In the course of the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, Germanic tribes conquered the Iberian Peninsula in the early 5th century AD, including the Vandals.

He is the only German figure to appear in The Lusiades by Luís de Camões and therefore serves as a popular starting point in bilateral diplomatic oratory.

This heritage continues to have an impact in Hamburg today, where the most important Portuguese community, also in terms of numbers, is located.

Specialities such as pastel de nata or galão are best known in Germany today and are already part of everyday culture in Hamburg.

In 1815, the German-born Count Pedro de Sousa Holstein represented Portugal at the Congress of Vienna, where a reorganisation of Europe took place.

On 25 July 1829, her honorary guardian King Ludwig I of Bavaria ratified the previously negotiated marriage contract.

This brought the Portuguese branch of this German noble family, which can be traced back to the House of Wettin and the Margraves of Meissen, to the throne in Portugal.

Their daughter-in-law Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1837-1859) sailed to Lisbon accompanied by her brother Leopold of Hohenzollern and the Prussian Chief Master of Ceremonies Rudolf von Stillfried-Rattonitz and there married her eldest son, King of Portugal Pedro V (1837-1861) in 1858.

Just one year after her death, a monument was erected to her in Düsseldorf: The bust of the Queen on a black marble column was created by Julius Bayerle.

Leopold von Hohenzollern married Antonia Maria of Portugal in Lisbon in 1861, and in 1899 the Prince had Sigmaringen Palace redesigned.

Seven children were born of this marriage, Michael II married Princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis (1860-1881) in Regensburg Cathedral in 1877.

After the bombing of Reims Cathedral, a Portuguese protest against German vandalism appeared on 4 October 1914, run by a Liga Anti-Germânica.

On behalf of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German diplomat Friedrich Rosen presented a complaint to the Portuguese government on 27 February to obtain the release of the ships.

A Portuguese Expeditionary Force entered into its first direct military conflict with German troops in April 1918 at the Fourth Battle of Flanders (apart from the previous battle for Naulila in Africa, in December 1914), ending in a traumatic defeat for Portugal and further inflaming anti-German sentiment against O Monstro Alemão (the title of a pamphlet by Guerra Junqueiro).

During the Second World War, Nazi Germany was supplied with tungsten for weapons production by the Portuguese Salazar regime.

In September 1964, the Portuguese Armando Rodrigues de Sá was welcomed as the millionth guest worker in Germany by the then German Interior Minister Hermann Höcherl.

In contrast to the first generation of the 1960s, mostly highly qualified people now came, who encountered a large number of unfilled jobs, especially as engineers and in health care.

Many more German companies are active in Portugal like Siemens, Robert Bosch, SAP, Continental, Leica Camera and Kirchhoff Automotive.

Some Portuguese banks are also represented in Germany, including Caixa Geral de Depósitos, which has its own branch in Berlin.

In Germany, there are projects at a large number of schools, ranging from supplementary mother-tongue teaching to Portuguese as a subject for the Abitur, for example at the Max-Planck-Gymnasium in Dortmund since 1980.

Since 2013, an annual German-Portuguese Forum has been held alternately in Berlin and Lisbon, bringing together high-ranking representatives of both countries from politics, business, academia and civil society.

The largest group, with about 9,000 Portuguese, lives in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, which has the oldest and most diverse connections to Portugal in Germany.