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Foreign Office (Germany)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Established: | 1870 |
| Minister | Frank-Walter Steinmeier |
| Deputy Ministers: | Gernot Erler, Günter Gloser |
| Budget: | €1.313 billion (2005) |
The German Foreign Office (in German, Auswärtiges Amt, or AA) is the foreign ministry of Germany, and is responsible for both its foreign politics and its relationship with the European Union. Since 2005, the ministry has been led by Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The seat of the ministry is at the Werderscher Market, in the historical center of Berlin, not too far from the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
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The Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) was established in 1870, as the foreign ministry of the North German Confederation, and from 1871 of the unified Germany. In the first years of the German nation-state under Bismarck, the Foreign Office had two departments, a political and an economic, legal and consular. During the times of the Weimar Republic, the Foreign Office was reorganized and a modern structure was established. Following the second world war the Office was reestablished in Bonn on March 15, 1951. In 1999 it moved back to its old offices in the central part of Berlin.
In addition to the ministry's headquarters in Berlin, Germany has established embassies and consulates around the world.
See List of German foreign ministers, Foreign Minister of the GDR