Embassy Of The United States, Berlin
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The Embassy of the United States of America in Berlin () is 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
United States of America 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 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...
in 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 ...
. It started in 1797, with the appointment of
John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...
to
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 ...
, the capital of
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
. There was no permanent building for the embassy until 1930, with the purchase of the Blücher Palace. During the
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 ...
involvement in
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 embassy ceased operations. During the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
, the United States had two embassies: one in
Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
, the capital of
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
, and one 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 ...
, the capital of
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 ...
. In 1999, the embassy would fully be moved back to Berlin, and as of September 2021, it is located at
Pariser Platz Pariser Platz () is a square in the historic center of Berlin, Germany, situated by the Brandenburg Gate at the end of Unter den Linden boulevard. The square is named after the French capital of Paris to commemorate the victory of the Sixth ...
.


Embassy history


1797–1930

The U.S. Embassy in Berlin probably began with the 1797 appointment of John Quincy Adams to the then capital of Prussia, Berlin. At the time these missions in Berlin, Prussia were called legations, and there were other American legations in other parts of what would later become a unified German state. There were breaks in these formative years of German-American diplomatic relations where there was no official American diplomatic presence in Berlin. After the late 19th century the term ''embassy'' would be used to describe the American mission to the new unified German empire. There was also a break in relations with Germany during
World War I 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 these early years the embassy (or legation) of the U.S. in Berlin changed as frequently as a new ambassador changed his residence, the two being the same. The last temporary embassy location was on 39 (now Stauffenbergstraße), close to the Tiergarten.


1930–1941

In 1930 the Blücher Palace, located on Pariser Platz, was purchased as a new and permanent home for the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. There was a fire in the Blücher Palace on April 15, 1931, before it could be fully utilized and converted for embassy use. Money shortages in America, due to the Depression, plus soured relations with the
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
regime (after 1933) further delayed the refurbishing of the damaged building. In fact Ambassador Dodd asked the State Department not to rebuild or refurbish on the site because of the use of Pariser Platz as a Nazi showcase for rallies and marches. In the meantime the embassy operated out of a location in the Tiergarten area on Stauffenbergstraße (then known as Bendlerstraße). In 1938 Ambassador Hugh Wilson (Dodd's replacement) was recalled to the U.S. by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
in protest over the
Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...
(the rampage orchestrated by the Nazis against Jews in Germany). In 1939 American embassy staff moved into the
chancery Chancery may refer to: Offices and administration * Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873 ** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery ** Courts of e ...
on Pariser Platz, now refurbished and usable, but made the move somewhat under duress because Nazi building head
Albert Speer Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production, Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of W ...
had ordered embassies in the Tiergarten area vacated in preparation for the grand Nazi city plan called ''
Germania Germania ( ; ), also more specifically called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superio ...
''. From 1939 to 1941 there was no ambassador assigned to Berlin; the embassy was led by a ''
chargé d'affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...
''. With
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 ...
underway, and the U.S. still a non-combatant, the staff at the embassy had placed large letters spelling "USA" on the roof of the building hoping this might help avert British bombings. Nevertheless, British bombing of Berlin brought bomb damage to the U.S. Embassy chancery and its temporary closure – or so it was thought. Four days after the
attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...
the U.S. and Germany were at war; the embassy ceased operations altogether and its personnel were interned for five-and-a-half months at Jeschke's Grand Hotel, a resort in the spa town of
Bad Nauheim Bad Nauheim () is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany. As of 2020, Bad Nauheim has a population of 32,493. The town is approximately north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a w ...
. U.S. ''chargé d'affaires'' Leland B. Morris and American diplomat
George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...
were part of this interned group. The Swiss, as a neutral state, took over the embassy building on Pariser Platz for the rest of the war. U.S. Consul William Russell wrote a book about his experiences during the early stages of World War II in the book '' Berlin Embassy''.


Mission Berlin (1945–1990)

At war's end the U.S. Embassy, now even more severely damaged by months of Allied bombing, was just barely inside East Berlin (Soviet sector), straddling the demarcation between the Soviet and British sectors. The East German government would later demolish the ruins of the embassy building in April 1957. In 1949
Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
became the capital of West Germany, and a U.S. Embassy was opened there. The Soviet-supported state of
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 ...
(GDR) was set up at the same time, and despite Allied objections, East Berlin was made its capital. For many years, the United States did not recognize East Berlin as the capital of the GDR, asserting that a reunified Berlin should only be the capital of a reunified Germany, thus the embassy in the temporary West German capital in the small college town of Bonn. However, in lieu of an embassy, the U.S. State Department had a presence in
West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
called ''U.S. Mission Berlin'' (also sometimes referred to with the acronym USBER). Mission Berlin was located on Clayallee in an upscale suburban part of West Berlin called Zehlendorf. Berlin was an occupied city (a title held until 1994, when foreign forces officially left Berlin), with a status very different than any other part of East or West Germany. Under these conditions U.S. Mission Berlin was in many matters under the authority of the commanding U.S. General in West Berlin, and not under the authority of the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, thus operating in a historically unique position. The General in charge would sometimes give direction and orders to U.S. State Department personnel as the need arose. Perhaps the best example of this involved Edwin Allan Lightner, head of the U.S. Mission (c. 1959–1963) who was involved in the Checkpoint Charlie incident of 1961, which led to a standoff of American and Soviet military forces. Nevertheless, the Mission also wielded considerable influence in its own right: if the city of Berlin wanted to nominate someone into the higher ranks of the city police department, the U.S. Mission would have to approve the nomination for it to go forward—an example of occupation power authority vested in the U.S. Mission. The U.S. Mission to Berlin was housed in a building that was part of a series of structures that formed the former headquarters of the
Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
for Berlin defense during the Nazi years. This complex became the headquarters of the
Berlin Brigade The Berlin Brigade was a US Army brigade-sized garrison based in West Berlin during the Cold War. After the end of World War II, under the conditions of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements, the Allied forces occupied West Berlin. This occupation las ...
, part of the
United States Army Berlin U.S. Army Berlin (USAB) was a command of the United States Army created in December 1961, at the height of the Berlin Wall crisis. USAB was a combined command with the Headquarters, U.S. Command Berlin (USCOB). This combined organization was somet ...
command in Berlin during the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
years. On the end of some of these buildings were Nazi ornamentations. The purely Nazi symbols were removed, but large cement eagles can still be seen at the corners of some of the buildings (including the one to be used by U.S. Mission Berlin) minus the swastikas that used to be below their feet. The complex had numerous buildings, several of which were quite large. One of these had one portion of one its wings serve as the U.S. State Department's Consular functions. Unique to Berlin at that time, U.S. Army Military Police served as guards to this U.S. State Department facility, instead of the normal
Marine Security Guard A Marine Security Guard (MSG), also known as a Marine Embassy Guard, is a member of the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group (formerly Marine Security Guard Battalion), a brigade-sized organization of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) whose de ...
contingent at all other U.S. embassies. The presence of U.S. Marines at the Mission might have been seen as a movement towards establishing a full-fledged embassy, which the U.S. was careful to avoid.


Embassy in East Berlin (1974–1990)

Throughout the time Berlin was under four-power control, the U.S. was insistent that Berlin, East or West, should not be considered a capital until Berlin was unified. Relations with the East German state were hampered because of this policy, and by the erection of 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 ...
in 1961. The wall made the site of the former U.S. Embassy, still owned by the U.S. government, an inaccessible vacant lot that was part of the security zone separating east and west Berliners. The site became accessible after the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, but remained a vacant lot until the 2004 groundbreaking for construction of a brand new U.S. Embassy. In the early 1970s the U.S., along with most other western states, decided to grant diplomatic recognition to East Germany. However, this recognition did not extend to recognizing East Berlin as part of the GDR or its capital. The treaties establishing the U.S. Embassy in East Berlin referred only to East Germany's "seat of government". Since 1977, the facility was located at Neustädtische Kirchstrasse 4-5, several blocks from the former Palais Blücher site in the Mitte district. The embassy building was built in the late 19th century as a club for Prussian officers, and after World War I became the home to a craft guild. This five-storey, gabled building was leased to the U.S. by the East Germans. The building no longer retains any of its original interior features. The exterior retains much of its original stone facade.


1990–present

With the fall of the Berlin wall and the unification of Berlin in 1989–1990, the U.S. State Department found itself with two main office facilities in one city: a chancery in the former East Berlin,
Mitte Mitte () is the first and most central borough of Berlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding. It is one of the two boroughs (the other being Friedrichshain-Kreuz ...
district (U.S. Mission to East Germany), and the Clay building in the Zehlendorf district of the former West Berlin (U.S. Mission Berlin). In accordance with the reality of a unified Berlin that was now part of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Department of State announced that, effective October 3, 1990, the status of the United States Embassy to East Germany and of the United States Mission Berlin were to be changed. The two missions were 'closed' and replaced by a single representation under the title United States Embassy Office Berlin. It was further announced that this new entity would function as an integral part of the U.S. Embassy to the Federal Republic of Germany located in Bonn. From 1990 to 1998 Embassy Office Berlin would act as a satellite of the embassy in Bonn. The 1990 announcement also indicated that "during a transition phase, some functions, including consular services for Berlin and the territory of the former GDR, will also be carried out at the location of the present United States Mission at Clayallee". That 'transition phase' would turn into what is seemingly a permanent presence in the Clay compound for some of the embassy's functions. For several more years (1990–1994) Allied and Soviet/Russian forces remained in Berlin. In 1994 American, British, French, and Russian forces removed their remaining troops, leaving Berlin no longer an occupied city. In September 1998 the embassy in Bonn began a year-long migration to Berlin, and for that year there was, as the U.S. Embassy described it, "one Embassy, two locations". Contentions arose during this period as not all locally hired embassy personnel in Bonn were needed in Berlin. Some employees quit, some were transferred to other U.S. facilities in Germany (other than Berlin or Bonn), and some transferred to Berlin. Starting in 1999, the U.S. Embassy in Germany was located only in Berlin. 1941 was the last time Berlin had been the host city to an American Embassy. Until 2008 the embassy continued to operate from the Chancery (the Neustädtische Kirchstrasse 4-5 building in the Mitte district of Berlin) and an Annex (the Clayallee building). The new building officially opened on July 4, 2008. Consular functions are still carried out at the Clay building, as they were during the occupation. Many Berliners still commonly refer to the Clayallee building as the "Consulate", even though it is an annex of the embassy. After the U.S. Army left Berlin in 1994, this building in its entirety became a U.S. State Department facility. The other buildings which were part of the Clay headquarters (U.S. Army) have largely reverted to the German government. The Clay building is located in the southern part of Berlin from the main chancery. Since 2001, the streets around the Neustädtische Kirchstrasse building had been closed and heavily fortified with barriers and fencing. These security measures were removed as soon as the embassy had completely moved to the Pariser Platz building in May 2008.


Non-German employees

Virtually all of the locally hired employees at the U.S. Embassy to East Germany (1977–1990) were not German, but were from other countries—a group sometimes still called TCNs (third-country nationals). This was so because it was believed the extremely hostile intelligence threat precluded trusting any locally hired personnel (i.e., East Germans) in East Berlin. Many of the TCNs working in East Berlin were from the United Kingdom or other western European nations, and virtually all of them had to commute from residences in West Berlin. It was also not unusual to see similar nationalities employed in the U.S Mission in West Berlin, although they probably formed only a minority, with locally hired Germans predominating. Among the non-American staff at the U.S. Embassy Berlin, there is still a large minority contingent of non-Germans.


Pariser Platz site

The new 180 million
euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...
Embassy building, conceptualized in 1996 by Moore Ruble Yudell, has its main entrance facing north towards the Pariser Platz. Its eastern side abuts an existing bank building, and the west side of the land faces Ebertstraße. The south side also faces a street, towards the German
Holocaust memorial A number of organizations, museums and monuments are intended to serve as memorials to the Holocaust, the Nazi Final Solution, and its millions of victims. Memorials and museums listed by country: __NOTOC__ A - D: AlbaniaArgentinaAustraliaAustr ...
. Pariser Platz has the
Brandenburg Gate The Brandenburg Gate ( ) is an 18th-century Neoclassical architecture, neoclassical monument in Berlin. One of the best-known landmarks of Germany, it was erected on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin t ...
at its western entrance. The small ''Haus Sommer'' building, also housing a bank, is in between the northwest corner of the new U.S. Embassy and the Brandenburg Gate. Close to the Pariser Platz and the new embassy is the
Reichstag building The Reichstag (; ) is a historic legislative government building on Platz der Republik in Berlin that is the seat of the German Bundestag. It is also the meeting place of the Federal Convention, which elects the President of Germany. The Ne ...
, home to the German
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
. Located on Pariser Platz, or on the same city blocks that surround Pariser Platz are the French and British embassies as well as 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 ...
. With the exception of the Brandenburg gate, which was heavily damaged in
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 ...
, all other former structures that surrounded Pariser Platz were destroyed during the war, or were demolished by the East German government by about 1960. From 1960 through
German Reunification 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 East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...
in 1990, Pariser Platz held only open fields on both sides of the major boulevard
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 ...
. In 1992, the governments decided that a new American embassy building would be built on the site, and in 1993 a memorial announcing these plans was placed in the open field. Construction of all of the replacement buildings on Pariser Platz was begun in the mid-1990s, and by the late 1990s, this construction was complete, with one exception: the proposed building for the American Embassy. The United States was the last large Allied nation to have its plans for an embassy building in Berlin carried out. France moved into its new embassy in 2000, and 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
in 2002. Both of these are in the area of the Pariser Platz. The design for the new embassy, by American architectural firm Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, was finalized in 1996. Since that time, and until construction started in 2004, parts of the building design were changed many times, largely due to security considerations and the sometimes conflicting wishes of the Berlin government to retain free public access around all buildings on the Pariser Platz site. Delays in funding by the U.S. Congress further delayed construction, and the project languished for a time. Nevertheless, waivers to U.S. government security standards were in place virtually from the beginning. After the
1998 United States embassy bombings The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998. More than 220 people were killed in two nearly simultaneous car bomb, truck bomb explosions in two East African capital cities, one at the Embassy of the Uni ...
and the subsequent focus on embassy security, the waiver of security standards was rescinded by the
Diplomatic Security Service The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) is the principal Specialist law enforcement agency, law enforcement and security agency of the United States Department of State (DOS). Its primary mission is to protect diplomatic assets, personnel, and info ...
, the law enforcement and security arm of the U.S. State Department. High-level talks between the U.S. and German governments over security issues at the Pariser Platz site took place for almost five years before an agreement was reached and a new security waiver was issued, this time by U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...
. The security waiver stood after the
September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
. The main sticking points for the U.S. side had been the amount of stand-off distance between the public street and the embassy facade, with fears of a vehicle-borne bomb being the biggest factor taken into consideration. The proposed realignment of the street on the west side of the proposed chancery was met with alarm by historical preservationists, who argued that the street realignment would take away from the Brandenburg gate's appearance. Also, on the south side of the proposed chancery is the German national Holocaust memorial, the
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (, also known as the Holocaust Memorial German: ''Holocaust-Mahnmal''), is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust committed by Nazi Germany, designed by architect Peter Eisenman an ...
. This memorial was itself mired in deep controversy during its planning and construction. There had been concerns that moving the street south of the proposed chancery might impinge on the Holocaust memorial. Slight variations to the above referenced streets bordering the embassy site were agreed upon by the U.S. State Department. Anti-ram bollards that fit architecturally with Pariser Platz were also agreed upon. On October 6, 2004, construction began. The completion of the main structural parts of the building on October 10, 2006, was cause for a German construction ritual called ''Richtfest'' (i.e., the topping-out ceremony). The new embassy building is not large enough to accommodate the large number of personnel of the American Embassy. The Clay Allee building continues to be used. Parking is limited at the new embassy. The German news media strongly criticized the aesthetics of the new American embassy building, often calling it banal and ugly—especially as compared with the embassies of many other nations in Berlin. For example, the German daily newspaper ''
Die Welt (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...
'' ran the headline "Ugly but safe – the new US-Embassy"


Mission Germany

The American Embassy in Berlin oversees all of the American diplomatic functions in Germany, including the American consulates in
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
,
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 ...
,
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
,
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, and
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
. There are also a few additional offices located in
Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
, the former federal capital, but there is no longer a consulate there. The
U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
has referred to the group of related offices as "Mission Germany". In 2019, their annual budget was $153 million. Each consulate has operated in a designated consular region composed of one to five
German states The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...
, with the American consulate in Frankfurt having additional regional responsibilities in Europe and other nearby areas. American consulates-general have these areas of responsibility: * The Consulate-General in Düsseldorf covers the most populous state:
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
* The Consulate-General in Frankfurt covers
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 ...
* The Consulate-General in Hamburg covers
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...
,
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
,
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...
,
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...
, and
Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...
* The Consulate-General in Leipzig covers
Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
,
Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...
, and
Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...
* The Consulate-General in Munich covers the largest state:
Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
The Consulate-General in Frankfurt is the largest American consular post in the world. It is the home of the overseas offices of the U.S. Department of State and numerous federal agencies whose officers travel from Frankfurt in carrying out their regional duties. As of March 2025, the
second Trump administration Donald Trump's second and current tenure as the president of the United States began upon his inauguration as the 47th president on January 20, 2025. On his first day, Trump pardoned about 1,500 people convicted of offenses in the Janua ...
planned to close the consulate in Hamburg (amongst other closures in Western Europe including consulates in Florence, Italy; Strasbourg, France; and Ponta Delgada, Portugal).


Amerika Haus Berlin

From 1946 until 2006, the ''Amerika Haus Berlin'', located near the Zoo station and the
Kurfürstendamm The Kurfürstendamm (; colloquially , ; ) is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former (prince-electors) of Brandenburg. The broad, long boulevard can be considered the of Berlin and is lined with s ...
, provided an opportunity for German citizens to learn about American culture and politics and engage in discussion about the
Transatlantic relations Transatlantic relations refer to the historic, cultural, political, economic and social relations between countries on both side of the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes it specifically means relationships between the Anglophone North American count ...
hip. For many years a somewhat autonomous operation of the former
U.S. Information Agency The United States Information Agency (USIA) was a United States government agency devoted to propaganda which operated from 1953 to 1999. Previously existing United States Information Service (USIS) posts operating out of U.S. embassies wor ...
(USIA), it was later brought under the umbrella of the head of U.S. Mission Berlin. It lost its independence in the late 1990s when USIA was absorbed into the State Department. In 2006, the Amerika Haus was closed and the building returned to the city of Berlin.


Former ambassadors and significant embassy personnel

For historic West Germany and Unified Germany see: *
United States Ambassador to Germany The United States has had diplomatic relations with the nation of Germany under its various forms of governments and leaders since 1871, and its principal predecessor nation, the Kingdom of Prussia, since 1835. These relations were broken twice ...
For East Germany see: * United States Ambassador to East Germany Significant personnel: * Alexander C. Kirk * Leland B. Morris *
George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...
* Edwin Allan Lightner (head of U.S. Mission Berlin, 1959–1963) * Harry J. Gilmore (last head of U.S. Mission Berlin, became the first Principal Officer of Embassy Office, Berlin in October 1990) * Richard M. Miles (Principal Officer of Embassy Office, Berlin, 1991–1992)


Controversies

In the context of
2013 mass surveillance disclosures During the 2010s, international media reports revealed new operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly relate to top secret documents leake ...
, it became obvious that the top floor of the Berlin embassy had been used for tapping mobile phone calls in the whole Berlin government district, including the mobile phone of
Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...
Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...
. Both the British investigative journalist Duncan Campbell and NSA expert James Bradford recognized a special shielding made from
dielectric In electromagnetism, a dielectric (or dielectric medium) is an Insulator (electricity), electrical insulator that can be Polarisability, polarised by an applied electric field. When a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, electric ...
material used to veneer the top floors of other U.S. embassies in the world, which are accused of hosting operations of the worldwide
Special Collection Service The Special Collection Service (SCS), codenamed F6, is a highly classified joint U.S. Central Intelligence Agency–National Security Agency program charged with inserting eavesdropping equipment in difficult-to-reach places, such as foreign e ...
program. The claims have been underpinned by thermographic photos published by the German television network ARD, showing an intense emission of
infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...
radiation in the suspected top floor rooms.''Was passiert auf dem Dach der US-Botschaft?''
archived from ''daserste.ndr.de'', accessed on 28 October 2013


See also

* Embassy of Germany, Washington, D.C.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Embassy Of The United States In Berlin
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 ...
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 East Germany–United States relations United States–West Germany relations Prussia–United States relations