The first ties between modern-day Germany and Chile can be traced back to the 16th century when the first German settlers arrived in the newly founded settlements.

The "law's" objective was to bring middle and upper-class people to colonize regions in the south of Chile, between Valdivia and Puerto Montt.

[1] The German immigrants succeeded in creating vigorous villages and communities in virtually uninhabited regions, completely changing the landscape of the southern zones.

[This quote needs a citation] The prestige of Germany and German culture in Chile remained high after the First World War but did not return to its pre-war levels.

[2][3] Indeed in Chile, the war bought an end to a period of scientific and cultural influence which writer Eduardo de la Barra scornfully called "the German bewitchment" (Spanish: el embrujamiento alemán).

Paul Schäfer even founded Colonia Dignidad (Dignity Colony), a German enclave in Region VII, where human rights violations were carried out.

Among the many distinguished Chileans of German descent are the commander Fernando Matthei Aubel, the architect Mathias Klotz, tennis players Gabriel Silberstein and Hans Gildemeister, the athletes Sebastián Keitel and Marlene Ahrens, the musicians Patricio Manns and Emilio Körner, the economist Ernesto Schifelbein, the politicians Miguel Kast and Evelyn Matthei, the entrepreneurs Jürgen Paulmann and Carlos Heller, the painters Uwe Grumann and Rossy Ölckers, television presenters Karen Doggenweiler and Margot Kahl, writer César Müller, and the actors Gloria Münchmeyer, Antonia Zegers, Aline Küppenheim, and Bastian Bodenhofer.

The coup by Augusto Pinochet against Chilean President Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973 sparked the biggest migratory wave in Chile’s history.

[citation needed] It was the first time that German society in both states came into contact with a large group of exiled Latin American politicians.

Germany is Chile’s principal trading partner within the European Union and continues to rank fifth worldwide among suppliers of Chilean imports.