The Consulate General of the United States in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

represents the interests of the

United States government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, Germany, and nearby surrounding areas. It is the largest Consulate General of the US. It is more extensive regarding personnel and facilities than many US embassies. Although technically a part of Mission Germany and reporting through the Embassy of the United States in Berlin, the Frankfurt Consulate General operates with a significant degree of autonomy compared to other U.S. Consulates. This is partly due to several large U.S. government regional centers housed within the Consulate, which provide support in security, construction, and financial matters to several other U.S Diplomatic posts located throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In 2006 the Frankfurt Consulate General relocated almost all its operations to a single facility. The former 97th General Hospital, Frankfurt Army Regional Medical Center, was once operated by the U.S. military and before that by the German military during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The refurbished and now modified building is quite large and expansive. The Frankfurt Consular district covers the German states of

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, and

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

Use by intelligence agencies

In March 2017, a series of documents, referred to as Vault 7, revealed that the US government uses the consulate as a base for cyber operations. This diplomatic representation was the largest US consulate worldwide regarding personnel and facilities and has played a prominent role in the US government's intelligence architecture for years. The intelligence personnel, including

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

agents,

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

spies, military secret service personnel, the

US Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions involv ...

employees, and the Secret Service employees are working in the building complex with high walls and

barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire or bob wire (in the Southern and Southwestern United States), is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the ...

in the north of the city. In a radius of about 40 kilometers around Frankfurt, the Americans had established a dense network of outposts and shell companies in Frankfurt. Vault 7 documents reveals the Frankfurt hackers, part of the Center for Cyber Intelligence Europe (CCIE), were given cover identities and diplomatic passports to obfuscate customs officers to gain entry to Germany. The CIA station, in the consulate, is said to also collect Iranian intelligence in Europe, surveil on Iranian officials and target possible defectors who work in Iran's nuclear weapons program.

References

External links

Official U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt web page

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Germany–United States relations {{US-gov-stub