Contrary to countries which were part of the Eastern Bloc, socialist but non-aligned Yugoslavia developed significant economic, cultural and tourist and Gastarbeiter mobility and cooperation with West Germany during the Cold War period.

Over the centuries German-speaking parts of Europe played important political, cultural, scientific and economic gravitational role for South Slavic communities.

[3] Up until 1973, nearly 700,000 Yugoslav citizens lived and worked in Germany while the Federal Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia run an extensive network of 260 diplomats at the Embassy of Yugoslavia, Berlin Military Mission, Cologne and Stuttgart Information Centers and 11 consulates in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Freiburg im Breisgau, Ravensburg, Nuremberg, Hanover, Dortmund and Mannheim.

[6] German readiness to recognize Croatia and Slovenia unilaterally without other EEC member states pushed the entire community to jointly follow the course on 15 January 1992.

[7] Germany opened its doors for approximately 700,000 refugees fleeing the Yugoslav Wars, the majority of whom subsequently returned to their relatively nearby region in the former Yugoslavia.