Foreign Office of Germany

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 
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.

Directors of the colonial departmentNoNameStart of termEnd of term1Friedrich Richard Krauel189018902Paul Kayser189018963Oswald Freiherr von Richthofen189618984Gerhard von Buchka189819005Oscar Wilhelm Stüberl190019056Ernst Fürst von Hohenlohe-Langenberg190519067Bernhard Dernburg19061907

Weimar Republic 1919-1933
The Foreign Office became a ministry in the Weimar Republic, headed by a Reich Minister. The permanent secretary no longerThe minister had the sole responsibility for the foreign policy now. The name "Foreign Office" was kept, out of tradition. Gustav Stresemann was the most famous foreign minister of this time, and moulded German foreign policy just like Bismarck had done during the empire.

The Third Reich 1933-1945
When the Nazis seized power the Foreign Office started following Nazi Party ideas. However, there was some resistance, especially from people like Adam von Trott zu Solz and Ulrich von Hassell.

The Foreign Office wrote a formal letter about the Jews and foreign policy in 1939: It said that giving the Jews a homeland in Palestine was dangerous to world peace. This note is a big reason why the second set of Nuremberg Trials included officials from the Foreign Office.

Also see: Fritz Kolbe, Kurt Georg Kiessinger

After the Second World War Germany stayed under allied control, at least in part, until 1955. This meant that there was no need for a Foreign Office until 1951, when the new Germany got more control overs its own affairs.

Federal Republic of Germany
The new Foreign Office was set up on March 15th, 1951 in Bonn and kept the name of "Office".

Many of the senior officials of the AA were ex nazis. in fact More ex party members were in charge parts of the Foreign Office than there were party members doing the same type of job during the Third Reich.

Since 1966 the Foreign Minister has often been the leader of the smaller coalition partner in coalition governments. The exceptions were the vice-chancellorships of Jürgen Möllemann and Franz Müntefering.

German Democratic Republic
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs handled the foreign policy of the government of the DDR.

Foreign Ministers
Außenstaatssekretäre 1871 - 1919NoNameTerm startTerm end1Hermann von Thile187118722Hermann Ludwig von Balan1187218733Bernhard Ernst von Bülow187318794Josef Maria von Radowitz1187918805Chlodwig Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst1188018806Friedrich Graf zu Limburg-Stirum1188018817Clemens Busch1188118818Paul Graf von Hatzfeld zu Trachenberg188118859Herbert Fürst von Bismarck21885189010Adolf Freiherr Marschall von Beiberstein1890189711Bernhard Fürst von Bülow1897190012Oswald Freiherr Richthofen1900190613Heinrich Leonhard von Tschirschky und Bögendorff1906, 190714Wilhelm Freiherr von Schoen1907191015Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter1910191216Gottlieb von Jagow1913191617Arthur Zimmermann1916191718Richard von Kühlman1917191819Paul von Hintze1918191820Wilhelm Heinrich Solf1918191821Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau191819191acting2acting until 17 May 1886

Reichsminister des Auswärtigen 1919 - 1945NoNameTerm startTerm endParty1Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau13 February 191921 June 1919Independent2Hermann Müller (SPD)21 June 191926 March 1920SPD3Adolf Klöster10 April 19208 June 1920SPD4Walter Simons25 June 19204 May 1921Independent5Friedrich Rosen10 May 192122 October 1921Independent6Joseph Wirth26 October 192131 January 1922Centre7Walther Rathenau1 February 192224 June 1922DDP8Joseph Wirth24 June 192214 November 1922Centre9Friedrich von Rosenberg22 November 192211 August 1923Independent10Gustav Stresemann13 August 19233 October 1929DVP11Julius Curtis4 October 19299 October 1931DVP12Heinrich Brüning9 October 193130 May 1932Centre13Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath1 June 19324 February 1938NSDAP(from 1937)14Joachim von Ribbentrop4 February 19381 May 1945NSDAP15Arthur Seyß-Inquart1 May 19452 May 1945NSDAP16Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk2 May 194523 May 1945Independent

Minister für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten der DDR 1949 - 1990NoNameLife dataTerm startTerm endParty1Georg Dertinger 1902-196812 October 194915 January 1953CDU2Anton Ackermann1 1905-197315 January 1953July 1953SED3Lothar Bolz 1903-1986July 195324 June 1965NDPD4Otto Winzer 1902-197524 June 196520 January 1975SED5Oskar Fischer 1923-3 March 197512 April 1990SED6Markus Meckel 1952-12 April 199020 August 1990SPD7Lothar de Maizière2 1940-20 August 19902 October 1990CDU1Acting2Jointly as prime minister of the DDR

Bundesminister des Auswärtigen seit 1951NoNameLife dataTerm startTerm endParty1Konrad Adenauer1 1876-196715 March 19516 June 1955CDU2Heinrich von Brentano 1904-19646 June 195517 October 1961CDU3Gerhard Schröder 1910-198914 November 196130 November 1966CDU4Willy Brandt 1913-19921 December 196620 October 1969SPD5Walter Scheel 1919-201621 October 196915 May 1974FDP6Hans-Dietrich Genscher 1927-201617 May 197417 September 1982FDP7Helmut Schmidt1 1918-201517 September 19824 October 1982SPD8Hans-Dietrich Genscher 1927-20164 October 198217 May 1992FDP9Klaus Kinkel 1936-18 May 199226 October 1998FDP10Joschka Fischer 1948-27 October 199822 November 2005Green11Frank-Walter Steinmeier 1956-22 November 200527 October 2009SPD12Guido Westerwelle 1961-201628 October 200917 December 2013FDP13Frank-Walter Steinmeier 1956-17 December 201327 January 2017SPD14Sigmar Gabriel 1959-27 January 201714 March 2018SPD15Heiko Maas 1966-14 March 20188 December 2021SPD16Annalena Baerbock 1980-8 December 20216 May 2025Green17Johann Wadephul 1963-6 May 2025PresentCDU1Jointly as Chancellor of the Federal Republic

Two Chancellors also Foreign Minister. Konrad Adenauer as the first Foreign Secretary of the Federal Republic of Germany and Helmut Schmidt, after FDP had left coalition and cabinet. Hans-Dietrich Genscher was Foreign Minister under both an SPD and a CDU chancellor.

Spies of the DDR Ministry of State Security ("Stasi")
NameYear joined BRD Foreign MinistryYear recruited by StasiAssumed nameChristine Bauer 1986JasminaHelge Berger  Hagen Blau19611960Detlef, MertenHerbert Kemper  Ruth Kemper  Reiner Müller  Ludwig Pauli  AdlerLilli Pöttrich19831976AngelikaGisela von Raussendorff  BlumeKlaus von Raussendorff 1957BredeKarl-Heinz Rode  Maro

 Related pages 
 German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), mainly funded by the Foreign Office

 Other websites 

 Official Website
 History of the AA
 GIC/CIDAL Paris ; GIC Kairo ; GIC Washington 
 Historic Buildings 
 The AA in the Third reich
 The AA and the Jewish Question
 Ämterpatronage bei Gründung der Bundesrepublik 
 Joschka Fischer

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