Three years ago, while serving as consul general in Frankfurt, I wrote that German electric vehicles could hardly be built without Korean batteries. Back in Berlin as ambassador, I am reminded every day of how much larger Korea's role has grown since then. Decades ago, Korea took the "Miracle on the Rhine" as its compass and, on the sweat of the miners and nurses dispatched to Germany, built the "Miracle on the Han River" out of postwar ruins. During the 1997 foreign exchange crisis, Germany helped Korea get back on its feet by extending credit and rolling over short-term external debt. Today the two countries have moved beyond one-way aid and learning into a reciprocal partnership in which each deeply enjoys the other's culture and drives the other's innovation.
Looking back, Korea's intellectual and cultural journey has traveled alongside the deep currents of German culture, embodied by Goethe, Hesse, Kant and Beethoven. Even in a German society proud of its culture and attentive to tradition, Korean culture has become part of daily life. German fans sing K-pop in Korean, Korean studies ranks among the most competitive departments for admission, and Korean food has made its way onto German dinner tables.
That thickening bond is proving itself as powerful synergy on the front lines of advanced industry. For German companies, Korea is no longer simply a consumer market but an irreplaceable innovation partner in navigating global competition over technology. German automakers including Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen install Korean batteries and electrical systems, and cooperation between the two countries is deepening by the day in in-vehicle infotainment and autonomous driving software. Conversely, the global memory chip production that Korea leads would not be possible without the original lithography and laser technologies of Germany's ZEISS and TRUMPF.
The same holds for future strategic industries. Samsung Electronics (005930) acquired Germany's FläktGroup, Europe's largest air-conditioning company, entering the cooling market for artificial intelligence data centers. In June, Korean defense firm LIG D&A joined hands with Rheinmetall to enter the European and NATO air defense market. Germany's Merck in 2024 made its largest investment in the Asia-Pacific region to build a biopharmaceutical raw-material and ancillary-material production base in Daejeon. Each side's innovation stalls without the other — a complementary pairing.
Germany stands at a turning point, facing the national task of diversifying supply chains amid fast-shifting geopolitical risk. Partners that share the values of liberal democracy and a market economy while possessing top-tier manufacturing capacity are rare. With a similar manufacturing- and export-driven economic structure, and facing the same compound security and economic pressures between the United States and China, Korea is the strategic alternative Germany can trust most.
Seen in that light, the 19th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business (APK), opening in Seoul on the 29th of this month, carries unusual weight. Germany's largest Asia event organized by its business community, launched in 1986, returns to Seoul for the first time in 19 years since 2007, one month before the 143rd anniversary of diplomatic ties. Some 800 senior figures from government and business, including the chairman of Siemens, will gather to discuss geopolitics, technological innovation and supply chain realignment. It should mark a turning point as the two countries rise to a comprehensive strategic alliance that designs future technology and economic security together.
The two countries have walked a path that those who opened the first chapter of exchange 143 years ago could not have imagined. Just as the devotion of the generation sent to Germany gave rise to today's friendship, I am confident that the seeds of trust and technological cooperation the two countries are sowing now will become valuable assets sustaining yet another future to come.