Political, economic, cultural and social relations between Germany and Croatia are traditionally close and amicable. Cooperation focuses on trade and economic relations, the nurturing of scientific, academic and cultural relations and close cooperation at EU level.

Germany is Croatia’s largest trading partner and regularly ranks among the leading foreign direct investors alongside the Netherlands, Austria and Luxembourg. In 2024, over three million German visitors again meant that the country accounted for the largest group of foreign tourists in Croatia. The German-Croatian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (founded in 2003), the Germany Trade & Invest office and the Embassy work together to promote economic activity in Croatia as well as good economic relations.

Bilateral cultural cooperation is based on the German-Croatian cultural agreement of 26 August 1994, which entered into force on 23 January 1998. Priority areas of cooperation are promoting mobility in science and higher education as well as maintaining and strengthening the prominent role of the German language in the Croatian education system (approx. 23% of all pupils at Croatian schools learn German as their first or second foreign language). The Goethe-Institut, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA, in the form of two advisers on the German Language Certificate (DSD) and five seconded teachers at Croatian grammar schools) are active in Croatia. Since 2004, the Deutsche Internationale Schule Zagreb (DISZ, German International School Zagreb) and the École française internationale de Zagreb have formed the Eurocampus, a beacon of Franco-German cooperation in Croatia.

The more than 430,000 Croatian nationals who live in Germany, as well as the large number of Croats who previously lived in Germany and have returned to Croatia, also play a part in upholding the close relations between the two countries.