The Russian Embassy in Germany (; ) is the headquarters of the

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 denotes ...

of the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is located in the Mitte district of the capital

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and occupies a building complex consisting of the main building at 63-65

Unter den Linden Unter den Linden (, "under the Tilia, linden trees") is a boulevard in the central Mitte (locality), Mitte district of Berlin, Germany. Running from the Berlin Palace to the Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the Tilia, linden trees (known ...

and several administrative and residential buildings on the Behrenstraße and Glinkastraße. The current Russian ambassador to Germany is Sergei Nechaev who was appointed on 10 January 2018.

History

A permanent

was initially established by the

Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia, also known as the Tsardom of Moscow, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of tsar by Ivan the Terrible, Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721. ...

in Berlin in 1706, at the time the capital of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. It moved to the on

in 1832 after the building was purchased by

Tsar Nicholas I Nicholas I, group=pron (Russian language, Russian: Николай I Павлович; – ) was Emperor of Russia, List of rulers of Partitioned Poland#Kings of the Kingdom of Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 18 ...

and served as the embassy to the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

until closed at the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in 1914. It was reopened as the embassy of the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

in 1917 and then of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

from 1922. Upon the

German invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along a ...

in 1941, the embassy became an

internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

before being occupied by the

Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO; ), commonly known as the ''Ostministerium'', (; "Eastern Ministry") was a ministry of Nazi Germany responsible for occupied territories in the Baltic states and Soviet Union fro ...

from 1942. The Palais Kurland was destroyed by bombing raids in Berlin during the

Second World War 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 Soviet Union constructed the current embassy building, three times larger than the Palais Kurland and combining both

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and Soviet architecture, which opened on 7 November 1952 to celebrate

October Revolution Day October Revolution Day (officially Day of the Great October Socialist Revolution, ) was a public holiday in the Soviet Union and other Soviet-aligned states, officially observed on November 7 from 1927 to 1990, commemorating the 1917 October Re ...

.Russian version
It was built in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

to serve as the Soviet embassy to

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, as the site of the Kurland Palace was located in the

Soviet Occupation Zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

after the war. In 1961 the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

was constructed a short distance from the embassy. Following the

reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

in 1990 and the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

in 1991, the embassy was inherited by the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...

and the

, respectively. On 5 November 2021, it was revealed that a Russian diplomat had died at the embassy, apparently having fallen out of a higher story of the building. It was later revealed by ''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' that German intelligence services believed he was an FSB agent, and ''

Bellingcat Bellingcat (stylised bell¿ngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British citizen journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in Ju ...

'' stated that he was the son of a senior FSB official. In 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine and diplomatic relations between Russia and Germany were limited to the bare minimum. Germany expelled a total of 40 Russian diplomats in April 2022 and another 30 in 2023. This apparently included almost the entire technical staff of the secret services. In 2023, Russia reduced its total representation in Germany to officially 350 people (diplomats, teachers, employees at foundations). The

German federal government The Federal Government (, ; abbr. BReg) is the chief Executive (government), executive body of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany and exercises executive power at the Federal level (Germany), federal level. It consists of the Chancellor ...

ordered the closure of

consulates A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth countries, a h ...

. Russia decided to only operate the embassy in Berlin and the consulate general in Bonn. German counterintelligence estimates that up to a third of Russia's diplomatic staff are actually agents. Security circles say that in the post-2022 situation, the Russian accredited diplomatic staff in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

is involved in operations in Germany. The Austrian

Nehammer government The Nehammer government () was sworn in as the 35th Government of Austria on 6 December 2021. It was headed by Chancellor of Austria, Chancellor Karl Nehammer. On 5 January 2025, after the end of negotiations with the SPÖ and NEOS, Nehammer res ...

did not take part in the extensive expulsions of Russian embassy staff up from 2022. As of 2024 only eight members of the Russian intelligence community have had to leave Austria - although it is estimated that there are up to 100 Russian agents in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

who are accredited as diplomats. It is assumed that the Bonn consulate has extensive interception and communications technology close to the German military central command on

Hardthöhe Hardthöhe is a district at the western edge of Bonn, Germany. The districts contains mostly the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) since 1960 and ''Hardthöhe'' is the synonym for the German Political command structures. Th ...

References

External links

* (German and Russian)
Embassy profile
in Berlin Global {{Authority control Diplomatic missions in Berlin Diplomatic missions of Russia Germany–Russia relations