History

After United States independence from Great Britain, the US established diplomatic relations first with the Kingdom of Prussia in 1797.  The first documented act of mutual recognition between the Bavaria and the United States was in 1833 when the first U.S. Consulate opened in the Kingdom of Bavaria, in Munich. Later in the 19th century other consulates opened in Augsburg, Rhenish, Nuremberg and Bamberg.  In the meantime, with the impact of the First Industrial Revolution taking hold in Central Europe and North America, Germans were increasingly immigrating into the US in search of opportunity and freedom.  At this time, treaties conventions and agreements were being signed to regulate trade and commerce.  This history shaped several areas of US-German foreign policy, namely trade, commerce, emigration, citizenship and naturalization.