Gauck's visit to Croatia is the second visit of a German head-of-state in recent years after former German President Horst Koehler visited Croatia in April 2008. Josipovic conducted a visit to Germany in January 2011.

During his stay in the Croatian capital, Gauck will also give a joint lecture with his host Josipovic, on ethics and politics at the Zagreb Law School. The lecture is set for Friday afternoon. On Saturday, the visiting German official will meet Croatian business people, researchers and scientists.

Gauck, due to arrive in Zagreb on late Thursday afternoon after his visit to the Vatican where he is is to be given a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI, will be received in President Josipovic's Office on Friday morning.

One of the most important pillars for good relations between Croatia and Germany is the fact that Germany was a driving force for the international recognition of Croatia's sovereignty after Zagreb declared its independence from the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (ICTY). Germany also provided strong support to Croatia during its international positioning as well as to its European Union membership bid.

Germany's Foreign Office has described German-Croatian relations as excellent. This excellent relationship has been fostered by centuries-long ties as well as by hundreds of thousands of Croatian "guest workers" and by a rising number of German tourists in Croatia. Intensive economic trade between the two countries also contributes to their excellent relations which are evident in frequent reciprocal visits of the two countries' officials.

In 2011, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle visited Croatia. That same year, Josipovic travelled to Germany and a year before, the then Croatian Minister Jadranka Kosor visited Berlin. Her successor Zoran Milanovic was in Berlin twice this autumn.

Currently, 204,000 Croatian nationals live in Germany, while the entire number of people of Croatian descent living in Germany is 360,000, according to figures issued this summer by the German national statistics office.

Joachim Gauck, the 11th President of Germany, is a a former Lutheran pastor who came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany. Following German reunification, he was elected by the Bundestag as the first Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives, serving from 1990 to 2000. He earned recognition as a "Stasi hunter" and "tireless pro-democracy advocate," exposing the crimes of the former communist secret police.

Gauck became the president on 12 March 2012 when he succeeded Christian Wulff.