Title: Foreign Office of Germany Content: The traditional name of the ministry handling Germany's foreign affairs is the Foreign Office or AA . It is responsible for the foreign policy as well as the German EU politics. It is led by the federal Minister for Foreign Affairs  == Auswärtiges Amt == thumb| The Foreign Office is part of the foreign service of Germany. The other part is the parts of the other agencies of the federal government based abroad. The Foreign Office handles contact between Germany and other countries or international organisations such as the United Nations. This included trying to get a permanent seat in the Security Council of the United Nations as part of the proposed 2005 UN reforms. The Foreign Office is near the old DDR Foreign Ministry in Berlin. The big old building in the Werderschen Markt became the Reichbanks headquarters in 1940 and from 1959 the central committee headquarters of the SED. The Foreign Office has a "second headquarters" on Adenauerallee in Bonn. Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) has been Foreign Minister since January 2017. ==Organisation == There are German embassies and consulates or consulates-general in most capitals of the world as well as in larger towns of the countries. The Berlin headquarters job is to coordinate German diplomacy, and study the information passed on from the embassies, permanent representations and consulates. These are the "eyes, ears and voice" of the Federal Government abroad. The Foreign Office has 145 embassies, 59 consulates general, twelve permanent representations (at international organisations) and ten offices abroad. There are also three "German Information Centres (GIC)" with the job of giving information about Germany and the German language. The biggest GIC is in Washington, DC, after it moved from New York in 2003. A GIC in Cairo is for the Arabic speaking world. The other GIC is in Paris, for French speaking areas There are also 356 honorary consuls. These are often German businessmen who do some work for the Foreign Office. ===Bonn=== The Bonn office handles information technology particularly. Every German agency abroad is connected to Bonn, which can send the information to Berlin. The Bonn office also arranges communications for the Foreign Minister and the Chancellorwhen they are abroad. ==Problems== Some people say that there is corruption in the way senir jobs are filled. This is because the Foreign Office does not publish the qualifications of its top diplomats anymore. They stopped after terrorists used the information to attack the German embassy in Stockholm in 1975 and the RAF murdered diplomat Gerold von Braunmühl in 1986. ==History== ===North German Confederation=== The Foreign Office started in 1870 as a part of the North German Confederation. It was headed by a permanent secretary, just like the Foreign Office of the German empire. There were ministers only since 1919. This was why it was called an Office not a ministry . ===German Empire (1871-1918)=== The Foreign Office of the German Empire was based in Berlin Wilhelmstraße 76. The empire tookover the Foreign Office of the North German alliance unchanged. However the German federal states kept a considerable degree of independence in their own foreign policy. The AA had two departments ====Department I==== Higher politics, personnel, ceremonies, budgets, registeration of the schools and churches. The head of this department was a permanent secretary who was also the permanent representative of the German Chancellor in the Foreign Office at the same time. The German Chancellor had the topmost responsibility in foreign policy. ====Department II==== The second department was responsible for trade, traffic, consulates, national law, civil law, the art and science, the private matters of Germans abroad, also, justice, police and Post Office, emigration, ship matters. This department was headed by the director of the Foreign Office. ====Other departments==== Legal matters were transferred to the new Department III in 1885. A colonial department was formed in 1890, it became the Imperial Colonial Office in 1907. Department IV was formed in 1915 to handle intelligence.  == Related pages == * German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), mainly funded by the Foreign Office