Germany–Hungary relations

Germany and Hungary are both member states of the European Union, NATO, OECD, OSCE, Council of Europe and the World Trade Organization. Germany has an embassy in Budapest. Hungary has an embassy in Berlin, two general consulates (in Düsseldorf and Munich) and nine honorary consulates (in Bremerhaven, Erfurt, Hamburg, Nürnberg, Schwerin, Dresden, Essen, Frankfurt and Stuttgart). The Agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Hungary on 'Friendly Cooperation and Partnership in Europe' concluded on 6 February 1992 is one of the principal cornerstones of today's bilateral relations.

Hungary set down an important marker for future bilateral relations in September 1989 when it opened up its border with Austria to refugees from East Germany, thus making a special contribution towards German reunification (1990) and the political transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. On the evening of 10 September 1989, Magyar Televízió broadcast that the Government of Hungary had decided to open that border at midnight. Three weeks prior, the Pan-European Picnic on the Austrian-Hungarian border near Sopron had taken place; about 660 citizens of East Germany had taken the opportunity to cross the Iron Curtain. On 25 August 1989, Hungary's prime minister Miklós Németh and his foreign minister Gyula Horn had secretly visited the German chancellor Helmut Kohl and foreign minister Genscher.