Since the early 1970s, when the Four Power Agreement on Berlin and the Basic Treaty between East Germany and West Germany normalized West Germany's relations with the Soviet Union and East Germany, respectively, Hungary has greatly expanded its ties with West Germany. After West German chancellor Helmut Kohl's visit to Hungary in 1984, the Hungarian press stressed the special place of West Germany in Hungary's foreign policy and West Germany's efforts to reduce tension between East and West. Nepszabadsag called Kohl "the patron of East-West relations." Over the course of the 1980s, political contacts and dialogue have been constant and frequent, despite problems in superpower relations.
For Hungary, West Germany has served as an economic gateway to the West. In the late 1980s, West Germany was Hungary's largest Western trading partner. As of 1984, 332 cooperation agreements linked the economies of the two countries. That same year, the two countries extended a ten-year agreement on economic, industrial, and technical cooperation signed in 1974. In 1987 Hungary and West Germany signed a five-year agreement on scientific and technical cooperation.
Cultural relations between the two countries also expanded. In 1987 the two governments agreed to set up cultural and information centers in each other's country and concluded a visa agreement easing restrictions on Hungarians trying to enter West Germany. The West Germans also praised Hungary's treatment of its German minority and its policy of allowing ethnic Germans to resettle in West Germany.
Data as of September 1989