The British Embassy in Berlin (german: Britische Botschaft, Berlin) is the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is located on 70-71

Wilhelmstraße Wilhelmstrasse (german: Wilhelmstraße, see ß) is a major thoroughfare in the central Mitte and Kreuzberg districts of Berlin, Germany. Until 1945, it was recognised as the centre of the government, first of the Kingdom of Prussia, later of t ...

, near the

Hotel Adlon The Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin is a luxury hotel in Berlin, Germany. It is on Unter den Linden, the main boulevard in the central Mitte district, at the corner with Pariser Platz, directly opposite the Brandenburg Gate. The original Hotel Adlon ...

, in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. The current ambassador is Jill Gallard.

Palais Strousberg

Before moving to the Wilhelmstraße the British mission used, among others, the building at Leipziger Platz 12 and the ), this from 1797 to 1803. The original building at 70 Wilhelmstraße, known as the

Palais Strousberg The Palais Strousberg was a large city mansion built in Berlin, Germany for the railway magnate Bethel Henry Strousberg. It was designed by the architect August Orth and built between 1867–68 at No.70 Wilhelmstraße. The grandiose splendour of ...

and designed by

August Orth August Friedrich Wilhelm Orth (25 July 1828, Windhausen - 11 May 1901, Berlin) was a German architect and designer. Life and work He was the son of a manor tenant. In 1834, his family relocated to Korbach. After graduating from secondary scho ...

, was built in 1868 by the railway magnate

Bethel Henry Strousberg Bethel Henry Strousberg (20 November 1823 – 31 May 1884) was a German Jewish industrialist and railway entrepreneur during Germany's rapid industrial expansion in the 19th century. He cemented his social standing with the construction of the ...

. In December 1884 the United Kingdom bought the site after renting it for some years after Strousberg's bankruptcy and the subsequent sale of the building to

Hugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen Friedrich Wilhelm Eugen Karl ''Hugo'', Prince of Hohenlohe-Öhringen, Duke of Ujest (27 May 1816 – 23 August 1897) (German: ''Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Oehringen, Herzog von Ujest'') was a German nobleman, politician, mining industrialist and gener ...

in 1876. Wilhelmstraße was then a centre for the German government, being the location of the Imperial Chancellery and the Foreign Ministry. When diplomatic relations were broken off at the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the building stood empty. Surviving a fire during the upheavals of the 1919 revolution, it was reoccupied in 1920 when Edgar Vincent d'Abernon became ambassador. At the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

relations were broken off again. The building was heavily damaged by Allied bombing during the war and was demolished in 1950. The title to the land nevertheless remained in the possession of the United Kingdom.

Cold War era

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0130-317, Berlin, Britische Botschaft

Between 1949 and 1990, Germany was divided. The British Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was based in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, the capital city of that state. The British embassy to the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...

(East Germany) was situated near to the old embassy, at

Unter den Linden Unter den Linden (, "under the linden trees") is a boulevard in the central Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. Running from the City Palace to Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the linden (lime in England and Ireland, not rela ...

32-34.

Post-reunification building

Upon reunification in 1990, the German government returned the seat of government from Bonn to Berlin. Accordingly, the British government decided to reoccupy the Wilhelmstraße site, despite the German Foreign Office no longer being located in this street. An architectural competition was held, and won by the practice of

Michael Wilford Michael Wilford CBE (born 1938) is an English architect from Hartfield, East Sussex. Wilford studied at the Northern Polytechnic School of Architecture, London, from 1955 to 1962, and at the Regent Street Polytechnic Planning School, London, i ...

and Partner (see also

Manuel Schupp Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * M ...

). Ground was broken at the site on 29 June 1998 by

Derek Fatchett Derek John Fatchett (22 August 1945 – 9 May 1999) was a British politician. He became Member of Parliament for Leeds Central in 1983 and was a member of the Labour Party. He was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Deputy Foreign Secretary) ...

MP, and the new building opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 18 July 2000.

Architecture

The British embassy is the first, and to date, only embassy in Germany to be built under a private finance initiative. Arteos, a

Bilfinger Berger Bilfinger SE (previously named Bilfinger Berger AG) is a German company specialized in civil and industrial construction, engineering and services based in Mannheim, Germany. History Bilfinger dates back to 1880 when August Bernatz founded Be ...

owned

special purpose entity A special-purpose entity (SPE; or, in Europe and India, special-purpose vehicle/SPV; or, in some cases in each EU jurisdiction, FVC, financial vehicle corporation) is a legal entity (usually a limited company of some type or, sometimes, a limited ...

, financed and were to operate the embassy building for 30 years. A further 30-year extension is possible, following which the building will revert to British government ownership. In December 2006 Bilfinger sold their interest in the embassy to the UK firm Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund. Conscious of the necessity for modern embassies to forge good and open relationships with the German public, Wilford endowed the main floor with a café, library and restaurant. The security zone used to begin on the fourth floor but, with the perceived increased risk from terrorists, the site is now totally secured, and the intended public spaces are no longer freely accessible.

Events

On August 10, 2021, British and German authorities arrested an embassy security guard for passing documents to

Russian intelligence The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation ( rus, Служба внешней разведки Российской Федерации, r=Sluzhba vneshney razvedki Rossiyskoy Federatsii , p=ˈsluʐbə ˈvnʲɛʂnʲɪj rɐˈzvʲɛ ...

for money. The guard, a 57-year-old British locally-hired contract worker, was named as David Smith.

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

, the Metropolitan Police's

Counter Terrorism Command Counter Terrorism Command (CTC) or SO15 is a Specialist Operations branch within London's Metropolitan Police Service. The Counter Terrorism Command was established as a result of the merging of the Anti-Terrorist Branch (SO13) and Special Bra ...

, the BKA (German federal police), and various prosecutors had investigated the man for months before his arrest in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

References

This article contains material that was originally translated from the German Wikipedia article Britische Botschaft in Berlin. That article contains the following references:- * Thomas Michael Krüger, Florian Bolk: ''Britische Botschaft Berlin''. Broschüre (32 Pages), * Ulf Meyer: ''Bundeshauptstadt Berlin'', jovis Verlag, Berlin, 1999,

External links

British embassy BerlinPhotograph of the old embassy
{{Authority control Government buildings completed in 2000 Buildings and structures in Berlin Germany–United Kingdom relations

Michael Wilford buildings