his study examines how the past presidents of South Korea articulated the meaning of the historical and contemporary experience of Germany and how they integrated such discourses about Germany into domestic political situation. For this purpose, we conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis, using 367 speeches of eight presidents from 1948 to 2013 that include references to Germany. The main findings are as follows. First, the intensity of interest in Germany by each president was very different. President Park Jung-hee, Roh Tae-woo and Kim Dae-jung have most frequently introduced Germany as an important point of reference for the development of South Korean society. Second, each president has consistently highlighted particular aspects of German history, articulating the meaning of German experience and elaborating lessons for South Korea in different ways. Third, in spite of such diversity, we could find fundamental changes in the way of viewing Germany. In the 1940s and 1950s, negative discourses that associated Germany to Nazism, the Holocaust and war were prevailing, whereas since the 1960s Germany has been presented as a model country in respect of economic success, industrial relations, human rights, democracy, national reunification, or the way of dealing with the past. Fourth, to the political leaders of South Korea, Germany was much more meaningful for the purpose of building and justifying basic values and visions of national development than in terms of direct interest with South Korea.