When the German Empire came into existence in 1871, none of its constituent states had any overseas colonies. Only after the Berlin Conference in 1884 did Germany begin to acquire new overseas possessions, but it had a much longer relationship with colonialism dating back to the 1520s. Before the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, various German states established chartered companies to set up trading posts; in some instances they also sought direct territorial and administrative control over these. After 1806, attempts at securing possession of territories overseas were abandoned; instead, private trading companies took the lead in the Pacific while joint-stock companies and colonial associations initiated projects elsewhere, although many never progressed beyond the planning stage.

Before 1871 there were many instances of German people migrating to live outside their native land, for example the Volga Germans invited to Russia by Catherine the Great or the Palatines to the American colonies. In addition, some princes of German states were involved in colonial ventures through leasing professional troops for use in the colonies of European powers, such as during the American Revolutionary War. Thus, Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg established the Württemberg Cape Regiment for the Dutch East India Company while the princes of Waldeck set up regiments for colonial use and even served in them. Various Hessian regiments also fought with the British during the American War of Independence.

In the mid-seventeenth century, the main motivation for German states seeking to establish colonial ventures was to rebuild their economies in the aftermath of the Thirty Years War. With trade and agriculture in many parts of Germany severely affected and the population greatly reduced, the lucrative Atlantic slave trade in particular appeared to offer the prospect of rapid financial recovery. The main inspiration for German state initiatives was the Dutch Republic which had rapidly transformed itself from a minor state to a world commercial and naval power; various German rulers wished to emulate its example.

The first German colonial project was a private business initiative. Emperor Charles V ruled German territories as well as the Spanish Empire, and he was deeply in debt to the Welser family of Augsburg. In lieu of repayment the Welsers accepted a grant of land on the coast of present-day Venezuela in 1528, which they called "Little Venice". A small number of German settlers and a larger number of slaves were sent to the colony. Most of the Germans died, and the governors devoted most of their energies to expeditions into the interior to search for El Dorado. In 1556, the Spanish crown revoked the Welsers' privilege and resumed control of the territory. The Welsers were treated as heroes in much 19th century German fiction, and regarded as an inspiration for German colonial projects in the 1880s and 1890s.

In 1669 the Dutch West India Company and the County of Hanau entered into a contract leasing a territory of around 100,000 square kilometres between the Orinoco and Amazon rivers in Dutch Guiana to Hanau. This territory was to be many times larger than Hanau itself (which was just under 1,400 square kilometres). The intention was to compensate for the financial hardships of Hanau by achieving a positive trade balance with a colony. The contract secured extensive rights for the Dutch West India Company, including a monopoly on transport with the Hanau-Indies. However, from the outset there was a lack of resources to finance a project in this scale, and a lack of people willing to colonise it. The project ended in a financial fiasco for the county of Hanau. An attempt to sell it to King Charles II was not successful, and the project finally failed due to the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Dutch War the same year.

In 1657 the Bavarian scholar Johann Joachim Becher published a Call for the Founding of German Overseas Colonies (Aufruf zur Gründung deutscher Überseekolonien), but this found no immediate support. The Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria was interested in a project to colonise New Amsterdam, but after the Dutch Republic ceded the territory to England, the Bavarian scheme was abandoned in 1675. There are accounts that in the early 1730s, there was a plan for the Elector Maximilian II Emanuel to take possession of a tract of land in Guiana on the Barima River to establish a Bavarian colony; however, no documentary evidence of such a plan has ever emerged.

The colonial ambitions of Brandenburg-Prussia began under Frederick William the Great Elector who had studied at the Dutch universities of Leyden and the Hague. When Frederick William became elector in 1640, he invited Dutch engineers to Brandenburg, sent Brandenburg engineers to study in the Netherlands, and in 1646 married Luise Henriette of the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau. He engaged former Dutch admiral Aernoult Gijsels van Lier as his advisor and tried to persuade the Holy Roman Emperor and other princes of the empire to participate in the creation of a new East India Company. The Emperor declined as he considered it dangerous to disturb the interest of the other European powers. In 1651, Frederick William agreed to purchase the Danish possessions of Fort Dansborg and Tranquebar in India for 120,000 reichstalers, but as he was ultimately unable to raise this sum, the agreement was cancelled in 1653.

In 1680, the first slaving ship sailed from Brandenburg to Africa. Lacking a port on the North Sea, the Brandenburgers embarked from Pillau on the Baltic; in 1683, an agreement was signed with the city of Emden giving them access to the North Sea. In 1682, at the suggestion of the Dutch merchant and privateer Benjamin Raule, Frederick William granted a charter to the Brandenburg Africa Company (BAC), marking the first organised and sustained attempt by a German state to take part in the Atlantic slave trade. With his state still impoverished after the Thirty Years War, the Elector hoped to replicate the mercantile successes of the Dutch East India Company. In 1683 the red eagle of Brandenburg was hoisted over Cape Three Points in present-day Ghana, and the first "treaties of protection" were signed with local chiefs. In addition, the foundation stone was laid for Fort Groß Friedrichsburg. In 1687, Prussia signed a treaty with the Emir of Trarza which allowed it to use the fort of Arguin for supplies and trading - gum arabic was also an important secondary trade commodity for the Prussians. Other goods traded included ivory, gold and salt.