Federal Foreign Office
foreign ministry of Germany, 1951-
The Federal Foreign Office (German: Auswärtiges Amt, pronounced [ˈaʊsˌvɛʁtɪɡəs ˈʔamt] ; abbreviated AA) is the foreign ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany, a federal agency responsible for both the country's foreign policy and its relationship with the European Union. It is a cabinet-level ministry. Since May 2025, Johann Wadephul has served as Foreign Minister, succeeding Annalena Baerbock. The primary seat of the ministry is at the Werderscher Markt square in the Mitte district, the historic centre of Berlin.
The term Auswärtiges Amt was the name of the Foreign Office established in 1870 by the North German Confederation, which then became the German Empire's Foreign Office in 1871. It is still the name of the German foreign ministry today. From 1871 to 1919, the Foreign Office was led by a Foreign Secretary, and since 1919, it has been led by the Foreign Minister of Germany.
History
Early years
Foundation
The Auswärtiges Amt was established in 1870 to form the foreign policy of the North German Confederation, and from 1871 of the German Empire. The Foreign Office was originally led by a state secretary (therefore not called a ministry), while the Chancellor, who usually also held the office of Prussian Minister of Foreign Affairs, remained in charge of foreign affairs.
Bismarck
In the first years of the German nation-state under Otto von Bismarck, the Foreign Office on Wilhelmstrasse No.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Federal Foreign Office” as foreign ministry of Germany, 1951-. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q56034. VIAF identifies the subject as 130009969. The Library of Congress control number is n50074159. Authority coordinates are 52.515, 13.399. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2025, 1870, 1871 and 1919.
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This entry incorporates text from “Federal Foreign Office” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.