German-North Macedonian Relations

Relations between Germany and North Macedonia

Germany	North Macedonia

The Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany describes the relationship between Germany and North Macedonia as good. Both states are members of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe . Germany is a member, North Macedonia is a candidate for accession to the European Union

Germany operates an embassy in Skopje . North Macedonia has an embassy in Berlin with a branch in Bonn , a consulate general in Munich and honorary consuls in Dresden , Düsseldorf , Hamburg , Nuremberg and Stuttgart .

history

From the end of the 14th century, what is now North Macedonia belonged to the Ottoman Empire. In the Great Turkish War (1683–1699), imperial troops were able to briefly take Skopje, but not hold out permanently. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, the great European powers and the Balkan peoples who were under Turkish rule and striving for independence began to deal with the territorial reorganization of Southeast Europe. The " Macedonian Question " played an important role. The problem became virulent with the Russian victory in the Russo-Ottoman War (1877–1878) , which brought Russian troops up to 60 kilometers from Istanbul. Since the major European powers did not want to accept Russia's great gain in influence, which was recorded between the warring parties in the Peace of San Stefano , a European war threatened. The German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck then invited to the Berlin Congress in order to be able to settle the conflict peacefully. One result of this congress showed that Macedonia remained part of the Ottoman Empire for the time being. This changed with the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, in which the Balkan states almost completely divided the European part of the Ottoman Empire among themselves. The First Balkan War ended with the Treaty of London (1913) , which divided Macedonia between Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria. In addition to the other major European powers, the German Empire also acted as mediator in the treaty negotiations . Shortly after the conclusion of the treaty, the Second Balkan War broke out, as Bulgaria was not satisfied with what had been achieved (especially with regard to the partitioning of Macedonia). It was beaten by the neighboring states - with the result that Serbia and Greece were able to incorporate large parts of Macedonia into their state association.

Because of this defeat Bulgaria turned to the Central Powers around Germany and fought by their side in the First World War . Bulgaria's war goals were recorded in the alliance treaty between the German Empire and Bulgaria of September 6, 1915. A secret agreement that was concluded in addition to the alliance treaty contained territorial provisions for the expansion of Bulgaria. In this, the German Reich guaranteed Bulgaria, among other things, the acquisition and annexation of "Serbian Macedonia", which Bulgaria occupied between 1915 and 1918 and which then fell back to Serbia and the newly founded Yugoslavia . With the defeat of the Central Powers, Bulgaria's hopes for territorial gains were dashed. On the contrary, the state had to cede further areas in the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine . In the interwar period, the Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) with its base of operations in Bulgaria fought heavily against the affiliation of “Vardar Macedonia” to Yugoslavia . The Weimar Republic as the main revisionist power against the results of the war appeared to her as a “natural ally”. As a result, there were repeated contacts between IMRO and German government agencies. However, the German side reacted with reserve to offers for cooperation, since although the usefulness of a Macedonian irredenta for German revisionist interests was seen in principle, German foreign policy in the specific situation did not stir up tensions in the Balkans and conflict management there was the victorious powers of the First World War wanted to leave. The "Macedonian question" played a role in political journalism and the interested German public of those years. The Macedonians' "fight for freedom" was often romanticized and transfigured. This solidarity was also related to the fact that parallels were seen with one's own fate, since many Germans, like the Macedonians , would have to live under foreign rule as a result of the war .

In the Second World War , a similar constellation emerged as in the First: Bulgaria joined the three-power pact led by Nazi Germany in 1941 and was allowed to occupy the east and the center of Serbian Macedonia after the defeat of Yugoslavia in the course of the Balkan campaign in the same year. In contrast to the Bulgarian motherland, the Jews in the occupied territories were not saved from the Holocaust . 7,100 Jews, including 2,000 children, were deported from occupied Macedonia to the Treblinka extermination camp . Only 196 of them survived. From the end of August 1944, Bulgaria withdrew from the occupied territories of Yugoslavia. After the conquest of Yugoslavia in 1941, western, formerly Serbian Macedonia was added to the Italian protectorate of Greater Albania , which has been German since 1943 . In the summer of 1944, the German Reich reacted to the massive deterioration in its position in the Balkans by considering the creation of a formally independent Macedonian state. In the face of the advancing Red Army, however, this Fuehrer's order was no longer carried out. In October 1944, German troops killed 80 unarmed residents of the village of Radolišta (Ladorishti) in the Ladorisht massacre in "retaliation" for previous partisan attacks. The withdrawal of German troops from Greece took place via Skopje (November 1944) and caused some destruction to the city.

After the Germans withdrew, the area became part of Yugoslavia again as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia . This Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia fell into a deadly crisis with the fall of communism in the late 1980s. While Slovenia and Croatia had already declared their independence in June 1991 and were single-handedly recognized by Germany in the same year, development in Macedonia was slower. The referendum of the citizens of Macedonia (with a positive outcome) on independence took place in September 1991. Recognition by the states of the European Community , however, turned out to be difficult, as there were major disputes between the newly formed country and EC member Greece (see dispute around the name Macedonia ). The German-Greek relations were thus loaded since Germany was in favor of recognition of Macedonia, to stabilize the troubled region and to give the prime example of a peaceful withdrawal from the disintegrating Yugoslavia. Despite the massive Greek rejection, the federal government recognized Macedonia's independence at the end of 1993 and subsequently proved to be the most active supporter of the young state (for example, Germany provided most of the development aid of all states and massively promoted trade and cultural relations). Recently, Germany has supported Macedonia in coping with the refugee movements from Kosovo as a result of the Kosovo War (1999) as well as in containing the Albanian uprising in Macedonia in 2001 and its sustainable solution with constitutional and democratic means ( Ohrid Framework Agreement ).

See also

• List of German ambassadors in North Macedonia
• Foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany

Web links

Commons : German-North Macedonian Relations  - Collection of Images

• Information from the German Foreign Office on relations with Macedonia

Individual evidence

1. ↑ German Embassy Skopje (German and Macedonian) . Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. 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. Retrieved January 6, 2012. 
2. ↑ Republic of Macedonia - Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia in Berlin (English and Macedonian) . Retrieved on January 6, 2012.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Stefan Troebst: The Macedonian Century . Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58050-1 , p. 85 ff.
4. ↑ Stefan Troebst: The Macedonian Century . Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58050-1 , p. 111 ff.
5. ↑ Björn Sacrifice: In the Shadow of War. Crew or connection. Liberation or Oppression? A comparative study of the Bulgarian rule in Vardar-Macedonia 1915–1918 and 1941–1944 . Lit-Verlag, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-7997-6 , p. 279 f.
6. ↑ Stefan Troebst: The Macedonian Century . Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58050-1 , p. 225 ff.
7. ^ Albrecht A. Beck: German conflict management in the former Yugoslavia. 1991-1998 . Südwestdeutscher Verlag für Hochschulschriften, Saarbrücken 2005, ISBN 978-3-8381-0137-8 , pp. 131ff.