Germany–Yugoslavia relations

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Germany–Kingdom of Yugoslavia relations

Germany
Yugoslavia
Germany–Kingdom of Yugoslavia relations

Germany
Yugoslavia
West Germany–Yugoslavia relations

West Germany
Yugoslavia
Germany–Yugoslavia relations

Germany
Yugoslavia
Weimar Republic
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Weimar Republic and Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Germany
Yugoslavia
West Germany and Yugoslavia
President of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito and Chancellor of Germany Willy Brandt

Germany–Yugoslavia relations were post-World War I historical foreign relations between Germany (Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, Allied-occupied Germany, West Germany and post-reunification Germany till 1992) and now split-up Yugoslavia (both Kingdom of Yugoslavia or Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). The relations between the two countries and societies have been marked by an extensive and complicated history.

The Germans of Yugoslavia (mostly Danube Swabians) in the interwar Kingdom of Yugoslavia were one of the largest minority groups in the country. German-led Axis powers initiated invasion of Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941 initiating the traumatic period of the World War II in Yugoslavia.

After the World War II in addition to West, Yugoslavia maintained relations with East Germany as well. Contrary to countries which were part of the Eastern Bloc, socialist but non-aligned Yugoslavia developed significant economic, cultural and tourist and Gastarbeiter mobility and cooperation with West Germany during the Cold War period. Political relation were affected by the decision of Belgrade to formally recognize East Germany but were nevertheless significantly improved with the initiation of the Ostpolitik.

History[]

Interwar period[]

Over the centuries German-speaking parts of Europe played important political, cultural, scientific and economic gravitational role for South Slavic communities. Close cultural and economic links remained throughout the XX century. On 25 March 1941 Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact which just two days later, on 27 March 1941, provoked the British encouraged Yugoslav coup d'état. The coup in turn provoked the Axis Invasion of Yugoslavia.

World War II[]

In the period of World War II in Yugoslavia Nazi Germany with its allies and client regimes invaded and divided Yugoslavia. Direct Nazi and client regimes crimes included Holocaust in Croatia and Serbia, Genocide of Serbs, Chetnik war crimes and other. The communist-led republican Yugoslav Partisans evolved into Europe's most effective anti-Axis resistance movement. During the flight and expulsion of Germans in the immediate post-war years majority of Germans of Yugoslavia left the country.

Cold War[]

After the war two countries initiated significant economic cooperation. Yugoslav decision to recognize East Germany in 1957 (as a part of its efforts to improve relations with the Soviet Union after the 1948 Tito–Stalin split) pushed West Germany to apply the Hallstein Doctrine for the first time in history, limiting relations almost exclusively to the economics field for the next eleven years (until 1968) until the initiation of the Ostpolitik.[1][2] Contrary to countries within the Eastern Bloc Yugoslav authorities permitted free international travel of its citizens while large number of Germans spent their summers at the Adriatic Sea, both of which furthered people to people exchanges. In 1968 Yugoslavia and West Germany signed an agreement on Yugoslav Gastarbeiter workforce, at the time when there was already over 300 000 Yugoslav workers in West Germany.[3] Up until 1973 nearly 700 000 Yugoslav citizens lived and worked in Germany while the Federal Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia run an extensive network of 260 diplomats at the Embassy of Yugoslavia, Berlin Military Mission, Cologne and Stuttgart Information Centers and 11 consulates in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Freiburg im Breisgau, Ravensburg, Nuremberg, Hanover, Dortmund and Mannheim.[4] Efforts of the Yugoslav diplomacy were complicated by uncoordinated and provocative direct involvements of the federal State Security Administration as well as various sub-national Yugoslav republics' secret service organizations (particularly Croatian one) in surveillance and suppression of nationalist and terrorist Yugoslav emigree groups in Germany.[4]

German reunification and Yugoslav crisis[]

At the earliest stage of the Yugoslav crisis German political elites initially supported preservation of Yugoslavia with only CSU conditionally supporting independence movements.[5] As late as 19 June 1991 all political parties in Bundestag favored confederal reorganization of Yugoslavia but this attitude siftly changed after the declaration of independence by the Socialist Republic of Croatia and Slovenia and actions of the Yugoslav People's Army from 25 June 1991 onwards.[5] From the end of June 1991 German Chancellor Helmut Kohl strongly supported the right of self-determination for the Croatia and Slovenia which led to lack of unity among the European Economic Community as the French President François Mitterrand argued against immediate cutoff of aid to Yugoslavia, while Spain, Italy and United Kingdom insisted on the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.[6] German readiness to recognize Croatia and Slovenia unilaterally without other EEC member states pushed the entire community to jointly follow the course on 15 January 1992.[7] Germany opened it's doors for approximately 700,000 refugees fleeing the former Yugoslav Wars majority of whom subsequently returned to their relatively nearby region in the former Yugoslavia.[8]

See also[]

Further reading[]

References[]

  1. ^ Kosanović, Milan (2009). "Brandt and Tito: Between Ostpolitik and Nonalignment". In Fink, Carole; Schaefer, Bernd (eds.). Ostpolitik, 1969-1974: European and Global Responses. New York: German Historical Institute Washington DC & Cambridge University Press. pp. 232–243. ISBN 978-0-521-89970-3.
  2. ^ Maricic, Alan (2019). “Lucky that East Germany also exists”: Yugoslavia between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (1955-1968) (Doctor of Philosophy). University of Waterloo. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  3. ^ Rujević, Nemanja. "Jugoslavenski gastarbajteri: „Kako ću raditi baš za Švabu?!"". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  4. ^ a b Jakovina, Tvrtko (2020). Budimir Lončar: Od Preka do vrha svijeta [Budimir Lončar: From Preko to the top of the World] (in Croatian). Zaprešić, Croatia: Fraktura. ISBN 978-953358239-9.
  5. ^ a b Zipfel, Tomáš (1996). "Germany and the recognition of the sovereignty of Slovenia and Croatia". Perspectives (6/7): 137–146. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  6. ^ Riding, Alan. "Conflict in Yugoslavia; EUROPEANS SEND HIGH--LEVEL TEAM". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  7. ^ Kinzer, Stephen. "Europe, Backing Germans, Accepts Yugoslav Breakup". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  8. ^ Dany Bahar; Cem Özgüzel; Andreas Hauptmann; Hillel Rapoport. "Migration and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: The Effect of Returning Refugees on Export Performance in the Former Yugoslavia". . Retrieved 17 November 2021.
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