Germany plays an important part in the Slovak economy as it is Slovakia's main trading partner.

Slovakia had been closely aligned with Germany almost immediately from its declaration of independence from Czechoslovakia on 14 March 1939.

[citation needed] Those two regions (along with Cieszyn Silesia) were divided and disputed between Poland and Czechoslovakia since 1918, until the Poles fully annexed them following the Munich agreement.

In July 1940, Germany successfully demanded the resignation of Slovak politicians who advocated an independent foreign policy at the Salzburg Conference.

Relations during this period were primarily between the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and Czechoslovakia under the Warsaw Pact.

Following the creation of democratic Slovakia and German reunification, both countries traded under a free market economy.

In March 2001, a German court rejected compensation complaints from Slovakia's surviving Jews from the Holocaust.

[7] In 2003, Germany was the biggest investor in Slovakia, with its volume of direct investment at about 1.94 billion euro as of 31 March 2003.

[15] In April 2009, Volkswagen AG announced plans to build a new compact family vehicle in Slovakia.

VW currently builds its Touareg,[14] Škoda Octavia[16] as well as its Audi Q7 in Bratislava and employs about 7,800 people in the nation, which has emerged a major hub in the global car industry.