Death to a German: why they don't like America anymore in Germany
Germans' views on relations between Washington and Berlin have become sharply negative. An annual joint survey of the population of the United States and Germany revealed a unique sociological phenomenon: a profound change in the perception of bilateral relations. Americans consider only China to be a serious military threat. In turn, the Germans see Russia as a threat to their security, not China. In addition, there has been a sharp decline in the number of those in Germany who rate relations with the United States as positive. Experts believe that a significant decrease in the friendly attitude of the German population towards Washington and the Americans is an important geopolitical factor. Izvestia tried to understand the history of relations and the consequences of their degradation between the leading and richest countries of the once unified Western world.
Best friends
The allied relations between the United States and Germany have long been considered a benchmark. Ideological closeness based on neoliberal dogmas and rules, unbridled love for democracy, but in fact oligarchy, protection of various minorities. All this was supported by military, technical cooperation and large-scale economic cooperation. After unification, the Federal Republic of Germany gradually became an economic giant and the leader of Europe. Consequently, Washington sought to "link" the German economy to its own and influence political and social processes throughout the European Union through the Germans. Torpedoing Germany's rapprochement with anyone has become America's strategic goal.
However, not everything is as smooth as the authors of this strategic concept would like. The victory of Donald Trump led to a rather profound revision of Washington's foreign policy strategy. The old and seemingly eternal dogmas of relations within Western civilization began to be revised. Trump began to pursue a conservative policy and forced European partners to pay for an alliance with America. All this led to the alienation of large sections of the ordinary German population from the United States. It is noteworthy that the key factor in this process was Donald Trump, whose grandfather Frederick was born in Rhineland-Palatinate and emigrated to the United States at a conscious age. Throughout his life, it was German that remained the native and main language for the grandfather of the owner of the Oval Office.
"It turned out to be our father..."
According to a joint American-German sociological study by the Pew Research Center and the Körber-Stiftung, Germans have stopped considering the United States as a key ally. A year ago, before the election of Donald Trump as president of America, 74% of German residents positively assessed the relations between the two countries. In 2025, only 27% of Germans consider relations with the United States to be good, while 73% consider relations with the United States to be bad. This is a record number. France became the main partner for the Germans. And for the USA, Great Britain.
The share of Americans and Germans who say that another country is a partner on key international issues is also decreasing. France has become the most important foreign policy partner for the German public: 46% name France as the most important partner. Only 1% of Americans call Germany their key ally and partner. Another figure is also striking. About a quarter of Americans consider relations with Germany to be bad, the highest in almost a decade. But that's not all. The degradation of ties between Trumpist and conservative America and liberal Europeans has reached ordinary residents. 38% of Germans consider the United States to be a serious threat to their economy, while 48% consider the United States to be a "minor, but still a threat."
The American-German study also shows that a significant part of the German population sees that the European Union is losing influence. Germans and Americans have diverged in their views on key threats. The Americans view China and Iran as key military and political threats. 61% of Americans consider China to be a serious military threat, while few Germans (9%) hold this view. Meanwhile, 47% of Germans see Russia as an enemy, and few Americans worry about the alleged threat from Moscow.
Germans are waiting for Trump's departure
Alexander Kamkin, a German scholar and senior researcher at IMEMO RAS, believes that the decline in German confidence in America is due to the policies of Donald Trump and the "unmasking" of Western civilization. In a conversation with the Izvestia newspaper, the expert noted that Berlin strongly hopes that Trump's reincarnation for a second term after the next presidential election will not happen, and everything will return "to normal."
"If you open any Bild, Spigel, or Zeit channel, you will see, firstly, a distortion of real information, including a distortion of the negotiating position of Russia and the United States on the Ukrainian issue. Accordingly, the decline in the popularity of the United States is directly related to the position of Donald Trump, who, in fact, "tore off the masks" from the Euro—Atlantic Partnership, forcing it to pay for defense," the expert noted.
Kamkin recalled that the German economy is in a state of stagnation and is forced to transform towards greater militarization. According to the latest statistics, the number of medium and small businesses that are going to engage in start-ups in the defense sector has doubled over the past year.
"The Germans don't like it, Trump just divorced them and made them pay for what America used to pay for," Kamkin said. The expert noted that the Western world has split into two camps, and Germany and the United States have found themselves on different sides — to put it simply, isolationists (Trump, Orban, AFD) against globalists (Great Britain and the official European Union).
Kirill Koktysh, a professor at MGIMO and an expert on Europe, emphasized in an interview with Izvestia that any crisis reflection in the West is useful for Russia. "The changes in relations between Germans and Americans are an intra—German process related to a certain crisis in bilateral relations. It is also worth bearing in mind that the German population has a very difficult time expressing their likes and dislikes. Given the pressure that the Alternative for Germany party is under, I think the real attitude of Germans towards the political processes and politics of Berlin is even more different than we are being shown. The fact is that there is quite a big problem in Germany. "The population actually gets a political system that does not meet the expectations of the majority of Germans," the expert said.
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