Germany–United States relations
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
German was at one time widely spoken in the US; see German in the United States. There is a widely spread myth, called the Muhlenberg legend, that German was almost the official language of the US. This is not the case – English has always been more widely spoken, and the US has no official language. |
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Today, Germany and the United States are close and strong allies. In the mid and late 19th century, millions of Germans migrated to farms and industrial jobs in the United States, especially in the Midwest. Later, the two nations fought each other in World War I (1917–1918) and World War II (1941–1945). After 1945 the U.S., with the United Kingdom and France, occupied Western Germany and built a demilitarized democratic society. West Germany achieved independence in 1949. It joined NATO in 1955, with the caveat that its security policy and military development would remain closely tied to that of France, the UK and the United States. While West Germany was becoming a Western Bloc state closely integrated with the U.S. and NATO, East Germany became an Eastern Bloc satellite state closely tied to the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. After communist rule ended in Eastern Europe amid the Revolutions of 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany was reunified and the allied powers subsequently restored full sovereignty to Germany with the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. The reunified Federal Republic of Germany became a full member of the European Union (then European Community), NATO and one of the closest allies of the United States. Since 2022 Germany has been working with NATO and the European Union to give aid to Ukraine in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the process Germany is sharply reducing its dependence on Russian oil and gas. Germany has the third-largest economy in the world, after the U.S. and China. Today, both the countries enjoy a "special relationship".
See also
- Foreign relations of Germany
- Foreign relations of the United States
- Embassy of Germany, Washington, D.C.
- Embassy of the United States, Berlin
- Ambassadors of Germany to the United States
- Ambassadors of the United States to Germany
- German Americans
- National German-American Alliance
- German interest in the Caribbean
- German language in the United States
- German Parliamentary Committee investigation of the NSA spying scandal