Impaired baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) predicts cardiovascular mortality and is prevalent in long-term diabetes. We determined spontaneous BRS in patients with recentonset diabetes and its temporal sequence over 5 years by recording beat-to-beat blood pressure and R-R intervals over 10 min. Four time domain and four frequency domain BRS indices were computed in participants from the German Diabetes Study baseline cohort with recent-onset type 1/type 2 diabetes (n 5 206/381) and age-matched glucose-tolerant control subjects (control 1/control 2: n 5 65/83) and subsets of consecutive participants with type 1/type 2 diabetes who reached the 5-year follow-up (n 5 84/137). Insulin sensitivity (Mvalue) was determined using a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp. After appropriate adjustment, three frequency domain BRS indices were reduced in type 2 diabetes compared with control 2 and were positively associated with the M-value and inversely associated with fasting glucose and HbA 1c (P < 0.05), whereas BRS was preserved in type 1 diabetes. After 5 years, a decrease in one and four BRS indices was observed in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, respectively (P < 0.05), which was explained by the physiologic age-dependent decline. Unlike patients with well-controlled recentonset type 1 diabetes, those with type 2 diabetes show early baroreflex dysfunction, likely due to insulin resistance and hyperglycemia, albeit without progression over 5 years.