[8] In response to sanctions imposed by Germany and the West, Russia gradually plunged flows of gas, which came to a complete halt in September 2022.

Russia before the mid-18th century stood largely aloof from German affairs, while Germany, until the Napoleonic period, remained divided into numerous small states under the nominal leadership of the Holy Roman Emperor.

However, when Russian Tsar Peter III came to power, he made peace with Prussia by signing the Treaty of Saint Petersburg, allowing Prussian King Frederick the Great to concentrate on his other enemies.

The key matchmaker was the Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich, who forged a united front that proved decisive in overthrowing Napoleon, 1813–1814.

[16] In 1879, Bismarck formed a Dual Alliance of Germany and Austria-Hungary, with the aim of mutual military assistance in the case of an attack from Russia, which was not satisfied with the agreement reached at the Congress of Berlin.

After the peace treaties that ended the Great War, the newly created states of the Weimar Republic and the Soviet Union both found themselves outcasts in the international system and gravitated toward each other.

[21] The coming to power in 1933 of Adolf Hitler and the creation of the Nazi state with its virulent anti-Semitic and anti-communist rhetoric made for extremely hostile propaganda in both directions.

Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941, captured or destroyed multiple Soviet armies, and reached the gates of Moscow by December.

Stalin fought back and forged close relations with Britain and the United States, both of which provided large amounts of munitions.

German chancellor Gerhard Schröder placed high value on relations with Russia and worked for the completion of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline between them.

[citation needed] His successor Angela Merkel, an Easterner and former dissident, has been more critical and clashed with Russian president Vladimir Putin over human rights and other issues.

[34] Germany's relations with Russia were never likely to be as cozy under Angela Merkel as under her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, who adopted a 3-year-old Russian girl and, on his 60th birthday, invited President Vladimir V. Putin home to celebrate.

After the failure of the Soviet Union and troubles of the early Russian Federation, a policy of rapprochement named Wandel durch Handel ensued.

In 2007 then-Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier published a long article explaining his rationale on EU being such an exceptional role model on international cooperation that Putinite Russia will unavoidably get "like us" by merely "intertwining of interests" (Verflechtung), and also that "a pan-European peace order and a lasting solution to important security problems (…) can only be achieved with Russia, not without it or even against it".

[35] Even after the five-day Russo-Georgian War in August 2008, Steinmeier argued for a new Ostpolitik and proposed a comprehensive project of ‘Partnership for Modernisation’ – a continued attempt of ‘westernisation’ of Russia and thus an export of norms, institutions and procedures of the western community.

[citation needed] Since the crisis began, Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Putin that the referendum on accession of Crimea to Russia is illegal.

The Los Angeles Times reported that: On the left, however, former Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder announced his understanding of Russian policies and support for Putin.

However he expected to support oil industries that are hurt, to seek financing and high technology from Asia, and to import food from new sources.

[36] Even as late as 2016, "German leaders rejected the proposal to send weapons to the Ukrainian government, as advocated by Republican congressmen in the US and treated as a possibility by Barack Obama, since pursuit of a military solution to the conflict collided with Germany’s post-war pacific security culture.

It is estimated that mutual sanctions entailed the decline in the bilateral trade volume of up to 20% that meant billions of losses for the German economy and, obviously, many jobs being cut.

[46] A Levada poll released in August 2018 found that 68% of Russian respondents believe that Russia needs to dramatically improve relations with Western countries, including Germany.

[48] The East StratCom Task Force of the European External Action Service registered an increase in false information propagated in Russia about Germany as a result of the deterioration in German-Russian relations developed since the Poisoning of Alexei Navalny.

[53] On 17 May 2022, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said he is "politically open to the idea of seizing" the frozen foreign-exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Russia —which amount to over $300 billion— to cover the costs of rebuilding Ukraine after the war.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko remarked that it would amount to "complete lawlessness", and that the measure would hurt Germany if adopted.

Parties to the right (AfD) and to the left (Die Linke) were split on the issue whether economic sanctions are effective to stop the conflict, and how they impact the German economy.

Proponents of the right wanted to support the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, while politicians to the left have voiced similar concerns with regard to Germany's economic viability.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by expelling 34 German diplomats from Moscow, stating that Germany "continues to demonstratively destroy the entire array of Russian-German relations".

However, in 2024, German authorities ordered the deportation of Russian nationals who wanted to avoid mobilization and criticized Putin's government on the grounds that they would not face persecution in Russia.

[69] In July 2024, the United States announced its intention to deploy long-range missiles in Germany from 2026 that could hit Russian territory within 10 minutes.

[75] In August 2023 German exports for the month were $736m and imports just $216m, proving the dramatic fall in trade between the two nations following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.