The Germany–Netherlands border (; ) consists of a land and maritime border across the Dollart through the Frisian Islands into the North Sea.
Land border
The border is located in the northwestern part of Germany and the east of the Netherlands. The border runs as a fairly irregular line from the shore of the Dollart bay which is part of the Ems river estuary in the north to the Belgium–Germany–Netherlands tripoint at Vaalserberg. The length of the border is around in length, although the straight distance between the two border end points is .
The border runs along portions of rivers, including for along the large Rhine river. It also runs for about along the Meuse valley, although most of the time a few kilometres to the east of the Meuse river rather than along it, before leaving the valley at the last portion of border to the border tripoint located at Vaalserberg about west of Aachen.
The German states which share the international border are (from north to south) Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia while on the Dutch side, the provinces are Groningen, Drente, Overijssel, Gelderland and Limburg.
Disputes
The maritime border is disputed in a part of the Ems estuary outside the Dollart bay, where Germany has the view that the state border runs on the left bank of the Ems, while the Netherlands regards the Thalweg as its border. This is based on interpretations of old treaties. Germany relies on a bill of enfeoffment from 1464, when German Emperor Frederick III raised Ulrich I, the son of a local chieftain to the status of Imperial Count, in which the County of East Frisia is described as "von der Westeremse osterwards" (thus including the Ems). According to the Netherlands, this has lapsed in the French period – after the incorporation in France of both areas of West Frisia (now part of the Dutch provinces of Groningen and Friesland) and East Frisia (now part of the German state of Lower Saxony). Thus according to international law, the boundary should be at the center of the navigation channel.
In 2014 the two nations' foreign ministers met to put an end to the dispute. It was decided that the border should remain ambiguous and responsibility for the region in question shared.
Border crossings
There are at least 60 official road crossings and six railway crossings of the border. Both countries are part of the Schengen Area and the European Union, so there are minimal or non-existent border controls.
Motorways crossing the border:
Railways crossing the border: Ihrhove–Nieuweschans railway Almelo–Salzbergen railway Dortmund–Enschede railway Oberhausen–Arnhem railway Viersen–Venlo railway Sittard–Herzogenrath railway
Border treaties
The modern border today is the result of centuries of border negotiations and agreements between the states and other political entities in the region, such as the Kingdom of Prussia, Kingdom of Hannover and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, of which Germany and the Netherlands ultimately became the modern day successor states. Many of the border agreements and treaties drawn up between these states were adopted by subsequent treaties and remain in force today.