INFANTRY MUSEUM, MIKKELI

Relations between both nations began after the German Empire recognised the newly independent Finnish state on January 4, 1918. In the ensuing Finnish Civil War, Germany played a prominent role siding with the White Army and training Finnish Jägers. In one of the decisive battles of the war, German troops took Helsinki in April 1918.

During World War II, the secret protocol in Molotov-Ribbentrop pact enabled the Winter War (1939–40), a Soviet attack on Finland. Finland and Nazi Germany were "co-belligerents" against Soviet Union during Continuation War (1941–44), but a separate peace with Soviet Union led to the Finnish-German Lapland War (1944–45).

The German troops resorted to scorched earth tactics during their retreat to Norway, which resulted in the so-called ‘burning of Lapland’.

There were at least 200,000 German soldiers in Lapland during a time of four years, from 1940-1944.

The so-called Lapland War between Finland and Germany at the end of the Second World War led to a mass-scale destruction of Lapland.

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