Germany–Mozambique relations
Germany and Mozambique have maintained diplomatic relations since Mozambique's independence in 1975. Since then, numerous visits by German politicians and business commissions to Mozambique have followed, and a number of Mozambican politicians have visited the Federal Republic of Germany. History Before 1975 Mozambique was a Portuguese colony after Vasco da Gama's arrival in 1498. The German Empire took possession of the adjacent territory to the north as German East Africa in 1885. After the Anglo-German Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty in 1890, the German Empire also considered the Kionga Triangle in the extreme northeast of Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique) as belonging to German East Africa and occupied the area in 1894. When World War I broke out in August 1914, Portugal was initially still neutral and did not receive a declaration of war from Germany until March 9, 1916. Portuguese troops then reoccupied the disputed Kionga Triangle. At the end of World War I in East Africa, the remainder of the German Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Ostafrika retreated to Mozambican territory in November 1917 ahead of British forces. In September 1918, they moved on to Northern Rhodesia, where they surrendered on November 25, 1918, following news of the armistice in Europe. The Kionga Triangle was finally granted to Portugal in the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919. In 1932, the Laurentina Brewery was founded, the first beer brewery in Mozambique. The recipe was developed by a German brewmaster who was recruited for the purpose in Germany and initially managed the fabrication in Mozambique. Portuguese East Africa became the Portuguese Overseas Province of Mozambique in 1951 and gained independence in 1975, following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. After 1975 The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was the first German state to recognize the young People's Republic of Mozambique, followed by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1976. Mozambique and the GDR subsequently maintained intensive relations, and the country became a focus of GDR development aid. Thus, numerous Mozambicans studied here, and as of 1979, over 16,000 to about 22,000 contract workers came to the GDR. In total, the number of Mozambicans who studied or worked in the GDR is estimated at 26,000. Within the framework of scientific and technical cooperation, numerous GDR technicians were also sent to Mozambique to work on various projects for the reconstruction and development of the country. In the process, the foreign aid workers, whose expertise made an essential contribution to the stabilization and development of the newly independent, socialist-oriented country, repeatedly became the target of planned attacks. These attacks were carried out by RENAMO, a rebel group largely under the control of the South African military intelligence service of the time, which was used to destabilize Mozambique. The Unango attack on December 6, 1984, was the worst of these incidents. Seven GDR citizens died as a result. RENAMO received considerable material and moral support from a right-wing conservative network around then-Bavarian Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauß, who at times pursued his own foreign policy, parallel to the German government's foreign policy aimed