What you should know about city twinning agreements
Via its towns and cities, Germany cultivates ties all over the world. One city is particularly active in this area.
Johannes Göbel,
15.04.2026 
How many international twin city agreements is Germany involved in?
German cities, towns and municipalities are twinned with more than 7,000 partners around the world. Though the great majority of these twinning agreements are within Europe, Germany cultivates ties with cities on every continent - apart from Antarctica, where there are no towns. The greatest geographical distance separating two twinned towns is between Nördlingen in the German state of Bavaria and Wagga Wagga in Australia – 16,189 kilometres.
Which German city is twinned with the most towns or cities abroad?
This record is held byCologne, which is twinned with 23 towns and cities abroad. The oldest link is the partnership concluded in 1952 with Liverpool in England, while the newest - in place since 2024 - is with Dnipro in Ukraine.
When did Germany start taking part in twinning programmes?
The oldest twinning programme was agreed between Rottweil in Baden-Württemberg and Brugg in Switzerland in 1913. A number of German towns have been linked to partners abroad for hundreds of years, however. One friendship even dates back to the year 836, which is when the relics of Saint Liborius were transferred from Le Mans to Paderborn. Ever since, the French and German towns have been tied by a special relationship that was recognised in 1967 when they were officially twinned.
Which areas does Germany focus on particularly in its international twinning agreements?
As part of its urban diplomacy activities, Germany particularly fosters transatlantic dialogue with the USA. German-Chinese city twinning agreements also involve geopolitical activities at the municipal level, the focal topics ranging from economic investments to cooperation on education and culture. In Europe, close ties are cultivated not only with towns and cities outside the European Union, such as with those in the United Kingdom, but also within the EU: Germany has twinning agreements in place with around 2,300 towns and cities in France - more than in any other country in the world. Against the backdrop of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, several twinning agreements have recently been concluded between German and Ukrainian towns.
