Federal Republic of Germany
Brazil and Germany established diplomatic relations in 1871, shortly after the German Unification and the creation of the German Empire. They broke relations in the context of World War II, but restored them in 1951.
The bilateral relationship - elevated to the level of Strategic Partnership in 2002 - is close and solid, marked by the convergence of perceptions, values and interests. The German diaspora in Brazil and the Brazilian one in Germany, the economic and commercial interests, the historic and cultural ties, and the role each country has in its own region reinforce the continuous growth of the bilateral rapprochement.
The working visits have contributed to the strengthening of relations between the two countries. In 2013, the German President, Joachim Gauck, visited Brazil, where he participated, alongside the then-President Dilma Rousseff, in the opening of the Brazil-Germany Economic Meeting (EEBA) and the inauguration of the German Year in Brazil 2013-2014. In 2012, the President visited Hannover, where she inaugurated the CeBIT (international fair in the areas of information and communication technologies), which had Brazil as its theme country.
In August of 2015, in Brasília, Brazil and Germany elevated their bilateral partnership through the inauguration - by then-President Dilma Rousseff and Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel - of the High Level Intergovernmental Consultation mechanism, an initiative that Germany maintains with few countries outside the European Union (China, India, Israel and Russia).
The first edition of the mechanism took place in Brasilia, on August 19-20, 2015. On the occasion, Chancellor Angela Merkel was accompanied by seven Ministers and five Vice Ministers. Nineteen Brazilian Ministers welcomed the German authorities and held sectorial working meetings. The results of the first edition of the High Level Intergovernmental Consultations were written in the Joint Statement of the Heads of Government, in the Joint Statement about Climate Change and in the eighteen agreements and declarations adopted in the occasion.
In April 2019, Federal Foreign Affairs Minister, Heiko Maas, visited Brazil, occasion in which he held a meeting with Chancellor Ernesto Araújo and was received by President Jair Bolsonaro.
Germany is the fourth largest commercial partner and traditional source of investment with a stockmarket of about US$15 billions in 2017. Since the first decades of the 20th century, German capitals helped to leverage the Brazilian industrial development. In the 60s and 70s, the creation of Brazil's modern industrial park coincided with the beginning of the internationalization process of German companies. The estimated 1600 German companies today installed in Brazil correspond to 8-10% of the Brazilian industrial GDP, with São Paulo established as the largest concentration of German industries outside of Germany.
The country is also Brazil’s largest commercial partner in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. In 2018, trade reached US$ 15.7 billion; Brazil exported about US$ 5.2 billion and imported about US$ 10.5 billion. The exports are concentrated in: ores; coffee; soybeans; copper ores; engines for motor vehicles and parts thereof. Imports are concentrated in: human and veterinary medicine; parts and pieces for motor vehicles and tractors; heterocyclic compounds, their salts and sulfonamides; cars; potassium chloride; organic chemicals; pharmaceutical products; electrical equipment.
The relations in the economic-trade and investment fields are accompanied by two high level instruments: the Brazil-Germany Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation and the German-Brazilian Economic Meeting (EEBA), which work in close coordination and harmony with the governmental and private sectors of both countries. In 2018, the two events (COMISTA and EEBA) took place in Cologne and in September 2019 they took place in Natal (RN).
The Brazilian community is distributed throughout Germany and consists mainly of Brazilian citizens married to German nationals, employees of German companies with branches in Brazil, Brazilians with dual nationality and students attending local universities. Accordingly to data from the Brazilian consular system, there are records of about 102 thousand Brazilians residing in Germany.
Chronology of Bilateral Relations
2019 – Working visit of the Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, to Salvador and Brasilia, where he met Foreign Affairs Minister, Ernesto Araújo, and was received by President Jair Bolsonaro (Brasilia, April 30)
2016 – Working meeting of Minister Mauro Vieira with German Foreign Affairs Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on the sidelines of the 52nd edition of the Munich Security Conference (February 14)
2015 – Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Brazil (August 19-20)
2015 – Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier visits Brazil (February 13)
2014 – The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, visits Brazil (June 15)
2014 – The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, visits Berlin (March 21)
2013 – Vice-President Michel Temer visits Germany in the context of the Frankfurt Book Fair, which had Brazil as theme country
2013 – The President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Joachim Gauck, visits Brazil (May 13-16)
2012 – The Vice-President of the Republic, Michel Temer, visits Germany (November)
2012 – The President of the Republic, Dilma Rousseff, visits Hannover, Germany (March 4-6)
2012 – Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle visits Brazil (February 13-16)
2011 – The President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Christian Wulff, visits Brazil (May 4-7)
2010 – Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle visits Brazil (March)
2009 – State visit of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (December)
2008 – Signing of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement on Public Security. Signing of Agreement on Cooperation on the Energy Sector Focused on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
2008 – Official visit of Chancellor Angela Merkel (May)
2007 – Official visit of Federal President Horst Köhler
2007 – President Lula travels for the G-8 Summit, in Heiligendamm
2006 – Official visit of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
2005 – Signing of Agreement on the Statute of Cultural Institutions and their Technical Envoys and Agreement on Cinematographic Co-production
2003 – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visits Germany (April)
2002 and 2003 – Signing of the Agreements on Financial Cooperation for the Implementation of Projects for the Conservation of Tropical Forests
2002 – Federal Chancellor Schröder visits Brazil
1999 – President Fernando Henrique Cardoso meets Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in Bonn (April)
1996 – Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl visits Brazil. Signature of Basic Agreement on Technical Cooperation (in force) and Framework Agreement on Cooperation in Scientific Research and Technological Development (in force)
1995 – President Fernando Henrique Cardoso visits the FRG. Federal President Roman Herzog returns the working visit
1993 – Klaus Kinkel, Foreign Minister of the FRG, visits Brazil
1991 – Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl visits Brazil
1990 – Fernando Collor de Mello, President-elect, visits the FRG
1983 – Signing of the Agreement on Maritime Transport (in force)
1981 – President João Figueiredo visits Germany
1979 – Foreign Minister Helmut Schmidt visits Brazil
1978 – President Ernesto Geisel visits the FRG
1975 – Signing of the Agreement on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy (in vigor); Signing Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation (denounced by Germany in 2005)
1974 – Signing of Constitutive Agreement of the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation (COMISTA) and Agreement on Agricultural Cooperation
1973 – Signing of the Agreement on Space Research
1969 – Signing of Cultural Agreement
1968 – Willy Brandt, FRG Foreign Minister, visits Brazil and proposes a bilateral 'expanded partnership'
1964 – German President Heinrich Lübke visits Brazil and secures German investments in the country. Signing of the Agreement on Regular Air Transport
1961 – Brazil abolishes the ban on teaching German in public schools
1959 – Inauguration of the Volkswagen automaker in São Bernardo do Campo
1956 – President-elect Juscelino Kubitschek visits Bonn
1954 – The Mannesmann steel company is the first major German company to set up in Brazil
1951 – Inauguration of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany (FDR) in Rio de Janeiro (July). Inauguration of the Embassy of Brazil in Bonn (November)
1942 – Severance of Diplomatic Relations between Brazil and the Axis Countries (January 28). Recognition of a state of belligerency with Germany and Italy (August 22)
1917 – Brazilian ship is attacked on the French coast by a German ship (April 3). Brazil suspends diplomatic relations with Germany (April 11) and declares war on the German Empire (October 27)
1900 – Baron of Rio Branco is appointed Plenipotentiary Minister in Berlin
1896 – Annulment of the "Heydt's Rescript"
1871 – Assimilation of the "Heydt Rescript" by the German Empire
1859 – After the disclosure about the poor living and working conditions of German immigrants, Prussia prohibits the recruitment of immigrants through the "Heydt Rescript"
1827 – Signing of the Trade and Navigation Treaties between the Empire of Brazil and the Kingdom of Prussia and between the Empire of Brazil and the Hanseatic Cities of Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg
1826 – Opening of the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg
1825 – The independence of Brazil is recognized by Prussia and the Hanseatic cities after an agreement between Brazil and Portugal
1824 – Following the promulgation of the Constitution, which established the sovereignty of the State and allowed the immigration of non-Catholic people, the German settlement in Brazil begins, with the arrival of the first immigrants to the then Province of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul
1822 – Major Jorge Antonio Schäffer is sent by Dom Pedro to the Vienna courts and German courts in order to recruit settlers and soldiers to the Foreigner Corps in Rio de Janeiro