Iran-Germany relations
Encyclopedia
German–Iranian relations refer to bilateral relationis between Germany
and Iran
. Official diplomatic relations between Iran and post war Germany began in 1952 when Iran opened its first mission office in Bonn
. However Germany and Persia enjoyed diplomatic relations well back into the 19th century.
in 1819 is an illustration of how far back such cultural ties went.
During the Qajar era, with the growing unpopularity of world powers in Persia such as Russia
and Great Britain
, especially after the treaties of Turkmenchay
and Gulistan, and the revolt of Grand Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi
in the Tobacco movement of Persia, many Iranian intellectuals began searching for a "third force" that could be relied upon as a potential ally.
Germany, which had largely remained out of The Great Game
consequently gradually established itself as such a candidate by the second half of the 19th century. During the establishment of Iran's first modern university, Amir Kabir
for example, preferred the hiring of Austrian and German teachers as faculty for Darolfonoon. Even King Nasereddin Shah himself supported the idea of using Germans to serve as Darolfonoon's faculty, despite political pressures to the contrary. In this regard, it is even written that the Chancellor always showed interest in discussing the structural system of German's government and society as a model for modernizing his country.
During the Constitutionalist movement of Guilan, German soldiers were actively involved in training the popular army of Mirza Kuchak Khan
. Mirza's field commander was a German officer by the name Major Von Pashen who had joined the Jangal movement
after being released by them from the British prison in Rasht
. He was Mirza's closest ally. Another famous German agent in Persia (especially during World War I
) was Wilhelm Wassmuss
, nicknamed the "German Lawrence".
Among commercial treaties between Persia and Germany at this time, one can mention the June 6th, 1873 treaty signed in Berlin
between Prince Bismarck and Mirza Hussein Khan.
in 1898 calling on all Muslims to rely on him as a true friend.
By the early 1930s, Reza Pahlavi
's close ties with Nazi Germany
began worrying the Allied states. Germany's modern state and economy highly impressed the Shah, and there were hundreds of Germans involved in every aspect of the state, from setting up factories to building roads, railroads and bridges.
The Shah went on to ask the international community to use the native name of "Iran" in 1935 to address to his country, which in Persian means 'Land of the Aryans' and refers to Airyanem Vaejah
, the Avesta
n name of the original homeland of the Aryan
s. Although the country has been known as Iran
to the native people themselves for many centuries, Westerners came to know the nation as Persia through Ancient Greek
accounts. Iranians were immune to the racial Nuremberg Laws on the grounds that they were pure blooded Aryans. In 1939, Nazi Germany provided Iran with what they called a Germany Scientific Library. The library contained over 7500 books selected "to convince Iranian readers...of the kinship between the National Socialist Reich and the Aryan culture of Iran"(Lenczowski. 1944, p. 161). In various pro-Nazi publications, lectures, speeches, and ceremonies, parallels were drawn between the Shah of Iran and Hitler, and praise the charisma and virtue of the Fuhrerprinzip (Rezun. 1982, p. 29).
From 1939 to 1941 Iran's top foreign trade partner (nearly 50% of its total trade) was Germany, which helped Iran open modern sea and air communications with the rest of the world.
In 1941, the Allies forced Reza Shah
to abdicate the throne to his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
. His pro-Nazi followers in the Iranian government such as Fazlollah Zahedi
and Mohammad Hosein Airom
shared similar fates.
Iran came under the inescapable diplomatic shadow of the United States
, lessening chances of any further deepening between Tehran
and Bonn
relations. In commercial links, West Germany however remained well ahead of other European countries, even the United States, until 1974.
In 1972, following the visit to Tehran
of the West German chancellor Willy Brandt
, Iran and West Germany signed an economic agreement which provided for Iranian exports of oil and natural gas to Germany, with West German exports to and investments in Iran in return. However, given its huge surplus in foreign trade in 1974-5, the Iranian government bought 25% of the shares of Krupp Hüttenwerke
(German for smelting
plants), the steel subsidiary of the German conglomerate Krupp, in September 1974. While this provided the much needed cash injection to Krupp, it gave Iran access to German expertise to expand its steel
industry. Iran's Bushehr
nuclear power plant was also designed and partially built by the German Kraftwerk Union of Siemens
, an agreement which was inked during the same years.
In 1975 West Germany became the 2nd most important supplier of non-military goods to Iran. Valued at $404 million, West German imports amounted to nearly one fifth of total Iranian imports.
As the European country with the largest Iranian expatriate community, the Shah's visits to West Germany became the focus of much protest in the 1970s. As repression in Iran became more intense, these demonstrations became more vigorous. Many of Iran's intellectual ayatollahs, such as Ayatollah Beheshti
, in fact spent some years in cities like Hamburg
.
was the first Western foreign minister
to visit the Middle East
ern nation after the Islamic Revolution
in 1979, visiting Iran in 1984. However, after the revolution many Iranians who immigrated to or visited Germany faced prejudice as a result of political events in Iran.
Although West Germany
was a key technology supplier to Saddam Hussein
during the Iran-Iraq war
, especially to Saddam's chemical weapons program, , Germany also kept open relations with Iran in some industrial and civilian technological sectors.
After the war, Germany increasingly became a primary trading partner of Iran, and is still Iran's biggest trading partner, with German goods worth about 3.6 billion euro
s being imported into Iran in 2004. It is unclear though how long this situation will last considering the current standoff between Iran and the EU/US axis on Iran's nuclear program.
The 1992 Mykonos restaurant assassinations
and Mykonos Trial in Berlin severely soured relations. On September 17, 1992, Iranian-Kurdish insurgent leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi
, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin
, Germany
. In the Mykonos trial, the courts found Kazem Darabi, an Iran
ian national who worked as a grocer in Berlin, and Lebanese
Abbas Rhayel, guilty of murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. In its 10 April 1997 ruling, the court issued an international arrest warrant for Iranian intelligence minister Hojjat al-Islam Ali Fallahian
after declaring that the assassination had been ordered by him with knowledge of supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
and president Ayatollah Rafsanjani
In a 2004 letter to Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit
, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (the then then mayor of Tehran
) objected to the commemorative plaque in front of the restaurant, calling it an insult to Iran.
In 1999, a German, Helmut Hofer
, was arrested in Tehran
after having an affair with an Iranian woman. This caused some tremors in the domestic political landscape as well as diplomatic relations of Tehran-Berlin./. This was followed in 2005 when a German angler who was on vacation in the United Arab Emirates
was arrested in the Persian Gulf
and convicted to a prison sentence of 18 months. In 2009 a German lawyer, Andreas Moser, was arrested during the protests against the 2009 elections; he was released after one week. Also in 2005, hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stirred relations with comments directed against the Jewish Holocaust.
said February 4, 2006 on the occasion of the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy
that the world must act now to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, evoking her nation's own history as a cautionary tale of what can happen when threats to peace remain unchecked.
Mrs. Merkel, whose speech came on the same day that the International Atomic Energy Agency voted to report Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council
, said Germany's own experiences during the 1930s should be a warning over how to deal with Iran.
Mrs. Merkel, discarding any diplomatic niceties and raising her voice in a tone of frustration, said Iran had "blatantly crossed the red line" and not only with regard to respecting its international obligations as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
She said it was also "unacceptable" for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to question the extent of the Holocaust and to say that the Israeli regime should "disappear from the pages of time," in a reference to the dismantling of the Zionist regime.
In February 2006, relations further soured after a German paper printed a cartoon depicting Iran's national football team strapped with bombs to their jerseys. Iran demanded an apology from Germany for the "immoral act". Student demonstrations followed in protest to the cartoons, chanting "Merkel=Hitler".
Recently in an attempt to bring the two nations closer, Germany has issued "Symphonic Diplomacy", Similar to the Ping Pong Diplomacy
of the United States with China, by sending a German Orchestra to perform in Tehran
. This marks the first time these works have been played since Western Music was banned by Iran's Government.
, BASF
, Lurgi
, Krupp
, Siemens
, ZF Friedrichshafen
, Mercedes
, Volkswagen
and MAN (2008).
In 2005 Germany had the largest share of Iran's export market with $5.67 billion (14.4%). In 2008, German exports to Iran increased 8.9 percent and comprised 84.7 percent of the total German-Iranian trade volume. The overall bilateral trade volume until the end of September 2008 stood at 3.23 billion euro
s, compared to 2.98 billion euros the previous year. The value of trade between Tehran and Berlin has increased from around 4.3 billion euro in 2009 to nearly 4.7 billion euro in 2010.
The German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has estimated that economic sanctions against Iran
may cost more than 10,000 German jobs and have a negative impact on the economic growth of Germany. Sanctions would especially hurt medium-sized German companies, which depend heavily on trade with Iran. There has been a shift in German business ties with Iran from long-term business to short-term and from large to mid-sized companies which have less business interests in the US and thus are less prone to American political pressure.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. Official diplomatic relations between Iran and post war Germany began in 1952 when Iran opened its first mission office in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
. However Germany and Persia enjoyed diplomatic relations well back into the 19th century.
The Qajar era
Even before diplomatic ties, unofficial relations had already taken root between the two nations. Goethe's dedication of his West-östlicher Divan (West-Eastern Divan) to HafezHafez
Khwāja Shamsu d-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī , known by his pen name Hāfez , was a Persian lyric poet. His collected works composed of series of Persian poetry are to be found in the homes of most Iranians, who learn his poems by heart and use them as proverbs and sayings to this day...
in 1819 is an illustration of how far back such cultural ties went.
During the Qajar era, with the growing unpopularity of world powers in Persia such as Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, especially after the treaties of Turkmenchay
Treaty of Turkmenchay
The Treaty of Turkmenchay was a treaty negotiated in Turkmenchay by which the Qajar Empire recognized Russian suzerainty over the Erivan khanate, the Nakhchivan khanate, and the remainder of the Talysh khanate, establishing the Aras River as the common boundary between the empires, after its...
and Gulistan, and the revolt of Grand Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi
Grand Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi
Grand Ayatollah Mirza Sayyid Mohammed Hassan Al-Husseini AL-Shirazi was a famous cleric in the History of Iran and History of Iraq...
in the Tobacco movement of Persia, many Iranian intellectuals began searching for a "third force" that could be relied upon as a potential ally.
Germany, which had largely remained out of The Great Game
The Great Game
The Great Game or Tournament of Shadows in Russia, were terms for the strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running approximately from the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813...
consequently gradually established itself as such a candidate by the second half of the 19th century. During the establishment of Iran's first modern university, Amir Kabir
Amir Kabir
Amir Kabir , also known as Mirza Taghi Khan Amir-Nezam , also known by the titles of Atabak and Amir-e Nezam; chief minister to Naser al-Din Shah Qajar for the first three years of his reign and one of the most capable and innovative figures to appear in the whole Qajar period...
for example, preferred the hiring of Austrian and German teachers as faculty for Darolfonoon. Even King Nasereddin Shah himself supported the idea of using Germans to serve as Darolfonoon's faculty, despite political pressures to the contrary. In this regard, it is even written that the Chancellor always showed interest in discussing the structural system of German's government and society as a model for modernizing his country.
During the Constitutionalist movement of Guilan, German soldiers were actively involved in training the popular army of Mirza Kuchak Khan
Mirza Kuchak Khan
Mīrzā Kūchik Khān was an early twentieth century revolutionary and is considered a national hero in modern Iranian history...
. Mirza's field commander was a German officer by the name Major Von Pashen who had joined the Jangal movement
Constitutionalist movement of Gilan
The Jangal movement, in Gilan, was a rebellion against the monarchist rule of the Qajar central government of Iran. It is considered as the extension of Constitutional Revolution of Iran and lasted from 1914 to 1921.-History of the movement:...
after being released by them from the British prison in Rasht
Rasht
Rasht is a city in and the capital of Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 551,161, in 159,983 families.Rasht is the largest city on Iran's Caspian Sea coast. It is a major trade center between Caucasia, Russia and Iran using the port of Bandar-e Anzali...
. He was Mirza's closest ally. Another famous German agent in Persia (especially during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
) was Wilhelm Wassmuss
Wilhelm Wassmuss
Wilhelm Wassmuss was a German diplomat, also known as the "Wassmuss of Persia". He attempted to foment trouble for the British in the Persian Gulf in the First World War.- Birth and schooling :...
, nicknamed the "German Lawrence".
Among commercial treaties between Persia and Germany at this time, one can mention the June 6th, 1873 treaty signed in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
between Prince Bismarck and Mirza Hussein Khan.
The first Pahlavi era
The shelling of Iran's parliament by the Russians, and the signing of the 1919 Treaty, firmly planted the roots of suspicion against Britain and Russia. This was while many people were aware of Wilhelm II's speech in DamascusDamascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
in 1898 calling on all Muslims to rely on him as a true friend.
By the early 1930s, Reza Pahlavi
Reza Pahlavi
Reza Pahlavi may refer to:*Reza Shah , aka Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Persia from 1925 until 1935 and Shah of Iran from 1935 until 1941* Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979, son of Reza Shah...
's close ties with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
began worrying the Allied states. Germany's modern state and economy highly impressed the Shah, and there were hundreds of Germans involved in every aspect of the state, from setting up factories to building roads, railroads and bridges.
The Shah went on to ask the international community to use the native name of "Iran" in 1935 to address to his country, which in Persian means 'Land of the Aryans' and refers to Airyanem Vaejah
Airyanem Vaejah
Airyanəm Vaējah, which approximately means "expanse of the Aryans, i.e. Iranians" is the "mythical homeland" of early Iranians and a reference in the Zoroastrian Avesta Airyanəm Vaējah, which approximately means "expanse of the Aryans, i.e. Iranians" is the "mythical homeland" of early Iranians and...
, the Avesta
Avesta
The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language.-Early transmission:The texts of the Avesta — which are all in the Avestan language — were composed over the course of several hundred years. The most important portion, the Gathas,...
n name of the original homeland of the Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
s. Although the country has been known as Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
to the native people themselves for many centuries, Westerners came to know the nation as Persia through Ancient Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
accounts. Iranians were immune to the racial Nuremberg Laws on the grounds that they were pure blooded Aryans. In 1939, Nazi Germany provided Iran with what they called a Germany Scientific Library. The library contained over 7500 books selected "to convince Iranian readers...of the kinship between the National Socialist Reich and the Aryan culture of Iran"(Lenczowski. 1944, p. 161). In various pro-Nazi publications, lectures, speeches, and ceremonies, parallels were drawn between the Shah of Iran and Hitler, and praise the charisma and virtue of the Fuhrerprinzip (Rezun. 1982, p. 29).
From 1939 to 1941 Iran's top foreign trade partner (nearly 50% of its total trade) was Germany, which helped Iran open modern sea and air communications with the rest of the world.
In 1941, the Allies forced Reza Shah
Reza Shah
Rezā Shāh, also known as Rezā Shāh Pahlavi and Rezā Shāh Kabir , , was the Shah of the Imperial State of Iran from December 15, 1925, until he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran on September 16, 1941.In 1925, Reza Shah overthrew Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last Shah of the Qajar...
to abdicate the throne to his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
. His pro-Nazi followers in the Iranian government such as Fazlollah Zahedi
Fazlollah Zahedi
Mohammad Fazlollah Zahedi was an Iranian general and statesman who replaced democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq through a western-backed coup d'état, in which he played a major role.-Early years:Born in Hamedan in 1897, Fazlollah Zahedi was the son of Abol Hassan...
and Mohammad Hosein Airom
Mohammad Hosein Airom
Sar-lashgar Muhammad Husayn Ayrom was a senior military leader of the Pahlavi dynasty of Iran. He was the nephew of General Teymūr Khan Ayromlou and a first cousin of Queen Tadj ol-Molouk Ayromlou...
shared similar fates.
The second Pahlavi era
Post-World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Iran came under the inescapable diplomatic shadow of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, lessening chances of any further deepening between Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
and Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
relations. In commercial links, West Germany however remained well ahead of other European countries, even the United States, until 1974.
In 1972, following the visit to Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
of the West German chancellor Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
, Iran and West Germany signed an economic agreement which provided for Iranian exports of oil and natural gas to Germany, with West German exports to and investments in Iran in return. However, given its huge surplus in foreign trade in 1974-5, the Iranian government bought 25% of the shares of Krupp Hüttenwerke
Krupp
The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...
(German for smelting
Smelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
plants), the steel subsidiary of the German conglomerate Krupp, in September 1974. While this provided the much needed cash injection to Krupp, it gave Iran access to German expertise to expand its steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
industry. Iran's Bushehr
Bushehr
Bushehr Bushehr lies in a vast plain running along the coastal region on the Persian Gulf coast of southwestern Iran. It is the chief seaport of the country and the administrative centre of its province. Its location is about south of Tehran. The local climate is hot and humid.The city...
nuclear power plant was also designed and partially built by the German Kraftwerk Union of Siemens
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
, an agreement which was inked during the same years.
In 1975 West Germany became the 2nd most important supplier of non-military goods to Iran. Valued at $404 million, West German imports amounted to nearly one fifth of total Iranian imports.
As the European country with the largest Iranian expatriate community, the Shah's visits to West Germany became the focus of much protest in the 1970s. As repression in Iran became more intense, these demonstrations became more vigorous. Many of Iran's intellectual ayatollahs, such as Ayatollah Beheshti
Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti
Ayatollah Dr. Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti , was an Iranian scholar, writer, jurist and one of the main architects of the constitution of the Islamic Republic in Iran. He was the secretary-general of the Islamic Republic Party, and the head of Iran's judicial system...
, in fact spent some years in cities like Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
.
After 1979
Hans-Dietrich GenscherHans-Dietrich Genscher
Hans-Dietrich Genscher is a German politician of the liberal Free Democratic Party . He served as Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany from 1974 to 1982 and, after a two-week pause, from 1982 to 1992, making him Germany's longest serving Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor...
was the first Western foreign minister
Foreign minister
A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
to visit the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern nation after the Islamic Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
in 1979, visiting Iran in 1984. However, after the revolution many Iranians who immigrated to or visited Germany faced prejudice as a result of political events in Iran.
Although West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
was a key technology supplier to Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
during the Iran-Iraq war
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the twentieth century...
, especially to Saddam's chemical weapons program, , Germany also kept open relations with Iran in some industrial and civilian technological sectors.
After the war, Germany increasingly became a primary trading partner of Iran, and is still Iran's biggest trading partner, with German goods worth about 3.6 billion euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
s being imported into Iran in 2004. It is unclear though how long this situation will last considering the current standoff between Iran and the EU/US axis on Iran's nuclear program.
The 1992 Mykonos restaurant assassinations
Mykonos restaurant assassinations
In the Mykonos restaurant assassinations , Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin, Germany on 17 September 1992.In the Mykonos trial, the German court...
and Mykonos Trial in Berlin severely soured relations. On September 17, 1992, Iranian-Kurdish insurgent leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi
Sadegh Sharafkandi
Sadegh Sharafkandi was a Kurdish political activist and the Secretary-General of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran ....
, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. In the Mykonos trial, the courts found Kazem Darabi, an Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian national who worked as a grocer in Berlin, and Lebanese
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
Abbas Rhayel, guilty of murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. In its 10 April 1997 ruling, the court issued an international arrest warrant for Iranian intelligence minister Hojjat al-Islam Ali Fallahian
Ali Fallahian
Hojatoleslam Ali Fallahian, is an Iranian politician and cleric. He has served as a member of the 3rd Assembly of Experts of the IRI and as the Minister of Intelligence of Islamic Republic of Iran in cabinet of President Hashemi Rafsanjani...
after declaring that the assassination had been ordered by him with knowledge of supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Ali Khamenei
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
and president Ayatollah Rafsanjani
In a 2004 letter to Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit
Klaus Wowereit
Klaus Wowereit is a German politician, member of the SPD , and has been the Mayor of Berlin since the 2001 state elections, where his party won a plurality of the votes, 29.7%. He served as President of the Bundesrat in 2001/02. His SPD-led coalition was re-elected in the 2006 elections...
, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (the then then mayor of Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
) objected to the commemorative plaque in front of the restaurant, calling it an insult to Iran.
In 1999, a German, Helmut Hofer
Helmut Hofer
Helmut Hofer is a German businessman arrested and imprisoned in Iran in September 1997, convicted of having had sexual relations with a Muslim Iranian woman, Vahideh Ghessemi. He was sentenced to 99 lashes followed by death...
, was arrested in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
after having an affair with an Iranian woman. This caused some tremors in the domestic political landscape as well as diplomatic relations of Tehran-Berlin./. This was followed in 2005 when a German angler who was on vacation in the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
was arrested in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
and convicted to a prison sentence of 18 months. In 2009 a German lawyer, Andreas Moser, was arrested during the protests against the 2009 elections; he was released after one week. Also in 2005, hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stirred relations with comments directed against the Jewish Holocaust.
Current relations
German Chancellor Angela MerkelAngela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
said February 4, 2006 on the occasion of the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy
Munich Conference on Security Policy
The Munich Conference on Security Policy is an annual conference on international security policy that is held in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany.The 47th Munich Security Conference will be held from February 4th through February 6th 2011....
that the world must act now to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, evoking her nation's own history as a cautionary tale of what can happen when threats to peace remain unchecked.
- "We want, we must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program further," Mrs. Merkel told the audience of top security officials and policy makers during a speech at the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy.
Mrs. Merkel, whose speech came on the same day that the International Atomic Energy Agency voted to report Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
, said Germany's own experiences during the 1930s should be a warning over how to deal with Iran.
- "Now we see that there were times when we could have acted differently," she said. "For that reason Germany is obliged to make clear what is permissible and what isn't."
Mrs. Merkel, discarding any diplomatic niceties and raising her voice in a tone of frustration, said Iran had "blatantly crossed the red line" and not only with regard to respecting its international obligations as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
She said it was also "unacceptable" for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to question the extent of the Holocaust and to say that the Israeli regime should "disappear from the pages of time," in a reference to the dismantling of the Zionist regime.
- "A president that questions Israel's right to existRight to existThe right to exist is said to be an attribute of nations. According to an essay by the nineteenth century French philosopher Ernest Renan, a state has the right to exist when individuals are willing to sacrifice their own interests for the community it represents. Unlike self-determination, the...
, a president that denies the Holocaust, cannot expect to receive any tolerance from Germany," Mrs. Merkel said to applause. "We have learned our history."
In February 2006, relations further soured after a German paper printed a cartoon depicting Iran's national football team strapped with bombs to their jerseys. Iran demanded an apology from Germany for the "immoral act". Student demonstrations followed in protest to the cartoons, chanting "Merkel=Hitler".
Recently in an attempt to bring the two nations closer, Germany has issued "Symphonic Diplomacy", Similar to the Ping Pong Diplomacy
Ping Pong Diplomacy
Ping pong diplomacy refers to the exchange of ping pong players between the United States and People's Republic of China in the 1970s. The event marked a thaw in U.S.–China relations that paved the way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon....
of the United States with China, by sending a German Orchestra to perform in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
. This marks the first time these works have been played since Western Music was banned by Iran's Government.
Trade
Around 50 German firms have their own branch offices in Iran and more than 12,000 firms have their own trade representatives in Iran. Several renowned German companies are involved in major Iranian infrastructure projects, especially in the petrochemical sector, like LindeThe Linde Group
The Linde Group, registered as Linde AG is an international industrial gases and engineering company founded in Germany in 1879. Linde shares are traded on all the German stock exchanges and also in Zürich, and the Linde share price is included in the DAX 30 index...
, BASF
BASF
BASF SE is the largest chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Germany. BASF originally stood for Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik . Today, the four letters are a registered trademark and the company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, and Zurich Stock...
, Lurgi
Lurgi AG
Lurgi GmbH is a German engineering, construction and chemical process licensing company. The head office is located in Frankfurt am Main. Lurgi GmbH has been part of Air Liquide S. A. since 2007.- History :...
, Krupp
Krupp
The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...
, Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
, ZF Friedrichshafen
ZF Friedrichshafen
ZF Friedrichshafen AG, also known as ZF Group, and commonly abbreviated to ZF, is a German public company headquartered in Friedrichshafen, in the south-west German region of Baden-Württemberg....
, Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
, Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
and MAN (2008).
In 2005 Germany had the largest share of Iran's export market with $5.67 billion (14.4%). In 2008, German exports to Iran increased 8.9 percent and comprised 84.7 percent of the total German-Iranian trade volume. The overall bilateral trade volume until the end of September 2008 stood at 3.23 billion euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
s, compared to 2.98 billion euros the previous year. The value of trade between Tehran and Berlin has increased from around 4.3 billion euro in 2009 to nearly 4.7 billion euro in 2010.
The German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has estimated that economic sanctions against Iran
Sanctions against Iran
This article outlines economic, trade, scientific and military sanctions against Iran, which have been imposed by the U.S. government, or under U.S. pressure by the international community through the United Nations Security Council...
may cost more than 10,000 German jobs and have a negative impact on the economic growth of Germany. Sanctions would especially hurt medium-sized German companies, which depend heavily on trade with Iran. There has been a shift in German business ties with Iran from long-term business to short-term and from large to mid-sized companies which have less business interests in the US and thus are less prone to American political pressure.
External links
- REALITE-EU German-Iranian Economic Relations - 28 July 2008
- Iranian.com article
- Another informational link
- A chance to improve Germany-Iran relations Tehran TimesTehran TimesTehran Times began its work in 1979 as a foreign language newspaper to air the voice of the Islamic Revolution. The policy that the newspaper has been following has been based on the guideline set by the revered martyr Ayatollah Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who said: Tehran Times is not state-owned...
article (2010)