Germany–Israel relations (German: Deutsch-israelische Beziehungen; Hebrew: יחסי גרמניה-ישראל) are the diplomatic relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel. After the end of World War II and the Holocaust, relations gradually thawed as West Germany offered to pay reparations to Israel in 1952 and diplomatic relations were officially established in 1965. Nonetheless, a deep mistrust of the German people remained widespread in Israel and the Jewish diaspora communities worldwide for many years after. Relations between East Germany and Israel never materialised. Today, Israel and Germany maintain a "special relationship" based on shared beliefs and a combination of historical perspectives. A central pillar of this relationship is Germany's commitment to Israel's security as part of its Staatsräson (reason of state), a policy that has also sparked domestic and international debate regarding its political and legal implications.
Germany is represented in Israel through its embassy in Tel Aviv and honorary consuls in Eilat and Haifa. Israel is represented in Germany through its embassy in Berlin and its Consulate-General in Munich. Both countries are full members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Union for the Mediterranean.
History
Israel, founded in 1948, had no relations with Germany due to the Holocaust and until the reparations agreement with West Germany in 1952. The Israeli passport stated "This passport is valid for all countries except Germany", but this statement was removed after the reparations agreement with West Germany.
Reparations agreement
In the early 1950s, the negotiations began between the Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion, the chairman of the Jewish Claims Conference Nahum Goldmann, and the Chancellor of West Germany Konrad Adenauer. Because of the sensitivity of accepting reparations, this decision was intensely debated in the Israeli Knesset. In 1952, the Reparations Agreement was signed. All in all, as of 2007 Germany had paid 25 billion euros in reparations to the Israeli state and individual Israeli Holocaust survivors. This commitment, driven by moral and political responsibility, became central to its Staatsräson— West Germany's post-war national interest. Staatsräson involved addressing historical debts, compensating victims, ensuring Israel's security, and thus restoring Germany's international credibility. There were significant reconciliation efforts, particularly from religious institutions such as the German Coordinating-Council for Christian-Jewish cooperation and the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace.
In 1950, Hermann Maas became the first German to be officially invited to Israel. It took another fifteen years until West Germany and Israel established diplomatic relations on 12 May 1965. Since then, mutual state visits regularly occur, although for many years relations were affected by the fact that Jews both in and outside Israel maintained a deep mistrust of Germany and the German people. German President Roman Herzog's first official visit outside Europe was to Israel in 1994. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was the first foreign leader received in Berlin after the German government's relocation from Bonn in 1999.
Eichmann trial
West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer attempted to influence the trial of Nazi war criminal and Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann in Israel because he feared that the Nazi past of some senior West German officials, including Hans Globke, would come to light during the trial.
Hans Globke's key position as chief of staff to Adenauer, responsible for matters of national security, made both the West German government and CIA officials wary of exposing his past, despite their full knowledge of it. This led, for instance, to the withholding of Adolf Eichmann's alias from the Israeli government and Nazi hunters in the 1950s. The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) had known since 1952 that Eichmann was living in Buenos Aires and working at Mercedes-Benz.
Bilateral cooperation since 2000
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder visited Israel in October 2000. In 2005, the year of the 40th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations, German President Horst Köhler and Israel's former President Moshe Katsav exchanged state visits. The two countries established a network of contacts between parliamentary, governmental, and non-governmental organizations, as well as strategic and security ties.
On 30 January 2008, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman announced that the German and Israeli cabinets would meet in Israel in March 2008, in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations. This was the first time the German cabinet met with another cabinet outside of Europe. The joint meeting was expected to become an annual occurrence. On 17 March 2008, Merkel paid a three-day visit to Israel to mark Israel's 60th anniversary. Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed agreements on a range of projects in education, the environment and defense. Merkel spoke of her support for the Jewish state during an unprecedented speech to the Knesset on 18 March 2008.
In January 2011, Merkel visited Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition Kadima leader Tzipi Livni. In February 2011, Netanyahu called Merkel to discuss Germany's vote in the United Nations Security Council in favor of the Palestinian proposal. Merkel reportedly told Netanyahu that he had disappointed her and done nothing to advance peace. To clear the air, Netanyahu was invited for a reconciliation visit to Berlin in mid-March 2011. In September 2011, Merkel criticized Israel for construction in settlements in Jerusalem and said that the new housing permits raised doubts over Israel's readiness to negotiate with the Palestinians.
Germany was one of 14 countries that voted against Palestine's UNESCO membership in October 2011, within the context of the Palestine 194 initiative. When Israel announced that building settlements would continue in response to Palestinian attempts to declare statehood unilaterally, Germany threatened to stop deliveries to Israel of submarines capable of firing nuclear warheads.
Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway, in May 2011 pulled out of the high-speed railway to Jerusalem project because the line will pass in part through the West Bank. According to press reports, the German transport minister Peter Ramsauer told Deutsche Bahn's CEO that the projected rail line was "problematic from a political perspective" and violated international law. As a result, the company, which is owned by the German government, withdrew from the project. The company's decision was seen as a victory for left-wing Israeli and Palestinian activists who had waged a campaign within the context of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
In May 2019, the Bundestag passed a resolution condemning BDS as antisemitism. In March 2022, the newly elected Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, made his first official visit to Israel.
Israel in the Federal German Reason of State
The guiding principle that Israel's security is part of Germany's reason of state (German: Staatsräson; French: raison d'état) developed gradually out of West Germany's policy of remembrance following the Holocaust, the early Federal Republic's policy of reparations, and the special German-Israeli relationship since the 1950s.
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had already justified the rapprochement with Israel by citing Germany's great political and moral obligation toward the Jewish state. In his speech to the Bundestag on 27 September 1951, Adenauer spoke of an obligation to provide moral and material compensation to the Jewish people and declared that the Federal Republic was aware of the "immeasurable suffering" that had been caused in the name of the German people. The 1952 Luxembourg Reparations Agreement is considered a central starting point for the special German–Israeli relationship. From the very beginning, these relations were shaped by both moral and geopolitical considerations. Adenauer combined moral responsibility with foreign policy pragmatism and the goal of the Federal Republic's international rehabilitation. Research shows that West German policy toward Israel since the 1950s cannot be explained solely by the memory of the Holocaust. Frank Stern also described early postwar West German culture as shaped by a political philosemitism that often served, simultaneously, to morally reintegrate Germany into the West.
The term Staatsräson was initially used in relation to Israel primarily in diplomatic and foreign policy contexts. In April 2005, the German ambassador to Israel, Rudolf Dreßler, stated that the "secured existence of Israel" was in Germany's national interest and was therefore "part of our reason of state". This guiding principle gained international attention, particularly through Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel officially articulated this in 2006 by describing Israel's right to exist as a German national interest. According to the Israeli ambassador at the time, this statement marked a departure from German neutrality in the Middle East. Merkel reaffirmed this stance later in her speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 2007 and again in her address to the Knesset on 18 March 2008, in which she stated:
Merkel reiterated this position on multiple occasions, including during her farewell visit to Israel in 2021. The guiding principle evolved into a central reference point of German foreign policy toward Israel. It was incorporated into the federal government's 2021 coalition agreement and was supported across party lines by large segments of the political establishment. In light of the ongoing Europeanization of German Middle East policy, an increasing need emerged to align German reason of state with the policies of European partners. Even though Staatsräson is neither constitutionally nor legally binding, it is widely understood as a non-negotiable guiding principle of the German government, rooted in the memory of the Holocaust and moral responsibility.
Political scientists describe Israel as an integral part of Germany's "ontological security", since the relationship with Israel was closely linked to the Federal Republic's self-image as a liberal, democratic state and its break with its Nazi past. They believe that maintaining the special relationship was essential for German self-identity, especially regarding the alarming rise in antisemitic motivated criminal offenses in Germany since 7 October 2023. At the same time, German policy toward Israel had been marked by tension: on the one hand, historical responsibility toward Israel lay at the heart of German reason of state; on the other hand, the Federal Republic traditionally invoked universalist principles such as human rights, international law, and a rules-based international order. This tension was particularly evident in German governments' criticism of Israeli settlement construction and Israeli policy in the occupied territories.
Following Hamas's terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Chancellor Olaf Scholz echoed Merkel's guiding principle and declared on 8 October 2023: "Israel's security is German raison d'état". Unlike Merkel, Scholz refrained from saying it was merely "part" of German national interest.
Since June 2024, the new Nationality Act (§ 10 (1) No. 1a StAG) requires naturalization applicants to make a commitment "to Germany's special historical responsibility for the Nazi regime of injustice and its consequences." Furthermore, Saxony-Anhalt introduced a requirement that prospective German citizens must sign a written declaration in which they recognize Israel's right to exist and condemn any actions directed against this right.
In this context, in 2025, Middle East expert Peter Lintl spoke of an "ontological dissonance" in German policy toward Israel: The invocation of historical responsibility toward Israel was increasingly in conflict with universalist principles such as human rights and international law.
Criticism and debate
Critics, including former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, described Merkel's stance as an emotionally understandable, "but foolish view that could have very serious consequences." During his visit to Israel in 2012, Federal President Joachim Gauck deliberately avoided using the term Staatsräson and expressed concern that invoking the reason of state entailed obligations that the state may not be able or willing to fulfill.