German-Russian relations

German-Russian relations

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German-Russian Relations (Russia)

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German-Russian Relations (Germany)

In German-Russian relations , cooperation, alliance and hostility dominated at times. After the policy of détente and the end of the Cold War , which was accompanied by German reunification , Germany and Russia worked together for a time in the spirit of a strategic partnership. Relations have been tense since the Ukraine crisis . Both states have imposed sanctions on each other.

Germany has the German embassy in Moscow and consulates general in Yekaterinburg , Kaliningrad , Novosibirsk and Saint Petersburg as well as honorary consuls in Omsk and Saratov . Russia has an embassy in Berlin and consulates general in Bonn , Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg , Leipzig and Munich , and honorary consuls are active in Düsseldorf , Nuremberg and Stuttgart .

History of bilateral political relations

Roman emperors and Kievan Rus

The beginnings of German-Russian relations go back a long way in the history of the two peoples. The first known contact between ancestors of the Germans and Russians took place at a time when “Germans” and “Russians” did not even exist. The terms “German” and “Russian” were also far removed from their later clearly defined geographical limits. As a political entity, the East Franconian Empire formed on the German side from 843 onwards , which under the Ottonians in the 10th century developed into the Holy Roman Empire , a forerunner of the German state. On the Russian side, the empire of the Kievan Rus was established in 882 , which since 988, during the reign of Vladimir the Holy, had followed the Orthodox faith instead of the Latin faith .

German-Russian relations were initially characterized by:

• initially one-sided unsuccessful missionary attempts from west to east,
• political-dynastic contacts through connections between the ruling houses as well as alliance agreements and assistance pacts,
• Trade relations that proved to be a stabilizing element even in times of crisis and upheaval.

For more than five decades, Western missionaries first tried to persuade the pagan Eastern Slavs, who were pagan until the reign of Vladimir, to adopt Christianity. The impetus for this came from Olga , the widow of the Kiev prince Igor , who died in 945 . This called western missionaries into the country as a possible compensation against a dominance of the Byzantine side. The Roman emperors were heavily involved in the disputes of maintaining the imperial order, church politics, Italy and other problems than that they could have fully grasped the developments on the eastern border. In addition, the country of the Rus was still behind those of the Western Slavs, whose Elbe and Baltic Sea Slavs made a great revolt against the imperial rule in 983 and fully tied the forces of the empire.

However, political relations started early. For the year 973 Lampert von Hersfeld testifies that an embassy of Russians was at the last Reichstag of Otto I in Quedlinburg . For the empire, the Kievan Rus became a power to be reckoned with in the 11th century. A first alliance between the Roman Emperor and the Kievan Rus followed in 1017. It was directed against the Polish Duke Boleslaw , who refused to take the feudal oath to Heinrich II . There had been hostilities between the Empire and Poland since 1004. The seniority principle in the Kievan Rus regularly led to inheritance disputes between the subsequent brothers. After the death of Yaroslav the Wise in 1054, a triumvirate was formed , but this did not last long. One of the brothers, Isjaslav I , was driven to the west by the other brothers in the course of the power struggles. In 1075 Heinrich IV received him in Mainz, who assured him of help against the now established Grand Duke Sviatoslav in Kiev. However, Henry did not intervene in the power struggle due to the change in power constellations. In 1076 Henry IV was exempt from church , and Grand Duke Svyatoslav died in the same year.

Over a decade later, a coalition took place between the ruling houses. In 1089 Henry IV married Eupraxia , the daughter of the Kiev Grand Duke Vsevolod . After that, over a hundred years passed before an alliance between a German and a Russian prince was again concluded. In 1205 Roman Msitslawitsch intervened on the side of Otto von Braunschweig in the war between Guelphs and Staufers . But he was killed on a campaign to the west by the Poles on the Vistula .

Hanseatic League, German Order and Russian Principalities

The 240 years of Mongolian rule from 1240 to 1480 interrupted relations between the Russian territories and the Western European territories , so that during this time hardly any political relations were maintained. At that time, however, there were still lively trade relations between the Russian city ​​republics of Novgorod and the Republic of Pskov on the one hand and the Hanseatic cities and the territories of the Knights of the Order on the other.

But there were also armed conflicts between the expansive Teutonic Order states in the Baltic States and Novgorod, the climax of which was the battle on Lake Peipus in 1242, in which the eastern urge of the German knights was stopped by Alexander Nevsky .

Over time, the Grand Duchy of Moscow developed into the dominant Russian center. In the second half of the 15th century, Moscow forced Novgorod's submission. With it came Novgorod's loss of ties with the West. The closing of the Hansekontor Peterhof in 1494 by Ivan III is symbolic of this .

Habsburg and Grand Duchy of Moscow

With the emergence of the Russian Empire around its center Moscow and the shedding of the Tatar yoke, the importance of the Grand Dukes of Moscow grew at the end of the 15th century; the Russian empire slowly approached the world of European states. The stance that Moscow took against the great power Poland-Lithuania and the strength that was granted to it made it interesting for the established Western and Central European powers as an ally. The Habsburg emperor had the possibility of an alliance with Moscow explored. Over the years Moscow received a number of imperial envoys, including Sigismund von Herberstein . After the exploration of an alliance against Poland-Lithuania, the common issues between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Habsburg emperor shifted to a common defense against the Ottoman attacks.

In diplomacy, the Russian tsars in negotiations with the Roman emperor were also concerned with establishing the equality of rank between the title of tsar and that of the emperor. This was traditionally rejected (see two emperor problem ).

Relationships at the time of absolutism

In the meantime Russian tsarism recovered from the time of turmoil (1606–1613). In 1649 the Zaporož Cossacks offered the tsar the position of patron of their territory in what is now Ukraine . In 1689 Peter I became tsar at the age of 18 and began to fundamentally change Russia . He looked in the West for patterns and models for his military and economic projects.

The Russian Tsar Peter I used to return the favor every year for the precious gifts that the Prussian king had given him with a delivery of "giants".
The picture shows the grenadier Schwerid Rediwanoff from Moscow, one of the men Peter the Great sent to Berlin in exchange for the Amber Room .

This course promoted Russia's greater diplomatic integration into the Western European state system. His grand embassy of 1697, which he joined incognito, led in 1697 to a first friendship treaty with the Electorate of Brandenburg and on the early return in 1698 to a pact against Sweden with August the Strong . This was a diplomatic prelude to the Great Northern War (1700–1721). Peter had also supported August I's election to the Polish throne. Russia was allied with the Electorate of Saxony from 1700 to 1706, 1709 to 1719 and from 1715 with the Kingdom of Prussia against Sweden. The war ended with a victory for the Alliance and concluded with the proclamation of the Russian Empire in 1721. With the establishment of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and the financial overexertion of Saxony in Poland (cf. Saxony-Poland ) and the wars, Prussia became the Protestant leading power in Germany and thus replaced the Electorate of Saxony, which despite its economic prosperity could not form as strong central state structures as its Protestant rival in the north and gradually lost power in the age of absolutism . Peter I met the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I several times on a friendly basis and gave the Prussian king, who had a passion for everything military, a company of tall guys .

Europe at the time of the Seven Years' War

The emerging Prussian-Austrian dualism gave Russia the opportunity to grow into the role of arbitrator. Peter’s policy took both powers into account. Due to the intensification of the antagonism, the rulers after Peter I became a bit more pro-Austrian, although pro-Prussian voices were also represented at the Petersburg court ( Burkhard Christoph von Münnich ).

Convention of Tauroggen

In the War of the Polish Succession (1733–1738). However, the alliance broke in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and in the Seven Years War (1756-1763). The coalition of Austria with Russia and France against the expansion of Prussia had brought Frederick II to the brink of defeat. Only the death of the Empress saved Prussia from defeat in the war. Peter III followed in 1762 . , a Holstein prince and admirer of Frederick, the Empress Elisabeth on the Petersburg throne. He immediately concluded an unconditional separate peace and friendship pact with the Prussian king. Friedrich II had his back free, the Hubertusburg Peace of 1763 confirmed Prussia as a major European power. From then on, the connection with Russia became a cornerstone of Frederick the Great's foreign policy.

The negative consequences of a merger between Prussia and Russia arose for Poland-Lithuania , which was heavily weakened domestically and was divided between the two powers and Austria in 1772, 1793 and 1795 . Thus Prussia and Russia became immediate neighbors.

Russian-Prussian military parade in Kalisch in 1835

Russia and Prussia reacted against the French Revolution and were the allied part of the coalitions against the new regime in the French Revolutionary Wars and later the Napoleonic Wars . After Napoleon in Russia failed , was the Prussian General concluded Yorck with the Russian General Diebitch the Convention of Tauroggen on 30 December 1812. Yorck was commanding general of a Prussian auxiliary corps that the commitments of the Paris alliance between Prussia and France to Grande Armée of Napoleon belonged to. The Yorck Corps declared itself neutral in the Convention. This agreement was the prelude to a German-Russian alliance policy that lasted almost until the end of the 19th century. First a coalition was formed between Russia and Prussia, which Austria and other states later joined. Russia was celebrated in Germany as a liberator from Napoleonic foreign rule. The Holy Alliance , a union of the monarchs of Russia, Austria and Prussia , emerged in 1815 from the brotherhood of arms of the ensuing wars of liberation . The purpose of the pact was to secure the status decided by the Congress of Vienna . The pact was ended by Russian-Austrian conflicts of interest in the Balkans .

The German and Russian empires

Tschitscherin (2nd from right, with briefcase) in Rapallo 1922, u. a. with Joseph Wirth (2nd from left) and AA Joffe (far right)

Fokker D.XIII of the Secret Aviation School and test site of the Reichswehr in Lipetsk

On August 24, 1939, Molotov signed the German-Soviet non-aggression pact in the Kremlin.
In the background: Joachim von Ribbentrop and Josef Stalin

For Bismarck, the central position of Germany gave rise to the task of settling the dispute in Europe. At the Berlin Congress in 1878 he managed to settle the conflict between Russia, Great Britain and Austria-Hungary for supremacy in the Balkans. But he paid for it with an upset Russia, which had been disadvantaged.

The rift in German-Russian friendship that had arisen as a result of Bismarck's policy of equilibrium was covered over by the three emperor alliance of 1881, which was renewed in 1884. After the Russian-Austrian antagonism became visible again in 1887, Bismarck consolidated the German-Russian partnership through the secret reinsurance treaty that freed Russia from fear of a joint German-Austrian attack. The contract was valid for three years.

During the reign of Wilhelm II , only the appearance of a German-Russian friendship could be maintained. The reinsurance contract was not renewed by Bismarck's successor, Leo von Caprivi , in 1890. As a result, Russia concluded a military convention with France in 1892 .

When the Russian-Austrian competition in the Balkans triggered the First World War , the German Reich was embroiled in a two-front war. In order to accelerate the collapse of the Russian army and thereby end the war in the east , Erich Ludendorff had the leader of the communists , Vladimir Lenin , travel through Germany on a train from his exile in Switzerland . Immediately after Lenin took power in St. Petersburg, peace negotiations between the Central Powers and the Bolsheviks began in Brest-Litovsk . In the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, Soviet Russia renounced large areas under protest.

Weimar Republic and Soviet Union

At the World Economic Conference in Genoa in April 1922, the Soviet representatives and the German delegation were hardly heard. The West had not yet recognized the Soviet Union de jure, especially since it refused to recognize the financial obligations of the former Empire. Germany, on the other hand, was unable to persuade the Allies to reduce their reparation demands. This isolation was the reason why the German Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau and his Soviet colleague Georgi Wassiljewitsch Tschitscherin negotiated a contract in neighboring Rapallo . The Treaty of Rapallo meant the restoration of good neighborly relations: the resumption of diplomatic and economic relations and the renunciation of the rights from the Treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Versailles .

Even before the Rapallo Treaty was signed, the head of the German Army Command , General von Seeckt , arranged for the Reichswehr to work with the Red Army built by War Commissioner Trotsky . The German armaments industry developed aircraft, armored vehicles and warfare agents in the Soviet Union. Germany provided industrial equipment and instructors for this purpose.

National Socialist Germany and the Soviet Union

Hitler's rise to power initially meant the end of German-Soviet consonance. The emerging opposition between Berlin and Moscow was based on the ideological mortal hostility between National Socialism and Bolshevism and was exacerbated by agreements under international law, such as B. the Anti-Comintern Pact between Japan and Germany (1936), which later joined Italy, Hungary, Spain and the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo . The similarity, which cannot be overlooked, gave rise to the rhymes as early as November 1934 in the Swiss Nebelspalter : Why shouldn't one achieve the same goal with the same rhythm / step and step?

Foreign ministers von Ribbentrop and Molotov signed a non-aggression pact in Moscow on August 23, 1939 , which was completed four weeks later, on September 28, again in Moscow with the conclusion of the German-Soviet border and friendship treaty and the secret agreement on the partition of Poland has been.

Molotov's visit to Berlin in November 1940 revealed the deep conflict of interests between the two states. Eight months later, the German-Soviet War began with the attack on the Soviet Union . Four years later the Red Army was in Berlin and on the Elbe .

Divided post-war Germany and the Soviet Union

The crimes of the National Socialists in World War II brought great suffering to the people of what was then the Soviet Union. The post-war period in Germany was marked by the division of Europe and the division of Germany . At first, the four zones of occupation were absolutely dependent on the victorious powers .

Federal Republic of Germany - Soviet Union

As a result of the worsening East-West conflict and an increasingly clear link between Western Europe and the United States of America , the USSR felt threatened in the early 1950s by the planned establishment of the European Defense Community (EDG) with the participation of the Federal Republic of Germany . On March 10, 1952, Josef Stalin offered the Western powers (France, Great Britain, USA) in a note negotiations on the reunification and neutralization of Germany; these proposals came to be known as the Stalin Note . The western powers and the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer took the initiative of the Soviet head of state as a disruptive maneuver and rejected it without any willingness to negotiate.

Ten years after the end of the war, the Soviet state and party leadership under Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin officially invited Chancellor Adenauer to Moscow to negotiate diplomatic relations. On September 8, 1955, he flew to Moscow with a large delegation of 141 people. In addition to the initial normalization between the West German state and the Soviet Union, the visit also brought the last prisoners of war and civil internees from the USSR back to the Federal Republic. The first embassy of the Soviet Union on German territory was located in the former Hotel Rolandseck-Groyen in Rolandswerth, south of Bonn , until the embassy moved to the Viktorshöhe in Bonn's Bad Godesberg district in 1976 . It had been sold to the Soviet Union in return (so-called "reciprocity agreement") for a piece of land for the German embassy on the Lenin Mountains in Moscow. In contrast to the other embassies in Bonn, the new embassy buildings erected on Viktorshöhe in the 1980s were geared towards extensive self-sufficiency and formed a separate “district”. In June 1989 Mikhail Gorbachev took over the business of government from there as part of a state visit for a period of one week.

GDR - Soviet Union

German Soviet friendship - mast flag of the GDR

Only after the failure of the conference of foreign ministers of the four occupying powers in Berlin (January 25 - February 18, 1954) did the Soviet Union grant the German Democratic Republic "extended sovereign rights ". With the exception of security and four-power issues , it should determine “at its own discretion about its internal and external affairs”, including relations with the Federal Republic of Germany. Formally, this ended absolute dependence on the USSR. In practice, from the point of view of its ideological opponent, West Germany, the GDR remained a Soviet satellite state .

Immediately after Adenauer's visit to Moscow, GDR Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl also traveled to Moscow and negotiated the full sovereignty of the GDR. A treaty was signed on mutual relations between the GDR and the Soviet Union . The USSR suspended the orders and orders of the SMAD and the Soviet Control Commission as well as the Control Council decisions from 1945 to 1948 for the territory of the GDR. However, Soviet troops remained stationed there. On July 17, 1956, the Soviet Union and the GDR concluded an agreement to reduce the maintenance costs for the Soviet armed forces in the GDR territory by 50 percent as well as to grant the GDR a long-term loan and to increase the mutual deliveries of goods. In addition, there was another contract on the temporary stationing of Soviet armed forces in the GDR ( troop stationing contract of March 12, 1957).

In the GDR, the Society for German-Soviet Friendship (DSF) as a mass organization had the task of imparting extensive knowledge about the culture and society of the Soviet Union.

Reunified Germany and Russian Federation

The St. Petersburg Dialogue logo

Putin with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (right) 2005

Postage stamp from 2004: German-Russian youth exchange

The legal basis of the relations between reunified Germany and the Russian Federation is formed by the Treaty on Good Neighborhood, Partnership and Cooperation of November 9, 1990 and the Joint Declaration of the President of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic and the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany of November 21, 1991. The treaty on the final settlement with regard to Germany of September 12, 1990 is of fundamental importance . After peaceful reunification in 1990, Germany was grateful for the problem-free handling of the consequences and felt at the same time as a catalyst and engine for greater integration of Russia into Europe Structures and promoted loans and investments in Russia. With Gerhard Schröder's chancellorship and the economic upswing in Russia under Vladimir Putin, German-Russian relations, particularly in the economic field, but also in terms of political dialogue, were more intense than ever before. Since 1998 bilateral government consultations have taken place annually at the highest level. The Nord Stream pipeline , which transports Russian natural gas from the Yuzhno-Russkoye natural gas field through the Baltic Sea directly to Germany , was inaugurated on November 8, 2011 . Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 , the relationship between Berlin and the Kremlin has deteriorated dramatically. There were sanctions taken against people associated with the Kremlin and after the shooting down of a civilian aircraft added to those against companies.

The Russian propaganda produced inside Russia's overall image of the West in decline: 85 percent of all news about the West are negative and convey an image of daily life in the West with fear and chaos; there are no morals and no common values, people are paralyzed by fear of terrorism and the refugees and sanctions are destroying the foundations of the welfare state. Only 23 percent of the population in Russia have a positive opinion of the EU, which is the lowest value in a country comparison. Because of Germany and Angela Merkel's politics, Nazism is on the rise, Russian media report.

Current bilateral exchange platforms

• German-Russian strategic working group for economics and finance (SAG): The aim of the SAG is to intensify bilateral cooperation and to improve the economic and legal framework; founded in 2000.
• Petersburg Dialogue : The aim of the discussion forum was to promote understanding between civil society; Founded in 2001, suspended for 2014, continued in 2015.
• German-Russian government consultation : This permanent institution serves to deal with important bilateral issues in a close and intensive dialogue between the ministries of both countries. The intergovernmental consultations have alternated between the two countries since 1999.

When Vladimir Putin was expected to attend German-Russian consultations in Hamburg in September 2004 , he was to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Hamburg . However, dozens of professors spoke out against it and a nationwide discussion was set in motion. At the same time, a hostage drama occurred in Beslan in the North Caucasus , which now attracted everyone's attention. The consultations were then canceled because of the events in the North Caucasus. When Putin made up the visit to Hamburg on December 20, 2004, there was no longer any talk of appreciation.

In February 2020 the German foreign minister threw Heiko Maas of the Russian government in the face of Russian military action in the context of the Syrian civil war before, the international humanitarian law broken and war crimes in the Idlib governorate of having committed.

History of the cultural relations between the two countries

The Nemezkaya Sloboda, contemporary representation

After the liberation from Mongol rule around 1480, the opening to Europe began. The Moscow Grand Dukes or Tsar Ivan III. and Ivan IV , had craftsmen, military personnel and other specialists such as doctors, pharmacists, scholars, technicians, armourers, cannon founders, engineers and military instructors recruited in Germany. A settlement for foreigners, the " German suburb " , arose in Moscow in the 16th century . This special location about two kilometers northeast of the center of Moscow was assigned to the foreign specialists as a living space. Several Germans lived as Russian subjects in other cities, especially in north-west Russia. Among the early Romanovs in the 17th century, many Germans were not only employed in trade, economy, handicrafts and the military, but also at the court of the tsars in Moscow.

After a time of turmoil and a decline in relations, Peter the Great in particular continued this tradition and around 1700 opened tsarism Russia to Western European and thus also German influences and promoted science and culture, also by bringing many German scholars and experts to Russia . With no other western European foreigner have Russians had as numerous and varied connections as with Germans since the 18th century. The number of French and Italian artists, merchants, craftsmen and educators was significantly lower, most of whom only lived in Petersburg, Moscow and a few larger provincial towns. The number of English, Dutch, Greek, Spanish, etc. was even smaller. On the other hand, German scholars and artisans were to be found even in the small towns of Russia. In realizing his reform intentions - which had shaped him in particular during his shorter stays abroad in the Holy Roman Empire in 1711 and 1712/13 - the Tsar made use of the early German Enlightenment, which was to become the predominant school of thought in Russia in the 18th century. In particular, the first important Russian scientists Vasily Nikititsch Tatishchev , Michail Wassiljewitsch Lomonossow and Wassili Kirillowitsch Trediakowski were influenced by German scholars such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff (Enlightenment) .

As a result of the great Peters embassy in 1697/98, regular instruction in Russian began at the University of Halle in 1698 . At that time, Halle was a center of Pietism , a reform movement in German Protestantism , and the Prussian counterpart to the Saxon University of Leipzig . This first university Russian course in Germany was connected to the work of the Halle Pietists around August Hermann Francke . The Pietists' interest in the Russians initially grew out of religious motives. The theologian Francke and his followers saw a piety in the Russian Orthodox faith that was closer to Pietism than to Catholicism . The theology professor Francke set himself the goal of not only training pietistic clergy for German Protestant communities in Russia, Eastern and Southern Europe, but also of influencing the Russian Orthodox population in the sense of pietism through them. The radiation of Halle Pietism to Russia was diverse and affected different areas of Russian society. So headed Laurentius Blumentrost from 1716 the construction of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. He became its founding president. Francke built up diverse relationships with Russia. His collaborators went to St. Petersburg, Moscow and Siberia. There they worked as doctors, tutors, pastors and officials. Halle scientists, such as the Francke student Georg Wilhelm Steller , took part in expeditions ( Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt ). Orphanages based on the Halle model were built in Narva , Astrakhan and Tobolsk .

The influence of Germans on the history of Russia increased even further under the successors of Peter the Great: ministers and advisers came from Germany and the Romanov family mingled with other European houses as part of a dynastic policy. The Russian Empress Katharina II (1729–1796, Empress from 1762), who came from Germany and was a representative of enlightened absolutism , wanted to use a peuplication policy similar to that in Prussia to make the newly acquired areas in the south of the country usable and to cultivate them. That is why Catherine II issued a manifesto on July 22nd, 1763, in which all foreigners were invited to settle in Russia. The large, planned settlement of German farmers in Russia began in 1763 and lasted until the end of the 1860s. In the years 1804 to 1842 the greatest emigration from southern and southwestern Germany to the area of Odessa , Bessarabia , the Crimea and the South Caucasus took place. A total of 181 villages (mother colonies) were formed in these areas (see History of the Russian Germans ).

“Isn't the history of the genesis of German and Russian humanity the same, namely a story of suffering?
What kinship in the relationship of the two national souls to Europe, to the West, to civilization, to politics, to democracy! ”
By Thomas Mann : Considerations of an Unpolitical (1917).

In the 19th century in particular, German literature and philosophy were received with enthusiasm in Russia; Pushkin was based on models of German Romanticism , Dostoyevsky received Schiller , Tolstoy referred to Hegel (" master and servant "). The debate between Westerners and Slavophiles stimulated interest in German culture because, since the Romantic era, it has explicitly reflected the negative side effects of modernization. At the same time, classical music of the 19th century remained a point of reference. At the end of the 19th century Germany began to get enthusiastic about Russian literature ; Dostoyevsky had a lasting effect on Nietzsche , and Tolstoy's stories appeared in key places in Martin Heidegger's writings in the 20th century . The image of Russia of most Germans was left a lasting impression of the Russian literature of the 19th century.

Before and after the First World War, there was an intensive mutual influence in art ( Blauer Reiter ), literature and architecture ( Bauhaus / avant-garde ). Russian cultural life flourished after the October Revolution , especially in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany, and Charlottenburg became “ Charlottengrad ”.

German-Soviet academic relations in the Weimar Republic

First contacts were made during their trips to Germany by Michail Isajewitsch Nemjonow in 1920, Wladimir Iljitsch Ioffes in 1921 and Wilhelm Westphals to Petrograd and Moscow in October 1922. The office for foreign science and technology (BINT) established in 1921 at the Soviet trade agency in Berlin under the direction of Nikolai Michailowitsch Fjodorowski , which dealt with the exchange of books and the mutual communication of the latest knowledge from science and technology, plays an important role in the contacts . and had a contract with the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences . In September 1923 the "Exhibition of German Books" took place in Moscow and an exhibition of Russian books in Leipzig. A book exchange contract was signed with the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft in Moscow on November 6, 1924. From 1925 to 1933, 55,000 individual Soviet volumes of monographic literature were delivered to Germany.

Avid supporters of the scientific exchange were Otto Hoetzsch , who traveled to the Soviet Union in 1923 and October 1926, and Friedrich Schmidt-Ott . In 1923 the Soviet-German society "Culture and Technology" was founded for the exchange of scientific and technical experience. In January 1932, the Arplan , a study society of German scientists to research the planned economy in the Soviet Union, was founded.

German and Soviet scientists met at the organization of joint weeks and conferences. From June 9th to 15th, 1927, a German-Soviet “Research Week” took place in Berlin, sponsored by the Foreign Office , the Emergency Association of German Science and the “Society for the Study of Eastern Europe”. From July 7th to 14th, 1928 a German-Soviet "Historians Week" took place. On January 7, 1929, a “Week of German Technology” opened in Moscow. From November 28 to December 3, 1932, a German-Soviet “medical week” took place in Berlin. In August 1929 the German-Soviet conference “Technology in Agriculture” met in Königsberg. At the 200th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences in September 1925, the 35-strong German delegation was the strongest among the 150 foreign guests.

In 1930 the joint file publication “International Relations in the Age of Imperialism” appeared in Russian and German. Oscar Waldhauer edited the series of publications "Archaeological Communications from Russian Collections" of joint research in the field of archeology.

In 1928 the German-Soviet Alai-Pamir expedition took place. The Free School Community of Wickersdorf was frequently visited by Soviet teachers; in 1930, 70 Soviet young people studied at it.

After 1945

The decades after 1945 were still shaped by the war experience. But interest in the culture of the other country persisted even in the darkest times of the 20th century and could not be permanently destroyed by the Nazi propaganda , which merged anti-Soviet and anti-Russian propaganda, or by the war crimes of the Germans. The economic and cultural contacts to the " brother country " GDR were considered exemplary among the countries of the socialist camp. The "Society for the Study of Culture of the Soviet Union" was founded in June 1947 and was renamed the Society for German-Soviet Friendship (DSF) at the 2nd Congress in July 1949 . This organization was primarily intended to help eliminate the anti-Soviet attitude in the population of the Soviet Zone through cultural work . The centers of political and cultural work were the DSF houses, which were set up and operated as culture houses in the broadest sense.

German films, TV programs and literary works were very common in the Soviet Union, and German was the next most widely used foreign language in schools and universities after English. The culture from West Germany was less publicized . But the proximity to the GDR also eased the relationship between the Soviet Union and the Federal Republic in the course of the 1980s. Works like those by Heinrich Böll , Günter Grass and Wolfgang Koeppen also received considerable editions.

After German reunification and the withdrawal of Russian troops from East Germany , a deep, historically determined bond between Germany and Russia could be re-established. This enabled a close cultural and educational exchange to develop.

In 2003 a government agreement was concluded to promote mutual learning of the partner language. Around 12,000 young Russian citizens are now studying at German universities.

In April 2005 a joint declaration for a strategic partnership in the field of education, research and innovation was signed.

Since 2006 there have been coordination offices in Hamburg and Moscow for bilateral school and youth exchanges.

The Goethe-Institut is present in many places in Russia, in Moscow, St. Petersburg and since spring 2009 in Novosibirsk . In addition, numerous other German cultural mediators are represented in Russia (see German-Russian House ).

The Russian House of Science and Culture , a foreign representation of the Federal Agency for Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States , is a carrier of Russian culture in Germany . The company's activities are aimed at developing diverse Russian-German relations in the fields of culture, science, technology and business cooperation between Russia and Germany.

In 2012-2013, the two countries signed two governmental agreements regulating the activities and legal aspects of both cultural institutions (Agreement on the Activities of Cultural and Information Centers and Agreement on the Conditions of Accommodation for the Russian House of Science and Culture in Berlin and the Goethe Institute in Moscow)

One of the so far unsolved problems in the cultural relations of the two peoples is the question of looted art , art and cultural assets from German collections that were relocated during the war and that have been kept in institutions of the Russian Federation since 1945.

See also

One of 33 German-Russian milking systems

• List of German ambassadors in Russia
• List of German-Russian city and community partnerships
• Foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Stefan Dürr

Movies

• War and Peace - German-Soviet Sketches , Documentation, Das Erste

literature

• Andreas Hilger (ed.): Diplomacy for German unity. Documents of the Foreign Office on German-Soviet relations 1989/90 (= series of the quarterly books for contemporary history . Vol. 103). Oldenbourg, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-70659-8 .
• Ilja Kalinin: "Attitude or responsibility in Russia policy? German foreign policy in view of the political culture of Russia", Springer VS, 2015. ISBN 978-3-658-11267-7 .
• Andrea Kamp, Peter Jahn, Philip Springer: Our Russians, our Germans: Pictures from the Other 1800 to 2000 , Ch. Links Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-86153-460-0 .
• Mechthild Keller (ed.): Russians and Russia from a German perspective, 9. – 17. Century , Vol. 1, Munich. ISBN 978-3-7705-2292-7 .
  • Russians and Russia from a German perspective, 18th century: Enlightenment , Bd. 2, Munich. ISBN 978-3-7705-2438-9 .
  • Russians and Russia from a German perspective, 19th century: From the turn of the century to the founding of the Empire (1800–1871) , Vol. 3, Munich. ISBN 978-3-7705-2611-6 .
  • (Ed.): Russians and Russia from a German perspective, 19./20. Century: From the Bismarckian Period to the First World War , Vol. 4, Munich. ISBN 978-3-7705-2647-5 .
• Hermann Strutz:
  • "A people with visions lives on - German-Russian pilot project for peace" Luther-Verlag, 2011. ISBN 978-3-7858-0603-6 .
  • "A people with visions comes to life" in: Panorama, Intercultural Annual of Interdisciplinary Ethical and Religious Studies for Responsible Research, Volume 25/2013, Verlag der Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Foundation, 2013.
  • "Lippstadt-Krasnojarsk Partnership Initiative" in: Friedenspädagogische Blätter Issue 5 - Editor: North German Network Peace Education, 2013.

Web links

• The German Foreign Office on relations with Russia
• German-Russian projects - on the website of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Germany
• Russia Beyond the Headlines tells about the most important and interesting topics of cooperation between the two countries.
• Russiapartner.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mechthild Keller: Russians and Russia from a German perspective , Vol. 1, Munich, p. 73.
2. ^ Mechthild Keller: Russians and Russia from a German point of view, Vol. 1, Munich, p. 75.
3. ↑ Mechthild Keller: Russians and Russia from a German perspective , Vol. 1, Munich, p. 49.
4. ^ Mechthild Keller: Russians and Russia from a German point of view , Vol. 1, Munich, p. 52.
5. ↑ Mechthild Keller: Russians and Russia from a German perspective, Vol. 2, Munich, p. 12.
6. ↑ Nebelspalter, November 1934 in Gegen Rote und Braune Fäuste , Nebelspalter 1932-1948, Verlag E. Löpfe-Benz, Rorschach, 1949. Whole rhymes: At last we see beautiful signs again / Noble human connection / Why shouldn't one rhythmically match / Reach the same goal every step of the way? / It's easier for two. // Although the black child walks a bit shy and stiff next to his tight / Red Cavalier / But oh who wanted to condemn lovers? / Doesn't the couple go well together? / It seemed ripe for a wedding for a long time!
7. ↑ The Kremlin chief must rule on the Rhine , Der Spiegel , June 12, 1989.
8. ↑ Cf. Georg Stötzel , Martin Wengeler: Controversial Terms. History of public language use in the Federal Republic of Germany , de Gruyter, 1995, p. 296.
9. ^ Hans-Ulrich Wehler : German history of society, Vol. 5: Federal Republic and GDR 1949–1990 , CH Beck, Munich 2008, p. 252 ; Torsten Diedrich, Walter Süß (Eds.): Military and State Security in the Security Concept of the Warsaw Pact States , Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, p. 321 ; Werner Weidenfeld , Karl-Rudolf Korte (ed.): Handbook on German Unity, 1949–1989–1999 , Campus Verlag, Frankfurt a. M./New York 1999, ISBN 3-593-36240-6 , p. 227 .
10. ^ Text of the agreement. (PDF) Retrieved December 2, 2016 . 
11. ↑ Manfred Alexander , Günther Stökl : Russian history. From the beginnings to the present (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 244). 7th, completely revised and updated edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-520-24407-9 , p. 819.
12. ^ Karl Schlögel: The sanctions against Russia are self-defense , NZZ, October 10, 2017; "There is no longer any need for further evidence that Putin is working on the dismantling of the EU - whether through the financing of reactionary and anti-European movements and parties, through the use of trolls and hackers, the mobilization of the« Russian world »across the borders and - still underestimated - the struggle for interpretative sovereignty and cultural hegemony («the decadent West»). "
13. ^ Anne Applebaum : The fake news Russians hear at home , The Washington Post, May 4, 2018
14. ↑ https://eceap.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Image-of-the-EU-and-Eastern-Partnership-countries-on-Russian-TV.pdf Image of the EU and Eastern Partnership countries on Russian TV, Estonian Center of Eastern Partnership, March 2018
15. ↑ How We Have Become an Enemy in the Eyes of Russia , Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies, March 2017; "Another instrument that is used to sow doubt and confusion is the promotion of conspiracy theories."
16. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Maas accuses Russia and Assad regime of war crimes - DER SPIEGEL - politics. Retrieved February 27, 2020 . 
17. ↑ Dagmar Herrmann (Ed.): Germans and Germany from a Russian perspective 19th century: From the turn of the century to the reforms of Alexander II. , Series B, Vol. 3, Munich 1998, p. 14.
18. ↑ Hans-Joachim Torke: The Russian Tsars. 1547-1917 , p. 170.
19. ↑ Scientia halensis. Science journal of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 1/98, pp. 30–31.
20. ↑ Dagmar Herrmann (Ed.): Germans and Germany from the Russian Perspective, 19th Century: From the Turn of the Century to the Reforms of Alexander II , Series B, Vol. 3, Munich 1998.
21. ^ Source for the section: Günter Rosenfeld : Soviet Union and Germany 1922-1933 . Berlin 1984, p. 182 ff. And Christoph Mick: Soviet Propaganda, Five-Year Plan and German Russia Policy 1928–1932 . Stuttgart 1995, p. 244 ff.
22. ↑ Maja Heidenreich: Perspectives of German-Russian Cultural Relations, ifa Edition Culture and Foreign Policy Culture of Partnership , 2011, p. 13.
23. ↑ Federal Law Gazette . Retrieved June 28, 2020 . 
24. ↑ Federal Law Gazette . Retrieved June 28, 2020 .