German-Icelandic relations

The German-Icelandic relations relate to, among other things, to the fields politics , economy , culture and science .

Early history

Already in the sagas of the Nibelungen song is Brynhild , noted Queen of Iceland, under the protection of the stealth of Siegfried for King Gunther (of his power base in Worms is has) at a trip to the far north advertised.

The documented relationships between Iceland and the German-speaking area date back to around 900. The first German to visit Iceland was probably mission bishop Friedrich in 981, who promoted the Christianization of Iceland during his five-year stay . The priest Dankbrand (or Thangbrand, Icelandic Þangbrandr ), an envoy of the Norwegian king, also campaigned for this a few years later. As the first Icelandic bishop Ísleifur Gissurarson was consecrated in Bremen in 1056 . Until 1104, when the church province of Lund was spun off from the metropolis of Bremen-Hamburg, the Icelandic diocese of Skálholt was under the metropolitan authority of the archdiocese of Bremen .

The first written reports about Iceland in German date from the 11th century and go back to Adam von Bremen .

Christopher III. (1416–1448), born Christoph von Pfalz-Neumarkt, was king of Denmark , Sweden and Norway and ruler of Iceland (Icelandic: Kristófer af Bæjaralandi). Didrik Pining from Hildesheim, participant in an international expedition with João Vaz Corte-Real, among others , who was supposed to restore contact with Greenland in the years 1473-76 and should have reached the North American mainland, was governor in Iceland from 1478 to 1490.

In the 15th and 16th centuries trade was conducted between the Hanseatic League and especially Hamburg on the one hand and Iceland on the other. In the middle of the 16th century, the Lutheran Reformation was implemented in Iceland. In 1814, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Peace of Kiel was signed between Sweden , Great Britain and Denmark . From the perspective of the Icelanders, this peace was a perpetuation of Denmark's dominance, which had existed since 1380, over their country, which had previously been ruled by Norway. In 1854 the Danish trade monopoly was lifted. In the First World War, Denmark remained neutral and therefore Iceland. Since 1918 Iceland was only loosely connected to Denmark through a personal union.

politics

Iceland was cut off from the motherland Denmark in 1940 by the German occupation of Denmark and Norway and was subsequently occupied preventively by British troops . In November 1944, 24 people were killed when the transport and passenger ship Goðafoss was shot by a German submarine.

The German journalist Alfred Joachim Fischer (1957) reported for the first time on the unclear attitude of the Icelandic authorities to the Holocaust ; In the meantime there are extensive studies on this in English and in other languages.

In 1944 Iceland declared itself independent.

After the Second World War , Germany and Iceland established diplomatic relations in 1952 at Konrad Adenauer's request . Embassies in Hamburg and Reykjavík were opened (see list of German ambassadors in Iceland , list of Icelandic ambassadors in Germany ). In 1955 the Icelandic embassy moved to Bonn , 1999 to Berlin . It is part of the Nordic embassies .

The two countries work together in NATO and the UN . Both countries are also members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development , the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe , the Baltic Sea Council (although Iceland has no part in the Baltic Sea) and the Schengen area (although Iceland is not yet a member of the European Union) . Cooperation is based on shared values and views on international politics. The German Federal Government and the Bundestag are in favor of Iceland joining the European Union .

economy

From the 15th century trade relations existed through the merchants of the Hanseatic League , who shaped the economic development of Iceland. The Hanseatic city of Hamburg played the most important role in the so-called Icelandic trade . Trade also paved the way for increased cultural exchange.

Between 1602 and 1787 trade relations were interrupted by a Danish trade monopoly.

In the three so-called Cod Wars , Iceland expanded its fishing limits from four to twelve, then to 50 and finally to 200 nautical miles . While the first cod war (1958) was limited to Iceland and Great Britain, since all other countries (including the Federal Republic of Germany) recognized the new Icelandic twelve nautical mile zone, it came about the further enlargement of the fishing limits in the second cod war (1972) and in Third Cod War (1974) also related to the conflict with the Federal Republic. In doing so, u. a. Icelanders also cut the nets of German fishing boats. The 200 nautical mile zone of Iceland was recognized by all EEC countries on January 1st, 1977 .

Germany and Iceland are organized together in the European Economic Area . Economic relations are close; In 2011 the trading volume rose by 9.2% and amounted to € 1.065 billion, which was a high. Germany's imports were worth € 769 million and exports were € 295.8 million, which meant a trade surplus of € 473.3 million for Iceland. More than 80% of the products delivered to Germany are processed; the most important goods are aluminum and fish, which is processed in Bremerhaven and Cuxhaven , for example . Germany mainly exports motor vehicles, machines and electrical engineering to Iceland. In 2010, according to Icelandic statistics, Germany was the second most important trading partner (after the Netherlands) in terms of sales and Icelandic exports.

Since 1993 there has been a German-Icelandic government commission for EU and economic issues, which meets annually alternately in Iceland and Germany. The economic cooperation is also promoted by the German Chamber of Commerce Iceland (AHK Iceland).

The Germans play an important role in tourism in Iceland . For example, Germany was the most important country for Iceland with over 54,000 visitors to Iceland every year, as well as in terms of length of stay and number of overnight stays in hotels.

In 2008, the Icelandic krona suffered severe devaluation as a result of the international financial crisis . The Icelandic government brought large parts of the financial sector, including all three major banks, i.e. H. Glitnir, Landsbankinn and Kaupþing under state control. German customers were particularly affected by the problems of Kaupthing Bank, which also has a branch in Frankfurt am Main . (On November 19, 2009, the German branch was finally closed and the bank's presence in Germany ended.) Icelandic President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson stated in an interview with the Financial Times Germany on February 10, 2009, after the unrest over the bankruptcy Icelandic taxpayers should not be conveyed to the fact that they now also have to pay for the losses of German savers. Foreign investors could not expect Iceland to bear the full burden of the financial crisis. As a result, the Icelandic attitude changed: on July 10, 2009, Kaupthing Bank had already paid back most of the deposits to around 34,000 savers. Since the financial crisis there has been open thought about Iceland joining the European Union and the subsequent introduction of the euro as a currency. With the parliamentary elections on April 27, 2013 , the voters sealed the temporary end for Iceland's aspirations to join. On March 12, 2015, Iceland withdrew its membership application.

A completely different type of crisis occurred in 2010: the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull also partially brought air traffic to a standstill in Germany.

Culture and science

The German-Icelandic cultural relations go back more than a millennium; the two states have a Germanic cultural background.

The trade relations through the merchants of the Hanseatic League in the 16th century brought the art of printing and impulses for the Reformation to Iceland. The first printing of an Icelandic script took place in Hamburg in 1530. The first printing press was also exported to Iceland from there. The Bishop of Skálholt Gissur Einarsson , a proponent of the Reformation, stayed in Germany for a few years; he arranged for the New Testament of the Luther Bible to be translated into Icelandic.

Arngrímur Jónsson tried to describe the country more cliché than the one that was common in the German-speaking world at the time. In 1561 the work "Van Yslandt" by the Hamburg merchant and Icelandic driver Gories Peerse was published . A reply was provided by Arngrímur - albeit with moderate success - with his work “A Short Report on Iceland, in which the errors of the writings about this island are exposed and the insults and slanderings of certain foreigners with which they usually offend the Icelanders without any reluctance, is countered. From the Icelander Arngrimus Jonas ”(1593).

The German natural scientist Robert Bunsen traveled to Iceland in the mid-19th century and explained the geyser phenomenon.

In the 19th century, the Old Norse Germanists who translated the Edda and the Icelandic Sagas and the founders of the Icelandic independence movement had an intensive exchange. The legal historian Konrad Maurer (1823-1902) published a friendly position for Iceland in the constitutional dispute with Denmark as well as the first translations of Icelandic folk tales in Germany.

In the 20th century, cultural exchange was mainly promoted by Icelanders who had experience of Germany. One example is the Nobel Prize for Literature, Halldór Laxness .

Under the motto “Legendary Iceland”, Iceland was the guest country of the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2011. Numerous German authors took part in the Reykjavík International Literature Festival. In March 2011, a German film festival took place in Iceland for the first time.

Institutions such as the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) or the Goethe Institute promote German-Icelandic cultural exchange. The library in Hafnarfjörður cooperates with the Goethe Institute. Other sponsors of cultural relations are the German Department of the University of Iceland , the Icelandic Association of German Teachers (German is an optional subject at secondary schools), the German-Icelandic cultural society "Germania" in Reykjavík , the active town twinning Hafnarfjörður-Cuxhaven, the German-Icelandic network in Reykjavík German-Icelandic Circle of Friends of South Iceland in Selfoss , the former Humboldt Fellows in Reykjavík and several German-Icelandic societies in Germany. In 2002 a lecturer for Icelandic was established at the Humboldt University in Berlin .

Today's scientific cooperation relates, for example, to the areas of marine and arctic research or law.

literature

Web links

Commons : German-Icelandic Relations - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Foreign Office: German-Icelandic Relations
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Birte Altenkirch: "Salmon comme il faut" and "verteufelt beautiful Berlin". An overview of the German-Icelandic relations from the beginning to the present. (PDF file; 433 kB)
^ Martin Krieger , Geschichte Hamburgs , CH Beck, Munich 2006, pp. 29 and 41.
↑ einestages.spiegel.de: World War Drama. The boat. Retrieved July 3, 2012
↑ Iceland, the Jews, and Anti-Semitism / Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson (English) . Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
^ Emergency law against the financial crisis: Iceland takes over total bank control , Spiegel Online from October 7, 2008.
↑ Iceland throws down German investors. ( Memento from February 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
^ German Kaupthing savers are threatened with total loss.
↑ Most of the money has already flown. ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. July 10, 2009 @1@ 2
↑ EU promises bankrupt Iceland accession
↑ spiegel.de: Change of power in Reykjavík: Icelanders decide against Europe
↑ Iceland withdraws membership application , accessed on March 13, 2015

[AA-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Foreign Office: German-Icelandic Relations

[IC-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Birte Altenkirch: "Salmon comme il faut" and "verteufelt beautiful Berlin". An overview of the German-Icelandic relations from the beginning to the present. (PDF file; 433 kB)

[3] Martin Krieger , Geschichte Hamburgs , CH Beck, Munich 2006, pp. 29 and 41.

[4] stages.spiegel.de: World War Drama. The boat. Retrieved July 3, 2012

[5] Iceland, the Jews, and Anti-Semitism / Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson (English) . Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Retrieved December 8, 2011.

[6] Emergency law against the financial crisis: Iceland takes over total bank control , Spiegel Online from October 7, 2008.

[7] Iceland throws down German investors. ( Memento from February 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

[8] German Kaupthing savers are threatened with total loss.

[9] Most of the money has already flown. ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. July 10, 2009 @1@ 2

[10] EU promises bankrupt Iceland accession

[11] spiegel.de: Change of power in Reykjavík: Icelanders decide against Europe

[12] Iceland withdraws membership application , accessed on March 13, 2015