Meeting of the heads of state of German-speaking countries

[1] The summits of the German-speaking countries are not a formalized language organization such as the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, but rather informal, but regular, one to two-day working meetings at the invitation of a head of state.

Due to Germany's quantitative dominance (it accounts for almost 75% of the approximately 112 million inhabitants of the six countries represented at the meetings), emphasis was placed from the outset on an equal and non-binding exchange.

The proposal for such a meeting came from the Austrian President Heinz Fischer in 2004, after his Swiss colleague Joseph Deiss had expressed the wish for more exchange with the European Union within the framework of the German-speaking countries ("Lake Constance format").

The meeting was also referred to as the "German Confederation" in Luxembourg due to its similar geographical extent and as a dig at Germany's perceived dominance.

[3] The absence of representatives from areas with a similar or even higher number of German speakers than Liechtenstein or Belgium, namely South Tyrol (Trentino-Alto Adige region, Italy) and Poland, was also questioned and explained, among other things, by historical considerations.