German participation in colonial expansion into South Asia has occurred for at least 500 years. It started with the engagement of German merchants in the spice trade in the early sixteenth century. When Germany failed to become a colonial power on the sub-continent, Germans went to India in the service or with the consent of the respective colonial powers. But Germans’ colonial interventions in South Asia transformed profoundly after the foundation of the German Empire, due to both changing economic circumstances and the new Empire’s imperial pretensions. The following remarks have to be seen, then, as an attempt to provide an overview of the German presence in India for the period between the foundation of the German Reich in 1871 and the end of World War II. Though these decades became the most intensive phase in the mutual encounter thus far, we do not yet have a comprehensive picture about the activities of Germans in India and vice versa. This refers to the actors in various fields, their intentions and the consequences for them as individuals as well as for the respective countries and for their bilateral relations. The following passages, therefore, are more a compilation of different activities and various agents than a complete picture, highlighting the most important aspects of German colonial policy and exchange.