초록 열기/닫기 버튼
Germany and Korea are looking back at a long common history, which can be divided historically as well as politically into two phases. The official establishment of diplomatic relations between the German Empire and the Kingdom of Korea in 1883 marks the beginning of the first phase, which comes already to its early end by the loss of Korea’s sovereignty in 1910. The second phase, which begins after World War II, is marked by a common political destiny of divided countries and characterized by the relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) as well as the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The relatively short period of the first phase around the turn of the 19th and 20th century, which is focused on in this study, was marked by an extremely low ambition of imperial Germany in Korea. Commercially and politically Berlin orientated itself rather towards China and Japan, because these countries played an important power-political role in Eastern Asia and were the center of attention of rival western powers. Also the religious aspect, which remained reserved at the beginning of the religious spreading in the Far East rather to the Portuguese and later the French and Americans was at first not relevant for the German Empire. This situation only changed slightly with the appearance of the Benedictine monks from Saint Ottilien in Bavaria on the stage of Korean missions at the end of 1909. In the present study, three historical aspects of the German-Korean relations will be analyzed. First, contacts between Germans and Koreans already before the establishment of the diplomatic relations of both countries and their historical consequences are examined. The second aspect to be considered is the question, which activities German citizens have followed in Korea and to what extent they have influenced or formed the historical German-Korean relations. For this purpose, six individual people as well as a group of missionaries who have taken special positions of influence within the Korean government or society during their long-standing activities are exemplarily studied. In the last part, the role of the German Empire in the context of rivaling western powers in Northeast Asia is examined closer, followed especially by the question, which interest the Berlin government pursued in the Kingdom of Korea and the later Joseon Empire, respectively.
