German-Israeli relations: What you need to know
German-Israeli relations: As Israel celebrates the anniversary of its founding in 1948, DW looks back at seven decades of German-Israeli relations. The two countries remain firm allies, but their friendship is uniquely fraught by history.
1950s: The beginnings
West Germany was founded after Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II, just as Israel arose in part because of the horrors of the Holocaust. The Jewish state was proclaimed on May 14, 1948 while the Federal Republic of Germany was constituted with the adoption of the Basic Law on May 23, 1949. Given the immense shadow cast by the Shoah, many questioned what, if any, relationship these two young nations could have.
During a major speech in 1951, the first West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer acknowledged that Germany had committed “unspeakable crimes toward Jewish people.” The following year, there were meetings between Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion with Adenauer and negotiations with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany. As a result, Germany agreed to pay millions — eventually billions — in reparations to victims of Nazi persecution and genocide and their heirs.
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