971 export orders from Greece totaling 371 million dollars could be obtained, including for Krupp, Siemens, Hoechst, Degussa, Kraftwerk-Union, Transformatoren-Union, Buckau-Wolff and Telefonbau & Normalzeit. Ultimately, there were domestic political reasons not to export at least some military goods. As defense minister, Helmut Schmidt only found out afterwards about negotiations between Krauss-Maffei and the Greek military leadership about a delivery of 120 Leopard tanks, which he immediately stopped. On a personal level, the resistance against the junta in Germany had established numerous friendships that went beyond political commitment. The later Prime Minister Kostas Simitis was a professor in Giessen at that time. The German wave lent their Greek language broadcasts that have been heard a lot in Greece, the opposition to the regime one vote; the later President Karolos Papoulias worked on these programs. Eberhard Rondholz reported on the trials against the participants in the Polytechnion uprising, Günter Wallraff and Der Spiegel provoked the colonel's regime and contributed to its exposure.

1974 to 1990

Greece's accession to the EEC was decided not from an economic point of view, but from a geopolitical point of view. After the end of the civil war in 1949, the Western powers hurriedly integrated the country into their military and economic alliance. On the Greek side, the (North German) King of the Greeks Paul I and his Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis (appointed in 1955) were committed to rapid entry into NATO and the association agreement with the EEC . Later, too, with Franco-German support, Karamanlis was appointed prime minister again immediately after the junta was overthrown in 1974, and he immediately prepared for joining the EEC. In 1978 he was one of the very few non-EEC personalities to receive the Charlemagne Prize of the city of Aachen and, despite the negative attitude of the Greeks (for it), signed the accession treaty a year later and immediately resigned from the office of Prime Minister. The hasty Greek accession initiated the so-called EEC southward expansion, five years before Spain and Portugal followed. The consequences were: The uncontrolled opening of the unprepared Greek markets for European corporations resulted in rapid de-industrialization. In order not to endanger the development, funding programs were set up to compensate for the worst hardships.

Germany played an important role insofar as in this geostrategically explosive time (NATO double decision 1979) the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, after initial hesitation, developed into one of the most important supporters of membership. At the beginning Schmidt is supposed to have said only about my corpse Schmidt visited Greece in 1975, about the trip he later wrote: "Apart from long, fruitful conversations with the host - a revelation for Loki and me" .

The only joint stamp issue from the two countries with the same motif was published in 1990 in honor of the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann , issued by the then German Federal Post Office and the Greek Post Office ELTA

Greek performers of pop music also published German versions of their songs in the 1970s, which were followed by compositions with a reference to Greece by German-speaking performers, including in 1974 Greek wine by Udo Jürgens.

In 1976, the Badisches Landesmuseum showed the exhibition entitled "Art and Culture of the Cyclades", which consisted largely of stolen goods, which was criticized by Greek experts. In 2014, some of the objects were returned to Greece.

In 1978 the first of around three dozen German-Greek city partnerships was concluded between Ottobrunn and Nauplia .

In 1981 Andreas Papandreou became Prime Minister and in 1982 Helmut Kohl became Federal Chancellor. At that time Greece already belonged to the Eurosceptic countries, while the Federal Republic, together with France, was one of the driving forces behind European integration. On the one hand Helmut Kohl advocated European integration, on the other hand he insisted on adopting German standards: Greece and Portugal had to end the maximum liability limit for motor insurance, while Europe-wide competition was also made possible. The argument was the greatest possible citizen protection, for citizens in the affected countries this initially means an extreme increase in insurance costs. Possible resistance to the adoption of German standards was counteracted by strengthening funding for underdeveloped regions. Since this budget was not increased after 1990, Germany was able to benefit directly from this funding for East Germany itself.

Relations between Greece and the GDR

Athens subway car: Developed for Greece in the Federal Republic and built in the GDR

Mikis Theodorakis at a meeting of the FDJ , 1989

The Soviet occupation zone and then the GDR sought contact with the Communists of Greece and supported them in the civil war. As a result, the Greek government did not recognize the GDR and only maintained diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic. Paradoxically, relations between the GDR and Greece were diplomatically and economically upgraded towards the end of the military dictatorship, after the country's suppression of the communist KKE reached its peak. Diplomatic relations with the GDR were established on May 25, 1973, and the monarchy was abolished five weeks later (1973 referendum). See also the list of ambassadors of the GDR . In the run-up to this, student activists from the Polytechnion in Athens had brought the junta into serious distress, so that it indicated a political turnaround. The unrest in the universities continued until the fall of the junta in November 1974. The attempt to reintroduce the monarchy by means of a second referendum in December 1974 failed because of the 69% vote against.

A brisk bartering developed between the two countries, both of which suffered from foreign exchange shortages. For example, agricultural products, which traditionally had to be destroyed due to overproduction, were now exported to the GDR and exchanged for industrial goods that were often not at world market level. Greece also commissioned the GDR with the license production of West German rail vehicles (intercity trains and subway cars). Even after the socialist PASOK took over government in 1981 (48%), the Communist Party of Greece could not act as an intermediary because it was not involved in the government. The first town twinning between the two countries was concluded in 1984 between Leipzig and Thessaloniki, the suggestion came from employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the GDR.

Relations with the reunified Germany

1990 to 2007

The married couples Schröder and Simitis at an event

The question of reparations to Greece was also on the agenda of the reunification talks, since the old Federal Republic had always referred to a peace treaty that had not yet been concluded. Hence the idea of ​​speaking of “instead of a peace treaty”, “for financial reasons” (according to the then State Secretary Friedrich Voss ). The two-plus-four treaty then replaced a peace treaty .

Germany was the first country to recognize Croatia and Slovenia. Greece held back and was one of the last. For Greece the following wars in Yugoslavia were an economic catastrophe, since with the closure of the transit routes to Central Europe the flow of goods could only be handled by ferries. Greek products became more expensive due to higher transport costs, imported goods were also more expensive in Greece. In 1992 Helmut Kohl received the Prime Minister Mitsotakis, who ruled the country from April 1990 to October 1993. In 1995 the Greek Cultural Foundation established its branch in Berlin, in 2001 Greece was the guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair .

Konstantinos Simitis became Prime Minister in 1996 and introduced comprehensive reforms that made the country more market-oriented.Simitis was a professor at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen from 1971 until his return to Greece after the end of the junta and maintained close contacts with Germany afterwards . Gerhard Schröder ruled from 1998. During his term of office, Agenda 2010 reformed the German social system and the labor market and strengthened Germany's competitiveness.

Greece is traditionally a popular travel destination for German tourists. So were the Germans z. B. in 2005 the largest group of foreign guests in terms of numbers and thus an important source of income for tourism in Greece .

The harbingers of a clouding of the situation in 2003–2007

Germany had the third country regulation that deportations of refugees had to take place through the countries in which they entered EU territory ( Dublin II regulation ), Greece is particularly hard hit due to the EU's longest coastline. Because if Greece does not prevent the entry of refugees, it not only serves as a host country for the refugees remaining in Greece, but also has to take back those who traveled through its national territory to other EU countries, but were turned back from there to Greece due to the third country regulation were.

The German-Greek relationship deteriorated when, in 2007, individual German newspapers wrote across the board about forest fires in Greece that the country was largely responsible for them, and it was reported that Germany, along with Sweden and other countries, was helping to extinguish the fire let pay.

Relationships and reporting in the crisis

Greece in the mirror of the German press

Quadriga Prize Berlin, 2010

Structural administrative deficits in Greece led to a mismanagement which, as a result of the global financial crisis from 2007 onwards, led to a new sovereign debt crisis that is still ongoing today . A lack of control mechanisms favored private-sector corruption in Germany, which led to unnecessary or overpriced contracts being awarded to German companies by the Greek state. After taking office at the end of 2009, Giorgos Papandreou, who after intensive negotiations and despite strong reservations, accepted the (undemocratic) EU way out of the crisis, was initially treated favorably in the German press. For example, for signing the memorandum in 2010, he was awarded the Quadriga Prize by Werkstatt Deutschland in the category Power of Truthfulness ; together with Wolfgang Schäuble, who was represented at the award ceremony. Shortly after the award ceremony, Papandreou was informed that the EU partners were planning a second, much larger memorandum, which is why he immediately announced a referendum. The subsequent anti-Greek storm, especially in the German media and German politics, forced him to resign. The Werkstatt Deutschland represented by German personalities from the media and politics is a foundation of well-known, mostly German, large corporations. After 2010, the Quadriga Prize was no longer awarded.

In the course of the Greek financial crisis, the Greek-German relationship deteriorated considerably. The newly unfolding phenomenon of hostility to the Greeks has meanwhile also preoccupied science. In 2012, for example, the work “The Dynamics of Constructing Difference and Hostility Using the Example of the Financial Crisis in Greece” by Hans Bickes was published. Numerous German media began to openly cultivate prejudices against Greeks - for example with the disparaging term “ bankruptcy Greece”. Often these theories were supported by the interpretation of historical examples, such as the participation of Greece in the Latin Monetary Union . It aimed to create negative stereotypes . Despite or because of the more than 300,000 Greeks in Germany , their position on the subject was often rarely read in the German press.

When the Focus with the title Fraudsters in the Euro family showed the Venus of Milo with a finger , wrapped in a dirty Greek flag, on the title page, citizens of Greece felt offended. It should be noted that in Germany, for example, soiling or insulting the German flag can have legal consequences, including imprisonment. An initiative in Greece went to court and offered to withdraw the lawsuit if Focus apologized. The magazine did not respond to this, however; the lawsuit was dismissed by an Athens court. An Athens tabloid printed the Focus cover picture and placed it next to a picture of the “ Berliner Goldelse ” with a swastika in her hand. This picture (without context) was then disseminated in the German media and viewed as a sign of an anti-German attitude in Greece. The impression of an anti-German attitude intensified when, in the course of the Greek sovereign debt crisis, German politicians, especially the Chancellor, were associated with attributes of National Socialism at Greek protest rallies and in the Greek media . Although Greece's stance on the reparations question has never changed significantly, questions from journalists to politicians aimed to make the issue topical.

Although Greece's economy is rather small even for Europe, the Greek economic and national debt crisis was often assumed to be of systemic relevance - at least with the help of a “domino theory” - which could also drag Germany and other countries into a crisis if they were indebted to others. This gave rise - supported by economists such as Hans-Werner Sinn - to the idea that the European Economic and Monetary Union could fall apart and that Greece would have to leave the euro to restore its competitiveness or be forced to leave the euro to avert the collapse of the monetary union.

A scientific study, which evaluated reports on Greece from France, Italy, Great Britain, the USA and Germany, came to the conclusion that prejudices were found in reports from Germany with a striking frequency. A frequent means of anti- Greek reporting is to report general hatred of Germans.

German politics in the mirror of the Greek press

Greek media, on the other hand, criticized the fact that the necessary financial aid for Greece had always come too late as part of the euro rescue package . Thus, yield surcharges (“penalty interest”) that the financial markets demanded when purchasing government bonds from the crisis countries contributed to the unnecessary worsening of national debt. The requirements for a restrictive Greek fiscal policy ( austerity ), which are monitored by a troika , are humiliating or excessively harsh, which is due not least to the “lack of German solidarity”. Sometimes the media feared a hegemony and dominance of Germany in Europe. Anti-German sentiments do not only come from the ultra-left to anarchist camp. They aim to bring back memories of the occupation of Greece by the Wehrmacht, for example by insulting German diplomats as " Gauleiter ", and refer to the economic potential and influence of "German corporations" in the world.

The work "The Image of Germany in the Greek Press in the Period 2001-2013" by Alexianna Tsotsou deals with the topic of German-Greek relations during the financial crisis in Greece. Since the beginning of the financial crisis in Greece, the active role of Germany in the Eurogroup has moved into the focus of the media in Greece and has been making use of old clichés at the latest since the reporting from Germany critical of Greece. Fears of Germany's economic hegemony in the EU were combined with negative statements by German politicians about Greece and thus reinforced.

The reporting on Germany was very similar to that of other crisis countries in southern Europe. In an article in the Italian LINKIESTA of November 26th, 2011, a historical reference is made between the current refusal of the Greek population to be helped by an EU led by Germany and the 17th century. The author recalls the Italian-German naval operations against the Turks in Athens, during which on September 26, 1687 a Saxon officer from Lüneburg finally blew up the Parthenon on the Acropolis, which had been in good condition since Pericles.

Popularity of Germans in survey results

Besides France, Greece was the country where the Germans were the most popular people, in both cases this changed during the euro crisis.

According to a representative survey by the Greek daily To Vima in 2005, the Germans were still the most popular people among the Greeks at the time. 78.4% of the respondents said they were positive about the Germans (77.5% for France, only 27.8% for the USA). When this survey was repeated in 2013, the corresponding figure had fallen to 33.2%. A survey by the BBC came to 35% for Germany, a survey by Kappa Research only 28.3% (France 82.3% USA 31%). With 42% for 2013, Germans are now about as (un) popular in Greece as they have been in Great Britain for a long time, but are no longer recently. The media in Germany explain the decline in German popularity ratings in Greece with the German government's insistence on the implementation of a restrictive fiscal policy in return for a German contribution to the euro rescue package.

More recent figures are not known, but a recovery in popularity can be expected. Reverse figures on the popularity of Greeks in Germany have not yet been collected.

present

Politics and Exchange

Angela Merkel and Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a meeting of the European People's Party, 2019

The state and the private sector are endeavoring to counteract the deterioration in relations through initiatives and to prevent long-term damage to bilateral relations. On October 3, 2010, the then Greek Prime Minister Giorgos Andrea Papandreou was awarded the Quadriga Prize . The German-Greek Assembly , which is under the patronage of Angela Merkel, met in 2011 and 2012 in Thessaloniki; In 2013 the event took place in Nuremberg, when it took place in Erding in 2019, 300 local politicians from both countries took part. At the initiative of the Association of German-Greek Societies and their President Sigrid Skarpelis-Sperk , the project of a German-Greek youth organization flowed into the contract to form the grand coalition .

The geopolitical situation of Greece and German interests

Greece finds itself in an adverse geopolitical environment, on the one hand due to the refugee issue from Asia and North Africa, on the other hand due to Turkey's military efforts to develop as a regional power.

The refugee crisis in Europe from 2015 onwards has led to cooperation in the field of domestic and security policy. Greece is one of those countries where refugees enter the EU, while Germany is often a destination for migrants. The common interests are great here.

The situation is different with regard to Turkey's aggression towards Greece: While other countries have reduced their economic involvement due to the political situation in the country, Germany expanded its relations with Turkey, so that it has now become its most important trading partner. German foreign policy is clearly committed to Turkish interests and is thus at odds with other EU countries, particularly Greece. When Turkey sent refugees to the Greek border, Germany suggested appeasing Turkey with money from the EU. This position was not shared by any other EU country.

In January 2019, the German government organized a conference on Libya in Berlin, Greece was refused participation, but Turkey and other countries without direct proximity to the country were invited. A few months later, Heiko Maas approved armaments exports in the maritime sector worth 344 million to Turkey. Strengthened by German arms deliveries, Turkey has been seeking conflict with Greece since 2020 by having a reconnaissance ship accompanied by warships drilling holes in its sea area. While countries such as Austria, France and Israel condemn this and take the side of Greece, Germany regards the situation as a dispute between two neighboring countries and tried unsuccessfully to find an arbitration. nzz: Germany's role in the Greek-Turkish conflict: a “mediator” with many self-interests. In: nzz.ch. August 27, 2020, accessed on August 27, 2020 . 

"Fest steht, dass Deutschland als EU-Mitglied aufseiten Griechenlands Partei in dem Streit ist. Fest steht aber auch, dass Berlin in der Türkei handfeste Interessen hat".Deutschlands Rolle im griechisch-türkischen Konflikt: ein «Vermittler» mit vielen Eigeninteressen. In: nzz.ch. 27. August 2020, abgerufen am 27. August 2020. 

History and coming to terms with the past

On the question of World War reparations and the compulsory loan, which have not been clarified bilaterally since 1945, Germany's position changed insofar as an opinion by the Bundestag in 2019 cast doubts on the previous position of the federal governments, according to which Germany does not have to pay, and proposed a clarification the International Court of Justice.

Germany is contributing over 1/3 of the construction costs to the new Holocaust Museum in Thessaloniki. but will not bear the operating costs. With 10 million euros, it is the largest German commitment in Greece to date.

In 2018 and 2019, the Badisches Landesmuseum and the University of Münster returned ancient objects to Greece that had once been removed from the country without a permit and whose legal acquisition was doubtful.

media

There has always been little coverage of Greece in the German media, and if so then mostly only about accidents such as natural disasters or the past economic crisis. Critical voices are more the rule. This ranges, for example (2017) from highlighting critical voices about documenta 14 in Athens (while the number of visitors is well above expectations) to a report by the Heinrich Böll Foundation on anti-Semitism in Greece, which is held almost simultaneously with a summit between Israel and Greece was released.

Foreign language teaching

Since Greece is a member of the Francophonie , the French language plays a bigger role in the educational system than the German, which is also taught. When, during the financial crisis, the choice of a second foreign language was no longer available in order to better utilize the teachers' workload, German lessons shifted further to the private sector. As early as 1982 there were around 20,000 German teachers, and in 1987 the first German Teachers Association (ΣΥ.ΚΑ.Γ.Ε. - DLV) was founded. German as a foreign language has been the most popular second foreign language in Greece for decades, which is unusual in a global comparison.

Greek is taught in the form of ancient Greek at German grammar schools. The Greek lessons is usually only as a third language. There are around 200 grammar schools nationwide that offer Greek; 13,000 students took ancient Greek lessons in 2013.

Economic relations

Tinos verde marble , used by Mies van der Rohe for the construction of the Barcelona Pavilion , 1929

Economic cooperation between the two states can develop freely within the European Customs Union and the European internal market (free movement of goods, services, capital and people) of the European Union. The common currency “ Euro ” also eliminates intra-Community exchange rate risks and the resulting currency hedging for German and Greek companies. The German-Greek Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Athens, which was founded in 1924 and also operates an office in Thessaloniki, serves to promote bilateral economic relations.

Economic relations, historically

The economic relations between the two countries are much older than the cultural and political ones and go back to antiquity. In the luxury goods sector, for example in the 19th century the wine merchant and restaurateur Julius Menzer and in the 20th century the meat trader and brewery entrepreneur Josef März or the tobacco manufacturers Papastratos and Nestor Gianaclis , as well as the fur industry.

Shipping, which is important for Greece, played a role in relations with Germany insofar as Greek shipping companies transported German emigrants to the USA. From the late 1940s onwards, Greek shipowners had ships (especially tankers) built in German shipyards and thus contributed to the reconstruction and the German economic miracle.

Economic Relations in the Present

In general, there was and is little investment by German industry in Greece. The acquisition of Greek companies was usually followed by the relocation of production to neighboring low-wage countries. This is different in the service sector, where, for example, with the entry of Lidl in 1999 and Fraport in 2000 (as the company's first investment outside of Frankfurt), small investments were followed by much larger ones.

German products are very popular in Greece, so that the trade balance has been positive in Germany's favor for decades. At times the ratio was around 4: 1, currently it is 2.7: 1. As the crisis subsides, it can be assumed that the demand for the rather high-priced German products will rise again and the trade balance will again be more in favor of Germany . The imbalance is offset by tourism in Greece . Measured by the expenditure per day, tourists from Germany are largely in the middle. A regional exception is Crete, where they spend almost as much at € 85 per day as tourists from Russia, for example, at € 100 per day. German investments in the tourism sector include, for example, the tourism division of the Rewe Group and TUI , which has been active in Greece for over 40 years.

See also

• List of German ambassadors in Greece
• Ambassador of the GDR in Greece
• List of the Greek ambassadors in Germany
• List of German-Greek city and community partnerships
• Greeks in Germany
• Germans in Greece
• Reparation claims of the Republic of Greece against the Federal Republic of Germany

literature

• http://www.ftd.de/politik/deutschland/:deutsch-griechisches-verhaeltnis-deutsche-starten-charmeoffensive-in-griechenland/60163453.html ( Memento from February 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Sigrid Skarpelis-Sperk: Greece and Germany - 40 years of personal and political experiences Lecture given at the conference “Milestones in German-Greek Relations” Athens, April 16 and 17, 2010 (PDF file)

Web links

• Photo gallery on German-Greek relations (text in ENG)
• The German Foreign Office on relations with Greece
• The Greek Foreign Ministry on relations with Germany

Individual evidence

1. ^ German representations in Greece - The history of the law firm. In: griechenland.diplo.de. Archived from the original on February 26, 2015 ; accessed on January 14, 2015 . 
2. ^ Greek Consulates and Embassy of Greece in Germany. Retrieved January 14, 2015 .  In: konsulate.de
3. ^ German representations in Greece. In: griechenland.diplo.de. January 11, 2015, accessed January 14, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Most important importing countries for Greece /
5. ↑ The title Caesar (Greek καίσαρ , from it German emperor ) was bestowed on aspirants for Roman rule as Augustus. Because de jure an Augustus could only be appointed by the republican Senate - a succession was illegitimate - an incumbent Augustus usually appointed a candidate (e.g. a son) to Caesar, who was later elevated to Augustus by the Senate (more or less voluntarily) .
6. ↑ The όργανοv is based on the Hydraulis (= water pipe, water organ) invented by the Greek engineer Ktesibios in Alexandria
7. ↑ History of the organ
8. ↑ A look into the history of the organ
9. ↑ The organ page
10. ↑ Karl cast off his first two wives, Himiltrud and Desiderata , after only two years of marriage. They are hardly mentioned in the chronicles. The 13-year-old Hildegard, on the other hand, was his great love. She died after 12 years of marriage. The last two marriages to Fastrada and Luitgard lasted 11 and 5 years. In addition, Karl had at least 5 concubines.
11. ↑ Biography: Irene of Athens
12. ↑ August Nitschke: Early Christian empires. In: Propylaea world history. Vol. 5. Frankfurt, 1991, p. 302.
13. ↑ Theophano was niece of the incumbent Augustus of the Roman Empire Johannes Tsimiskes . He chose her deliberately because Theophano was not a “purple-born” princess , that is, a princess who was not entitled to inheritance in the empire. Otto I , albeit disappointed, accepted this circumstance and received the approximately 13-year-old with all due honors as the imperial bride for his son Otto II.
14. ↑ REGESTA IMPERII ( Memento from January 1, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ Theophanos sarcophagus in Cologne shows the two churches of Sankt Pantaleon (Cologne) and Haghia Sophia (Constantinople) on an equal footing.
16. ↑ John Philagathos is today in the official list of popes as anti-pope out
17. ↑ The name of the representative of the Roman community was actually "Episkopos" (bishop). It was not until six centuries later that the term "Pope" developed in the German-speaking world
18. ↑ In the period shortly before and after the secession of the Roman episcopate, as a consequence of the 1st, 4th and 5th crusades, Latin rival patriarchates emerged temporarily in Antioch in 1098 , in Jerusalem in 1099 , in Constantinople in 1204 and in Alexandria in 1219 .
19. ^ According to Virgil's Aeneid , Aeneas fled after the lost Trojan War (12th century BC) and founded the city of Rome. In fact, Rome was in the 8th century BC. Founded. Just in the same century as most of the Greek cities in Italy and Sicily were founded. The historical data therefore fit the older founding myth, according to which Romelus and Remus founded the city in the 8th century.
20. ↑ what Heinrich Heine described as "a bit ridiculous between us," see the city ​​portrait of the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation
21. ↑ Melina Philippou: The Philhellenism in Germany: Philhellenische Bekundungen. 2008, p. 4.
22. ^ Maria Rieder: The Metternich system in Bavaria, p. 6 2008.
23. ^ Walther Judeich: Topography of Athens. 1931, p. 25.
24. ↑ In the 13th century, one of his male ancestors was relocated from the then Venetian Capo d'Istria to Corfu , which is also Venetian . In the seventeenth century Carlo Emanuele II of Savoy gave the distinguished family the title of Count (Conte).
25. ^ Even before 1815, Frederick North , the youngest son of the English Prime Minister, was appointed President of the Society. North was an ardent admirer of Italian and Greek culture and later founded the first modern Greek university in Corfu.
26. ↑ Theodoros Kolokotronis was sentenced to death in 1834, then pardoned to 20 years and finally given amnesty.
27. ↑ Legations in Munich
28. ^ Conclusion of a trade and shipping contract between Prussia and Greece and a trade contract between Saxony and Greece, question of safeguarding the interests of the Zollverein. In: www2.landesarchiv-bw.de. Retrieved January 14, 2015 . 
29. ^ German-Austrian Telegraph Association: Journal of the German-Austrian Telegraph Association. Ernst & Korn, 1859, p. 300 ( limited preview in Google book search).
30. ^ Fritz Blencke: Alfred Krupp , 1898, p. 39.
31. ↑ Katrin Boeckh: From the Balkan Wars to the First World War. P. 210.
32. ↑ Maria GEORGIADOU: Constantin Carathéodory: mathematics and politics in turbulent times. P. 249.
33. ↑ Hans Rudolf Mahnert: The German lack of raw materials and its combat , Triltsch, 1939, p. 125.
34. ^ Alfred Kube: Pour le mérite and swastika: Hermann Göring in the Third Reich. P. 88.
35. ↑ Emmanouil Zacharioudakis: The German-Greek relations from 1933 to 1941. Pp. 46, 159, 168.
36. ^ Esther Sophia Sünderhauf: Greek desire and cultural criticism: the German reception of Winckelmann's ideal of antiquity 1840–1945. P. 196.
37. ↑ ^{a b} Anne Mrotzek: The power of words - How German propaganda portrayed the war in Greece. P. 6.
38. ↑ Maria Zarifi: In: Susanne Heim (ed.): History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism. P. 206.
39. ^ Dieter Schwarzkopf: Collaboration in Greece during the 2nd World War.
40. ↑ Martin Seckendorf: On the economic policy of the German occupiers in Greece 1941–1944 exploitation that led to the catastrophe ( Memento from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: 2i.westhost.com
41. ↑ Anne Mrotzek: The power of words - How German propaganda did war. 2011, p. 6.
42. ↑ Anne Mrotzek: The power of words - How German propaganda did war. 2011, p. 16.
43. ↑ Clear warning of damage to German-Greek relations. In: boerse-express.com. March 6, 2010, archived from the original on June 4, 2015 ; accessed on January 14, 2015 . 
44. ↑ wollheim-memorial.de origin and number of foreign civil workers and forced laborers. In: wollheim-memorial.de. Retrieved January 14, 2015 . 
45. ^ Hans Booms, Ulrich Enders, Konrad Reiser: The Cabinet Protocols of the Federal Government, therein: Protocols of the 268th Cabinet Meeting. 1989.
46. ↑ Christine Cornelius: When the Greeks helped the Germans. In: tagesspiegel.de . Retrieved January 14, 2015 . 
47. ↑ Pantelis M. Pantelouris: The German-Greek post-war relations The German-Greek post-war relations . In: griechenland.net. Archived from the original on July 23, 2008 ; accessed on January 14, 2015 . 
48. ↑ ^{a b} Cabinet minutes online: "3. Granting of a loan to the Greek ..." (2.36.3 :). In: bundesarchiv.de. October 29, 2018, accessed May 10, 2020 . 
49. ^ Katerina Králová: The Legacy of the Occupation: German-Greek Relations since 1940, p. 121.
50. ↑ Hans-Peter Schwarz: Adenauer: The statesman p. 312.
51. ↑ Frieder Günther: Heuss on trips: the foreign representation of the Federal Republic . P. 84.
52. ↑ STATE VISIT: The driving forces . In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 1956 ( online ).
53. ↑ Frieder Günther: Heuss on trips: the foreign representation of the Federal Republic, p. 93.
54. ^ Günter Wallraff, Eckart Spoo: Our fascism next door: experiences with NATO partners . P. 97, 1982.
55. ↑ Philipp Rock: Power, Markets and Morals: on the role of human rights. 2010, p. 79.
56. ↑ Michael Martens: Everything stays in the family. In: FAZ.net . September 16, 2007, accessed January 14, 2015 . 
57. ↑ Helmut Schmidt: People and Powers: The Germans and their neighbors.
58. ↑ Julia Voss: Now the raid is finally over. In: FAZ.net. June 7, 2014, accessed January 14, 2015 . 
59. ^ Günter letter, Hans-Otto Kleinmann, Hanns Jürgen Küsters: The era of Kohl in conversation: an interim balance. P. 137.
60. ↑ Richard Santoleri: Tobacco Advertising and Prevention. P. 25.
61. ↑ Mareike König, Wolf D. Gruner, Matthias Schulz: The Federal Republic of Germany and European Unification 1949-2000. P. 234.
62. ^ MATEO: Stergiou - Relationship between Greece and the GDR. In: uni-mannheim.de. Retrieved January 14, 2015 . 
63. ↑ Kohl tricked 1990 to avoid reparations to Greece. In: Spiegel Online . February 20, 2015, accessed May 10, 2020 . 
64. ↑ Cross-border tourism in Europe . Federal Statistical Office of Germany. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
65. ↑ Sarkozy and Merkel asked Papandreou to refrain from a referendum on the upcoming memorandum with the Troika
66. ^ Hans Bickes, Tina Otten: Greece and the German media . In: Hellenika. Yearbook for Greek Culture and German-Greek Relations . New episode 8, LIT Verlag, Münster 2013, p. 10 ff. ( Limited preview in the Google book search)
67. ↑ Search for the term bankrupt Greeks in the portal bild.de , accessed on April 27, 2014.
68. ↑ Philine Lietzmann: Greed for interest: bonds of the bankrupt Greeks are in demand like never before. In: Focus Online . April 2, 2014, accessed January 14, 2015 . 
69. ^ Sigrid Skarpelis-Sperk: Greece and Germany - 40 years of personal and political experiences. Lecture given at the conference “Milestones in German-Greek Relations” Athens, April 16 and 17, 2010, p. 15.
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73. ^ Federal Foreign Office, Country Info Greece
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75. ↑ http://www.avgi.gr/ArticleActionshow.action?articleID=664184 ( Memento from July 23, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
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77. ↑ La prima bomba italo-tedesca ad Atene by Alessandro Marzo Magno
78. ↑ Thomas Fricke: Anger against the Germans: Nobody likes us - why only? In: Spiegel Online . June 1, 2018, accessed May 10, 2020 . 
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81. ↑ BBC survey: Germany is the most popular country in the world. In: fr-online.de. May 23, 2013, accessed January 14, 2015 . 
82. ↑ coalition agreement p. 156 f. ( Memento from December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
83. ↑ https://www.nzz.ch/international/deutschland-vermittler-mit-eigeninteressen-in-der-aegaeis-ld.1573535?fbclid=IwAR1H_S50P4k2C5xYfimc98tqYKG50_cl1b8HNm7Njdc7-07mc7-08mc7-07mc =
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85. ↑ Opinion suggests decision of the International Court of Justice on German reparations to Greece. In: rsw.beck.de. July 10, 2019, accessed May 10, 2020 . 
86. ↑ 3sat media library. In: 3sat.de. May 9, 2020, accessed May 10, 2020 . 
87. ↑ Stephanie Bettina Alwine Thiele: The Development of DaF Lessons in Greece: A Success Story! IDV magazine No. 93, June 2018 (PDF)
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90. ↑ ΝΑΥΑΡΧΙΔΑ ΤΟΥ ΤΟΥΡΙΣΜΟΥ Η Κ &. In: matrix24.gr. May 22, 2012, Retrieved January 14, 2015 (Greek).