Germany and its Immediate Neighbors: The East

France:

France-Germany relations have always been a touchy subject. It roots back to the to powers being the biggest empires to stretch across Europe at the time. Having struggles back and forth over land, politics, and power.  France would go so far as to seek out allying countries to attempt to shut out Germany from the outside world. Their failed attempts to do so would loosen their ties even more so.  Most of France's policies were in fact brought about as a result of direct fear of the Germans. With their pasts struggles it won't be until after the Second World War that Germany and France will finally see any any sort of peace between the two. It takes the soviet threat to bring them together. 

Belgium:

Belgium has almost always remained neutral throughout times of war. Belgium has historically been the route of invading armies from its larger neighbors. With virtually defenseless borders, Belgium has traditionally sought to avoid domination by the more powerful nations which surround it through a policy of mediation. This, however, didn't work during the two World Wars. Germany didn't care that their policy was to remain neutral during war time and they took over Belgium both wars. Fed up with staying neutral, in 1948, Belgium signed the Treaty of Brussels with the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and one year later became one of the founding members of the Atlantic Alliance.