The first German to set foot on Korean soil, in 1832, was the Lutheran missionary Karl Gützlaff, who is also credited with importing the potato.

Prussian orientalist Paul Georg von Möllendorff lived in Korea from 1882 to 1885 as the director general of the customs service.

Several Germans also became prominent in Emperor Gojong's administration; Japan-based bandmaster Franz Eckert composed the Anthem of the Korean Empire for the emperor in 1902, while Richard Wunsch served as Gojong's personal physician from 1901 to 1905, and Antoinette Sontag (the former housekeeper of Karl Ivanovich Weber) was hired as majordomo in charge of the palace's household affairs.

[3] However, when Hermann Lautensach visited Korea in 1933, there were still a handful living there, including an entire monastery of Benedictine monks near Wonsan, Kangwon-do.

[citation needed] Ferdinand Krien set up the Imperial German Language School in Seoul, which ran from 1898 to 1911.