Embassy of the United States in Berlin
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
interests in dealing with the German government. The U.S. Embassy in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
has not always been in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
1797–1930
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...
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
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. In these early years the Embassy (or legation) of the U.S. in Berlin would change as frequently as a new Ambassador changed his residence, the two being the same. The last temporary embassy location was on Bendlerstraße 39 (now Stauffenbergstraße), close to the Tiergarten
Tiergarten
Tiergarten is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin . Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin...
.
1930–1941
In 1930 the BlücherGebhard Leberecht von Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington.He is...
Palace, located on Pariser Platz
Pariser Platz
Pariser Platz is a square in the centre of Berlin, Germany, situated by the Brandenburg Gate at the end of the Unter den Linden. The square is named after the French capital Paris in honour of the Allied occupation of Paris in 1814, and is one of the main focal points of the city.-History :Pariser...
, 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
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, plus soured relations with the Nazi 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 location in the Tiergarten area on Stauffenbergstraße (then known as Bendlerstaße). In 1938 Ambassador Hugh Wilson (Dodd's replacement) was recalled to the U.S. by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in protest over the Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
(the rampage orchestrated by the Nazis against Jews in Germany). In 1939 American Embassy staff finally did move into the chancery on Pariser Platz, now finally refurbished and usable, but made the move somewhat under duress because Nazi building head Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
had ordered embassies in the Tiergarten area vacated in preparation for the grand Nazi city plan called Germania
Welthauptstadt Germania
Welthauptstadt Germania refers to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II...
. From 1939 to 1941 there was no Ambassador assigned to Berlin, and the Embassy was led by a Chargé d'affaires
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
. With World War II 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
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
the U.S. and Germany were at war and the embassy ceased operations altogether and its personnel were interned for five and a half months in the Grand Hotel Jeschke at Bad Nauheim
Bad Nauheim
Bad Nauheim is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany. , Bad Nauheim has a population of 30,365. The town is located approximately 35 kilometers north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a world-famous resort, noted for its salt...
(United States Chargé d'Affaires Leland B. Morris
Leland B. Morris
Leland Burnette Morris was an American diplomat. He was the first United States Ambassador to Iran, serving that post from 1944 to 1945. Earlier he was the United States Ambassador to Iceland...
and famous American diplomat George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan
George Frost Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War...
were part of this interned group). The Swiss, as a neutral state, took over the building for the rest of the war.
Mission Berlin (1945–1990)
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
(Soviet zone), straddling the demarcation between the Soviet and American sectors. The East German government would demolish the ruins of the Embassy building in April 1957. In 1949 Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
became the capital of West Germany, and a U.S. Embassy was opened there. The Soviet inspired state of East Germany (GDR) was set up about the same time, and despite Allied objections East Berlin was made its capital. For many years the U.S. position in regards to East Berlin was to not recognize it as the capital of East Germany. The position held that Berlin should only be the capital of a unified Germany, thus the temporary West German capital in the unlikely town of Bonn.
However, in lieu of an Embassy the U.S. State Department had a presence in West Berlin called U.S. Mission Berlin [also sometimes referred to with the acronym USBER]. Mission Berlin was located on Clayallee in the upscale suburban part of West Berlin called Zehlendorf. Berlin was an occupied city, with a status very different than any other part of East or West Germany. This status of being occupied would technically last until 1994 when foreign forces left Berlin. 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. Possibly the best example of this involved E. Allan Lightner, head of the U.S. Mission (c. 1959-1963) who was involved in an incident that lead to a serious stand off between American and Soviet forces in 1961 (see Checkpoint Charlie#Diplomatic incident of October 1961). Nevertheless, the Mission also wielded influence in its own right. This was seen when the city of Berlin wanted to nominate someone into the higher ranks of the city police department. On such occasions 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
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
for Berlin defense during the Nazi years. This complex became the headquarters of the Berlin Brigade
Berlin Brigade
After the end of World War II, under the conditions of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements, Allied forces occupied West Berlin. This occupation lasted throughout the Cold War...
, part of the United States Army Berlin
United States Army Berlin
U.S. Army Berlin 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 . This combined organization was sometimes called the "Berlin Command". USCOB/USAB was a separate...
command in Berlin during the Cold war
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
years. On the end of some of these buildings were Nazi ornamentations. The purely Nazi symbols were removed, but to this day large cement eagles can 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 MPs served as guards to this U.S. State Department facility, instead of the normal Marine Security Guard 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 (c. 1974–1990)
Throughout the time Berlin was formally 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 WallBerlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
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.
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 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 officially 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 would remain in Berlin. In 1994 American, British, French and Russian forces removed their remaining troops, finally 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. A complicated scheme was implemented that saw some employees quit, some transfer to other U.S. facilities in Germany (other than Berlin or Bonn), and some make their way to Berlin. Also, some long time U.S. Mission Berlin/Embassy Office Berlin personnel were forced to either move to other American locations in Germany or to quit.
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 in an undivided Germany. Until 2008 the Embassy continued to operate out of 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 carried out at the Clay building, just as they were during the period of occupation. In fact many Berliners still commonly refer to the Clayallee building as the "Consulate", event though it is an annex to the Chancery. After the U.S. Army left Berlin in 1994, this building in its entirety became a U.S. State Department facility. The other buildings 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 some six kilometers 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 Great Britain 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 large minority, with locally hired Germans predominating. Amongst the non-Americans staff at U.S. Embassy Berlin there is still a large minority contingent of non-Germans.Pariser Platz site
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
Chancery building, conceptualized in 1996 by Moore Ruble Yudell, has its main entrance facing north towards the famous Pariser Platz. Its eastern side abuts an existing bank building, and the west side of the land faces a main highway
Highway
A highway is any public road. In American English, the term is common and almost always designates major roads. In British English, the term designates any road open to the public. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a...
. The south side also faces a street, towards the German Holocaust memorial
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe , also known as the Holocaust Memorial , is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a...
. Pariser Platz is most famous for the Brandenburg Gate
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate and one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which...
at its western entrance. The small Haus Sommer building, also housing a bank, is in between the northwest corner of the new U.S. Chancery and the Brandenburg Gate. Close to the Pariser Platz and the new Chancery is the Reichstag building, home to the German Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
. The significance of the new Chancery's location, and the prestige it brings to the American Embassy is hard to overstate. 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
Hotel Adlon
Hotel Adlon is a hotel on Unter den Linden, the main boulevard in the Berlin city centre, directly opposite the Brandenburg Gate.-First Hotel Adlon 1907-1945:...
. It is worth noting that with the exception of the Brandenburg gate, which was heavily damaged in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. All other former structures that surrounded Pariser Platz were destroyed during the war, or else demolished by the East German government by about 1960. From 1960 through the German Reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
in 1990, Pariser Platz held nothing but open fields on both sides of the major boulevard
Boulevard
A Boulevard is type of road, usually a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the centre, and roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery...
Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden is a boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is named for its linden trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall between two carriageways....
. 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, but with one very obvious exception: the proposed building for the American Embassy. The United States of America was the last large Allied nation to have its plans for an embassy building in Berlin carried out. France has moved into its new Chancery in 2000, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
did the same thing in 2002. Both of these are in the area od the Pariser Platz. As for the embassies of the major combatants of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, these have not been mentioned, yet.
The design for the new Chancery, 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 multiple times, largely due to security considerations and the sometimes conflicting wishes of the Berlin government to retain free public access around all building on the Pariser Platz site. Delays in funding by the U.S. Congress only worsened the delays in construction and the project languished for a time. Nevertheless waivers to U.S. government security standards were in place virtually from the beginning. The 1998 United States embassy bombings
1998 United States embassy bombings
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The date of the...
and the subsequent focus on embassy security saw the needed waiver of security standards rescinded by the Diplomatic Security Service
Diplomatic Security Service
The U.S. Diplomatic Security Service is the federal law enforcement arm of the United States Department of State. The majority of its Special Agents are members of the Foreign Service and federal law enforcement agents at the same time, making them unique...
, 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 would drag on for almost five more years before an agreement was reached and a new security waiver was issued, this time by the U.S. Secretary of State himself (Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
). Amazingly the security waiver stood even after the attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
in America on September 11, 2001.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe , also known as the Holocaust Memorial , is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a...
. This memorial itself was 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 variation to the above referenced streets bordering the Chancery site were agreed upon by the U.S. State Department. Anti-ram bollards that fit architecturally with Pariser Platz were also agreed upon.
On the 6 October 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.
The new Chancery building is not large enough to accommodate the large number of personnel of the Americn Embassy. The Clay Allee building continued to be used. Parking is limited at the new Chancery.
In the German news media the building of the new American Embassy was strongly criticized for its unaesthetic appearance, which was multiple described as very banal and ugly — especially if compared with the Embassies of many other nations in Berlin. For example, the German daily newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
Die Welt
Die Welt
Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...
described it under 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 DüsseldorfDüsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, and Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. There are also a few additional offices located in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, the former federal capital, but there is no consulate there.
The U.S. Department of State refers to group of related offices as "Mission Germany". Each consulate operates in a designated consular region composed of one to five German Bundesrepubliks, with the American consulate in Frankfurt having additional regional responsibilities in Europe and other nearby areas. American Consulates General have these areas of responsibility:
American Consulate General in Düsseldorf: North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
Consulate General of the United States in Frankfurt covers Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
, Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
, and Saarland
Saarland
Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...
American Consulate General in Hamburg covers Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
American Consulate General in Leipzig covers Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
, and Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...
Consulate General of the United States in Munich covers the large Bundesland
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
It is interesting to note that the Consulate General of the United States in Frankfurt is the largest American Consulate General in the world. It the home of the overseas offices of not only the U.S. Department of State but also numerous ederal Government of the United States|Federal agencies whose officers travel near and far from Frankfurt in carrying out their regional duties.
Amerika Haus Berlin
Also in Berlin was a facility called the "Amerika Haus", which was for many years an operation of the former U.S. Information Agency, or USIA. The Amerika Haus was a two story modernistic building located near the Zoo stationBerlin Zoologischer Garten railway station
Berlin Zoologischer Garten station was the central transport facility in West Berlin during the division of the city, and thereafter for the western central area of Berlin until opening of the new Berlin Central Station on 28 May 2006...
and the Kurfürstendamm
Kurfürstendamm
The Kurfürstendamm, known locally as the Ku'damm, is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former Kurfürsten of Brandenburg. This very broad, long boulevard can be considered the Champs-Élysées of Berlin — full of shops, houses, hotels and restaurants...
. It had a small yard around its front and space on either side, which made it stand out in the heavily built up commercial area surrounding it. On the side of the structure were huge block letters, spelling out Amerika Haus, in sky blue. Although technically always considered part of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Germany, Amerika Haus Berlin operated with some degree of autonomy. But as security concerns and reporting chain-of-command issues increased, Amerika Haus was brought more under the umbrella of the head of U.S. Mission Berlin (before the fall of the Berlin Wall) and later the Principal Officer in Berlin and the Ambassador in Bonn. When USIA was absorbed into the State Department in the late 1990s Amerika Haus lost its last shreds of independence. The viability of the library in Amerika Haus lessened to the point that the facility was closed and given to the German government in 2006. There were other Amerika Haus facilities located in other German cities, such as Hamburg.
Former Ambassadors / Significant Embassy personnel
Ambassadors:For historic, West Germany and Unified Germany see:
- United States Ambassador to GermanyUnited States Ambassador to GermanyThe United States has had diplomatic relations with the nation of Germany and its predecessor nation, the Kingdom of Prussia, since 1835. These relations were broken twice while Germany and the United States were at war...
For East Germany see:
- United States Ambassador to East GermanyUnited States Ambassador to East GermanyThe United States had diplomatic relations with the nation of East Germany from 1974 to 1990.Listed below are the head U.S. diplomatic agents to East Germany, their diplomatic rank, and the effective start and end of their service in East Germany.Listed on a separate Wikipedia page are the head U.S...
Significant personnel:
- Alexander C. Kirk
- Leland B. MorrisLeland B. MorrisLeland Burnette Morris was an American diplomat. He was the first United States Ambassador to Iran, serving that post from 1944 to 1945. Earlier he was the United States Ambassador to Iceland...
- George F. KennanGeorge F. KennanGeorge Frost Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War...
- E. 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 Embassy Office Berlin 1991-1992
External links
- Embassy of the United States- Berlin Official U.S. Embassy Berlin web page