Representing Germany in a Country of Great Variety

It is now 35 years that German unification took place. When asked what conclusions she would draw from these three and a half decades for Hungary and for German-Hungarian relations, the German Ambassador to Hungary, Julia Gross tells Diplomacy&Trade that she believes a lot has been accomplished over this period. “The two parts of Germany have managed to shape a common future to grow together in very many respects, but you certainly still see the differences between former East and West Germany. However, it's a task we're working on and I think that in some areas, we share experiences with Hungary because the eastern part of Germany, just like Hungary, was on the other side of the Iron Curtain.”

She believes people in Eastern Germany had the experience that their expertise and everything they had contributed to their own country was not valued enough and “I think it's taken some time to change that notion. The same goes maybe for the Eastern members in the European Union. Before we started growing together, of course, the whole historical moment of tearing down the Iron Curtain had to happen first. That's a shared experience because Hungary played a pivotal role in that by taking the first stone out of that wall, as Chancellor Kohl once said. It was last year that we remembered 35 years of the Sopron picnic when East Germans were allowed by the Hungarian government to cross from Hungary to Austria – that really is a moment that emotionally binds Hungarians and Germans together.”

More than economic partnership
Germany is Hungary's most important economic partner. As one can often hear from current government officials in Hungary, the Hungarian economy highly relies on the well-being of the German economy. However, Ambassador Gross believes the connection goes much deeper than that. “It's much more than an exchange of goods because we have some 3,000 German companies investing in Hungary, employing about 300,000 Hungarians. So, we don't just buy goods from Hungary and the other way round, but German companies are engaged in production and do research and marketing in Hungary. We are also bound together by, let's say, a common destiny in the internal market in the European Union. Whatever impacts one of our economies impacts the other as well. Anything that is detrimental to the German economy has an impact on the Hungarian economy and in a smaller degree, but certainly it is also valid vice versa.”

Businesses need predictability
She adds that for German investors, Hungarian workforce is an attractive factor: German businesses see Hungarian employees as very skilled, highly trustworthy and highly reliable. “That certainly was a major factor that pulled investors to Hungary. We will have to look how it develops in the future because there might be a shortage of labor as elsewhere in Europe. German businesses are, of course, talking to the Hungarian government about this – as well as about the need to invest in education and training, as certainly that is one of the very important factors. They also see it positively that the Hungarian government welcomes foreign direct investment and created very conducive and positive conditions for investors, for instance through the HIPA agency that is a highly important partner for German business. And it's not only one area or around the capital in Budapest, but most of the regions of Hungary have attracted investment from Germany and thus, these conditions prevail throughout Hungary and have been seen as very positive.”
Speaking more in detail about investment conditions, the Ambassador notes that German investors who come here benefit, of course, from the EU single market and also from the fact that “we are all working on the same standards and values within the European Union. So, whenever we see measures by the Hungarian government that impact the workings of the single market that has a direct negative impact on our business community. That is something we try to talk to the Hungarian government about. Corporate actors always tell me, and that goes for Hungary as well as Germany, that business needs predictability, planning security, rule of law and all these things. Stability in these respects is very important and anything that kind of shakes these parameters up is not conducive to the success of doing business and to their work in Hungary.”

Diverse business community
As regards the German business community in Hungary, the Ambassador is of the view that it should not be seen as a homogeneous group. “We have the automotive sector, for instance, that finds extremely good conditions in Hungary. You just saw the big BMW plant opening in Debrecen and in Kecskemét, Mercedes is investing in new production. Audi in Győr has recently opened a new production line. So, for automotive, things are going extremely well. In other sectors, we have seen some problems or, let's say, things to be discussed with the government in Hungary, for instance, in the case of retailers like Aldi, Lidl or Penny.
Pharmaceuticals have had some topics to be discussed – as has construction. So, in different sectors, you have different conditions and different dialogues to be had with the Hungarian government. But overall, I think Hungary is a location where investors feel welcome and they also try to give something back to the country and its people. They employ a lot of Hungarians and try to provide good working conditions for the Hungarian employees. German companies also try to be a productive and constructive part of the communities where they live and work. For instance, they invest in schools, they invest in education. They try to be an active part of the, let's say, social life of their communities. So, I think that's a cooperation that works very well from both sides.”
Looking after the interests of the German business community is always an important part of any embassy's work. “Whenever a German business has something to discuss with the government and they think it's useful for us to participate in this, we are very happy to do that. We are always in very close contact with our whole business community in order to know what's going on there, what their concerns are and what topics are of relevance. That's a very important part of my task and of my colleagues' task in the economics department but, of course, we're not the only ones to do that. There is also the German-Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the largest international chamber of commerce in Hungary, so they take an active role. Whenever we can, we join forces. We're also happy that the German business community sees us in that role and makes use of us in that respect. We also try to join efforts with international partners who may have the same kind of sectors present in Hungary, thus, often we've joined up with the Swiss and Austrian embassies and chambers of commerce,” Julia Gross adds.

Assisting partnerships
Germany also supports German-Hungarian academic exchange as well as German schools and universities in Hungary. The Ambassador stresses that “it is a very intensive cooperation. We have the old German Academic Exchange Service offering opportunities for Hungarian students to go to Germany and study in German but also in courses taught in English. There are more than 500 university partnerships with exchanges and research programs. Also, we have a lot of partnerships between schools and twin towns. So, this people-to-people interconnection is really important. In the future, we would like to increase the number of Hungarian students going to Germany because we sometimes find that the opportunities that are provided by the German Academic Exchange Service could be used a little bit more by Hungarian students. Maybe the language barrier is one of the motives for people having second thoughts. But, as I say, you can study in Germany in English as well. So, we would like to increase this exchange wherever possible. And, of course, we have a lot of German students in Hungary as well, mainly for medicine.”
She also mentions the German-speaking Andrássy University in Budapest where one can find students from Germany, Switzerland, Austria – Hungarians and a lot of third country students.

Germans in Hungary
There are over 400 German minority local governments in this country, but the German community also includes students, ex-pats working for German businesses as well as diplomats. “A lot of German citizens are moving to Hungary for various reasons, like for retirement around the Lake Balaton region. And, of course, you have the German minority which is a long-standing part of Hungary. Most of them came in the 18th century, under the reign of Queen Maria Theresa, who tried to bring settlers to Hungary in order to import, let's say, skills and people who could be a valuable factor for economy in Hungary. Since then, the German minority has been present in most areas of Hungary and I think contributed to agriculture and to trade and to various branches of expertise,” she points out.
After the Second World War, these people were made responsible for the crimes that the Nazis committed and a large part of the German minority was expropriated and had to leave Hungary. “We are really grateful to the Hungarian government that they introduced a day of commemoration the 19th of January as for that. In the decades following World War II, I think it was a very difficult time for the remaining German minority in Hungary because they were not allowed to speak their language or openly live their culture. Fortunately, this has changed and I think now the German minority is a very well respected, totally integrated and very well embedded part of Hungarian society,” she adds.

Promoting German culture
As for other aspects of bilateral cultural relations, Ambassador Gross mentions the Goethe Institute, which is the cultural institute working for German language and culture worldwide and it has been in Budapest as well for almost four decades now. “We try to promote German language as foreign language in this country. For the last five years, we have had a festival of the German language called Wunderbar Festival, which is a cooperation of the German, Austrian and Swiss embassies and cultural institutes – a kind of unique even, not something that is done by the other embassies and cultural institutes. We had some 2,000 separate Hungarian contributions last year all over Hungary with films and literature and dance festivals and flash mobs and this was really impressive. There's a real interest in Hungarian society to participate in this.”

A country of great variety
Julia Gross has been here as Ambassador for three years now. Speaking of her most interesting impressions, private and professional, over this period, she says she tries to make a point of traveling outside of Budapest as “living in Budapest is just a real privilege because it's such a great city to live in. What I really, really cherish about Budapest is the amount of culture that you can experience here, especially, for instance, in music and film and cinema. Theater is a bit more difficult for me because of the language barrier, of course, but this is just amazing. But I think it's very important for us also to look beyond Budapest and to travel in the whole country. My recent trips included ones to Debrecen and Szeged but I've been to many, many other places, I mean the larger cities and very tiny places as well. “What we realize is that while Hungary is not such a big country but it is a country of great variety. For instance, you go to Pécs and that is totally different from Debrecen, different cultures. There are different, let's say, literary strands, there are different expressions in music, there are even different culinary universes. So, that is one of the really pleasurable parts of my job to get to know all of this and whenever we go to all of these places, we try to meet with different parts of the community. We want to meet the mayor, of course, and the representatives of the local community, with the German minority. We try to visit schools and talk to students, including those at universities. We make a point also of meeting religious communities – as well as the local media, civil society, NGOs to get the whole picture,” she concludes.