German-Croatian relations

Germany and Croatia have had diplomatic relations since January 15, 1992. Both states are members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe , the European Union and NATO .

Croatian Embassy in Berlin

Germany has an embassy in Zagreb and an honorary consul in Split . Croatia has an embassy in Berlin and five consulates general in Düsseldorf , Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg , Munich and Stuttgart .

According to the information from the German Federal Statistical Office for 2008, there were 223,056 Croatian citizens living in Germany at the time. In the 2001 Croatian census, 2,902 people declared themselves to be ethnic Germans. The minority “Germans and Austrians” is officially recognized in Croatia. The Croatian pastoral care is a church offer for the Catholic Croats in Germany.

history

An episode from the early days of relations between Croats and Germans is the admission of Gottschalk von Orbais, who was persecuted by the Franks , by the Croatian prince Trpimir I in the 9th century. At this time there were armed conflicts between Franks and Croats. For example, in 838, the Bavarian Duke Ludwig the German (later King of Eastern Franconia ) sent his forces against the Pannonian Prince Ratimir and was repulsed.

In the early modern period, Croatian relations with the German-speaking area acquired a new quality through the annexation of Croatia to Austria (1527, see Charter of Cetingrad ) - after all, the Austrian rulers of this time also provided the German or Holy Roman Emperor.

From 17./18. In the 19th century, as a result of a planned state policy, German-speaking settlers, the so-called Danube Swabians , settled in the war-depopulated border area between Austria and the Ottoman Empire . The main settlement areas in later Croatia were East Slavonia with Osijek (German: Esseg) and (West) Syrmia . There was a German Theater Esseg in Osijek . With the awakening nationalism of the European peoples in the 19th century, coexistence between Germans and Croats became more difficult. To cite the example of the Osijek Theater once again: Due to nationalist attacks, the German-language theater business was further and further reduced until in 1911 there were only performances in Croatian.

During the First World War , the Croatians fought as citizens of Austria-Hungary on the German side. With the fall of the Habsburg monarchy at the end of the war the Croats and found Croatia Germans in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia again. The Germans tried to come to terms with the new difficult status of the minority by founding, for example, the Kulturbund and the German Party of Yugoslavia - but these were banned again over time. Many Croatians could not make friends with the new state as a whole, they often felt marginalized by the Serbs . After the successful defeat of Yugoslavia in 1941, it was relatively easy for the Germans to play off the South Slav peoples against each other and to install the (territorially enlarged) Independent State of Croatia with the Croatians who were willing to collaborate under the leadership of the fascist Ustasha . A German occupation army remained in the country. From 1942/1943 onwards, there were more and more armed conflicts with various participants. The main opponents in Croatia were the German Wehrmacht and Ustascha units on the one hand and the (multi-ethnic, communist-dominated) Yugoslav partisans led by Josip Broz Tito on the other. Even among the Croatian Germans there was not a little collaboration with the Third Reich , the extent of which is still controversial in research today. A small number of Germans were also active in the resistance. Towards the end of the war, a large part of the Danube Swabians fled and expelled. Those who remained were exposed to massive repression in the immediate post-war period. The action against the Germans was ideologically justified with the claim of collective collaboration. The legal basis was the AVNOJ resolutions regarding the German minority of 1943. The re-established Yugoslavia became communist, but it went its own way and became a driving force in the movement of the non-aligned states , so that there was no such extreme "ice age" in relations with the Federal Republic of Germany came about, as was the case with the Federal Republic and the Eastern Bloc countries . However, due to the Hallstein Doctrine, German relations with Yugoslavia were broken off in 1957 because the country had established diplomatic relations with the GDR, which contradicted West German claims to sole representation . Over the years, the Hallstein Doctrine lost its meaning and in 1968 diplomatic relations were resumed. In addition, a recruitment agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and Yugoslavia was concluded that year, in the course of which many Croatians came to Germany as guest workers . Several German vacationers traveled to Yugoslavia in the post-war decades, with the Croatian Adriatic coast being a popular destination. Contractually agreed payments were continued and a consulate general was left in the country.

In the second Yugoslavia, too, many Croatians felt they were disadvantaged compared to the Serbs. After Tito's death and the global political upheavals in the wake of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika , tensions between the ethnic groups in the South Slav state increased.

Croatian fans in Zagreb watch the Croatia-Germany match during the 2008 European Football Championship

In 1991 the newly reunified Federal Republic of Germany played an active role in the European recognition of Croatia's national independence, which it had previously proclaimed. Some of the criticism was that the (too) rapid recognition made a solution to the overall conflict more difficult and that Germany placed too little value on coordination with friendly states. Among others, the then German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher took a contrary opinion: only the decision to recognize was taken particularly early in Germany. In addition, Germany coordinated closely with EU partners. The war in Yugoslavia, and with it the war in Croatia , could no longer be prevented by German diplomacy either. During the hostilities there was great humanitarian commitment by Germans for Croatian war victims. During this time, many Croatians came to Germany as refugees. Together with the guest workers already mentioned, they now form a significant part of the Croatian community in Germany . The efforts of the international community to achieve peace in Croatia were crowned with success in 1995 with the Erdut Agreement . As a result, Germany endeavored to integrate Croatia into European structures. The state has been a member of NATO since 2009 and joined the European Union on July 1, 2013 . Today the relations are close and friendly.