Foreign relations of Germany

The Federal Republic of Germany (up until 1990 abbreviated as FRG, opposed to GDR) is a Central European country and founding member of the European Union, a member of G4, G7, the G20, the Organizations for Economic Co-operation and Development, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the only remaining of two former German members of the United Nations. It maintains a network of 229 diplomatic missions abroad and holds relations with more than 190 countries. As one of the world's leading industrialized countries it is recognized as a major power in European and global affairs.

Germany's relations to other powers are characterized by its past and by its commitment to promote peace, stability, the rule of law and democracy, while it seeks a progressing integration into the European Union. The heavily West-aligned Germany inherited diplomatic relations and missions from communist East Germany, which was "Germany" to those countries which had only relations to one of the two German states. However, due to its allegiance and market economy, the perception of Germany by some of the former Eastern bloc countries changed with Germany's reunification.

The history of German foreign policy covers diplomatic developments and international history since the foundation of Germany in 1871.

Before 1866, Habsburg Austria and its German Confederation were the nominal leader in German affairs, but the Hohenzollern Kingdom of Prussia exercised increasingly dominant influence in German affairs, owing partly to its ability to participate in German Confederation politics through its Brandenburg holding, and its ability to influence trade through its Zollverein network. The question of excluding or including Austria's influence was settled by the Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War (also named the German War or the German-German War) in 1866, excluding the Austrian Empire from Germany. The unification of Germany was the political purpose of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in which the smaller German states joined behind remaining Prussia in a smashing victory over France. The German Empire was erected in 1871 by Otto von Bismarck, who dominated German and indeed all of European diplomatic history until he was forced to resign in 1890.

Germany's diplomatic weight increased by transitioning its economy and society from an agrarian country to Europe's second industrial powerhouse, which soon sought competition with the leading economic power of that era, Great Britain. As from 1884, Germany engaged – as the last major European power – in oversea colonization, but held only few colonies for economical exploitation, leaving Germany vulnerable to the protectionist mercantilism of other colonial powers who controlled the world's market of raw materials. Germany's development and transition led to internal tensions, which Emperor Wilhelm II., infamous for his Hun speech throughout Europe and an increasing diplomatic liability, sought to hedge with naval armament and increased imperialism much to the suspicion of the other European powers, especially the Entente Cordiale. Encircled by the Triple Entente, and due to the negligence of Germany's emperor and his diplomatic advisors by giving Austria-Hungary a "blank cheque" on treating Entente-allied Serbia for the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the Empire of Germany had to fight back its enemies in a war on multiple fronts and was cut off from international trade routes, leading to hunger and impoverishment in Europe's most populous country.

Germany was defeated in the battlefield in 1918, with its riches turning to spoils for the victors. The country had neither say nor seat at the table on which the victors negotiated how Germany and its treasures would be apportioned. The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to convey away Alsace-Lorraine to France, a part of East Prussia to the Second Polish Republic and to accept the occupation of major industrial areas around Germany's centers for coal and steel production in Silesia and the Rhine province. When Germany was unable to fulfill the Allied demand for reparations in gold, France occupied the Ruhr valley to shave Germany's coal production. The Weimar Republic had to solve these crises to gain back its international stand in diplomacy, which lead Germany to joining the League of Nations in 1926.

However, the ransack and ongoing compromisation of Germany after World War I came with a toll on its internal stability and put the republic's attempt to establish peace and order to failure and its diplomatic influence from marginal to inept. Political extremist factions from left and right put the screws on Germany's politics by rallying against the weakened republic. International indifference to the events in the defeated country only turned into cautious unease after the Reichstag fire and Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933. The newly appointed chancellor ran on a platform of revising the Treaty of Versailles by rearmament, shaking off the shackles of occupation and "gaining room to live" (occupation) in the East. Racial and genocidal undertones in his program were internationally ignored as the new government was able to establish the long-sought peace and order in Germany and pursued international recognition as a stabilizing power: although Hitler's government withdrew Germany's membership from the League of Nations in 1933 much to the wary of the remaining nations, Germany managed to appease the world by hosting the Olympic Games of 1936 and presenting the world a stable, progressive and prospering country while secretly starting a program for rearmament at the same time. Shortly after the games, Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, which sought to establish a common sphere of interest between Germany and Japan and their allied countries as well. Initially the pact was directed against the Soviet Union.

Despite its public presentation, Germany soon would raise suspicion by its rapidly progressing military programs, which weren't overlooked by international press. With massive interference in the internal affairs of Austria, which was unable to overcome economical challenges for 20 years after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany managed to annex Austria in the Anschluss, reversing the resolution of the German war 70 years earlier and violating the Treaty of Versailles once again, which forbade the union of both countries. Germany tested its newly gained strength on boosting the Sudeten crisis of 1938, as Sudeten Germans, attracted by Germany and its success, rebelled against Czechoslovak authorities. The crisis lead to the Munich Agreement, the first gain in territory for Germany since World War I. However, Hitler was dissatisfied with how the crisis was solved peacefully. The policy of appeasement by Neville Chamberlain allowed for Hitler to violate the agreement shortly after signing it, by dissolving the Czechoslovak government and occupying the rest of the country in 1939, followed by the wary European powers of France and Great Britain to draw a red line for Poland. Germany signed the Pact of Steel with Italy, shaping with the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan before and with the Tripartite Pact later on, what will come to be the Axis alliance.