The United States has had diplomatic relations with the nation of Germany under its various forms of governments and leaders since 1871, and its principal predecessor nation, the Kingdom of Prussia, since 1835. These relations were broken twice (during the First World War 1917 to 1921, under 28th President Woodrow Wilson), and again during the Second World War from 1941 to 1955, at first under 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt, continuing under 33rd President Harry S. Truman and 34th – Dwight D. Eisenhower), while Germany (first as the German Empire (Imperial Germany), 1871–1918, later under Kaiser / German Emperor Wilhelm II (1859–1941, reigned 1888–1918), and second as Nazi Germany (National Socialist Germany, 1933–1945), under the regime of dictator / Fuhrer Adolf Hitler,1889–1945), when there was a state of war with the United States and for a continuation interval afterwards, following the 1918 Armistice or the 1945 Surrender and halting of military combat operations.
| Ambassador of the United States to Germany | |
|---|---|
| Botschafter der Vereinigten Staaten in Deutschland | |
 Seal of the United States Department of State | |
Incumbent since July 26, 2024[1]Alan Meltzer Chargé d'Affairs ad interim | |
| Nominator | The President of the United States |
| Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
| Inaugural holder | John Quincy Adams (as Minister) |
| Formation | 1797 |
| Website | U.S. Embassy – Berlin |
Prior to 1835, the United States and the Kingdom of Prussia in Central and Eastern Europe, had recognized one another – but did not exchange any diplomatic representatives, except for a brief period at the turn of the 18th-to-19th centuries, when minister plenipotentiary John Quincy Adams (1767–1848, future 7th U.S. President, 1825–1829) was accredited to the Prussian court in Berlin, heading the U.S. Legation there, during the reigns of two monarchs, Kings of Prussia of Frederick William II (1747–1797, reigned 1786–1797) and King Frederick William III (1770–1840, reigned 1797–1840). American Minister Adams was also accredited to and visited Scandinavia sailing across the Baltic Sea to the nearby Kingdom of Sweden in Stockholm, with U.S. Legations at both posts from 1797 to 1801, during the administration of American second president of John Adams (1735–1826, served 1797–1801), who happened to be his father, and briefly before returning to America, during the beginning of subsequent administration of third President Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826, served 1801–1809). During J.Q, Adams tenure in Prussia / Sweden, he re-negotiated and renewed the earlier Treaty of Amity and Commerce (Prussia-United States) of September 1785 (ratified a decade before by the old Confederation Congress and former presiding / executive officer President of the United States in Congress Assembled under previous governing document Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union of 1781–1789), renewed by Ambassador (Minister) Adams in 1799.
Current and 46th President Joe Biden nominated then University of Pennsylvania president and political philosopher Amy Gutmann for the position on July 2, 2021; by a vote of 54–42, she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 8, 2022.[2] She presented her credentials to the German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin nine days later on February 17, 2022.
List of United States ambassadors to Germany
editThis is a list of the chief U.S. diplomatic agents to Prussia, Germany, and West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany), their diplomatic rank, and the effective start and end of their service in Germany.
Heads of the U.S. Legation at Berlin (1797–1801)
edit| Name and title | Portrait | Presentation of credentials | Termination of mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Quincy Adams, Minister | 
|
December 5, 1797 | May 5, 1801 |
Heads of the U.S. Legation at Berlin (1835–1848)
edit| Name and title | Portrait | Presentation of credentials | Termination of mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Henry Wheaton, Chargé d'Affaires | 
|
June 9, 1835 | September 29, 1837 |
| Henry Wheaton, Envoy |
|
September 29, 1837 | July 18, 1846 |
| Andrew Jackson Donelson, Envoy | 
|
July 18, 1846 | September 13, 1848 |
Heads of the U.S. Legation at Frankfurt (1848–1849)
edit| Name and title | Portrait | Presentation of credentials | Termination of mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Jackson Donelson, Envoy |
|
September 13, 1848 | November 2, 1849 |
Heads of the U.S. Legation at Berlin (1849–1893)
edit| Name and title | Portrait | Presentation of credentials | Termination of mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edward A. Hannegan, Envoy | 
|
June 30, 1849 | January 13, 1850 |
| Daniel D. Barnard, Envoy | 
|
December 10, 1850 | September 21, 1853 |
| Peter D. Vroom, Envoy | 
|
November 4, 1853 | August 10, 1857 |
| Joseph A. Wright, Envoy | 
|
September 3, 1857 | July 1, 1861 |
| Norman B. Judd, Envoy | 
|
July 1, 1861 | September 3, 1865 |
| Joseph A. Wright, Envoy |
|
September 3, 1865 | May 11, 1867 |
| George Bancroft, Envoy | 
|
August 28, 1867 | June 30, 1874 |
| J. C. Bancroft Davis, Envoy | 
|
August 28, 1874 | September 26, 1877 |
| Bayard Taylor, Envoy | 
|
May 7, 1878 | December 19, 1878 |
| Andrew D. White, Envoy | 
|
June 19, 1879 | August 15, 1881 |
| Aaron A. Sargent, Envoy | 
|
May 18, 1882 | June 6, 1884 |
| John A. Kasson, Envoy | 
|
September 10, 1884 | June 21, 1885 |
| George H. Pendleton, Envoy | 
|
June 21, 1885 | April 25, 1889 |
| William Walter Phelps, Envoy | 
|
September 26, 1889 | June 4, 1893 |
| Theodore Runyon, Envoy | 
|
June 4, 1893 | October 26, 1893 |
Heads of the U.S. Embassy at Berlin (1893–1917)
edit| Name and title | Portrait | Presentation of credentials | Termination of mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theodore Runyon, Ambassador |
|
October 26, 1893 | January 27, 1896 |
| Edwin F. Uhl, Ambassador | 
|
May 3, 1896 | June 8, 1897 |
| Andrew D. White, Ambassador |
|
June 12, 1897 | November 27, 1902 |
| Charlemagne Tower, Ambassador | 
|
December 19, 1902 | June 8, 1908 |
| David Jayne Hill, Ambassador | .jpg)
|
June 14, 1908 | September 2, 1911 |
| John G. A. Leishman, Ambassador | 
|
October 24, 1911 | October 4, 1913 |
| James W. Gerard (1867–1951), Ambassador | 
|
October 29, 1913 | February 5, 1917 |
Heads of the U.S. Embassy at Berlin (1921–1941)
edit| Name and title | Portrait | Presentation of credentials | Termination of mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ellis Loring Dresel, Chargé d'Affaires | 
|
December 10, 1921 | April 18, 1922 |
| Alanson B. Houghton, Ambassador | 
|
April 22, 1922 | February 21, 1925 |
| Jacob Gould Schurman, Ambassador | .jpg)
|
June 29, 1925 | January 21, 1930 |
| Frederic M. Sackett, Ambassador | 
|
February 12, 1930 | March 24, 1933 |
| William E. Dodd, Ambassador | .jpg)
|
August 30, 1933 | December 29, 1937 |
| Hugh R. Wilson, Ambassador | 
|
March 3, 1938 | November 16, 1938 |
| Alexander C. Kirk, Chargé d'Affaires | 
|
May 1939 | October 1940 |
| Leland B. Morris, Chargé d'Affaires | 
|
October 1940 | December 11, 1941 |
Heads of the U.S. Embassy at Bonn (1955–1999)
edit| Name and title | Portrait | Presentation of credentials | Termination of mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| James B. Conant, Ambassador | 
|
May 14, 1955 | February 19, 1957 |
| David K. E. Bruce, Ambassador | 
|
April 17, 1957 | October 29, 1959 |
| Walter C. Dowling, Ambassador | December 3, 1959 | April 21, 1963 | |
| George C. McGhee, Ambassador | 
|
May 18, 1963 | May 21, 1968 |
| Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., Ambassador | 
|
May 27, 1968 | January 14, 1969 |
| Kenneth Rush, Ambassador | 
|
July 22, 1969 | February 20, 1972 |
| Martin J. Hillenbrand, Ambassador | .jpg)
|
June 27, 1972 | October 18, 1976 |
| Walter J. Stoessel Jr., Ambassador | 
|
October 27, 1976 | January 5, 1981 |
| Arthur F. Burns, Ambassador | 
|
June 30, 1981 | May 16, 1985 |
| Richard R. Burt, Ambassador | 
|
September 16, 1985 | February 17, 1989 |
| Vernon A. Walters, Ambassador | 
|
April 24, 1989 | August 18, 1991 |
| Robert Michael Kimmitt, Ambassador | 
|
September 5, 1991 | August 28, 1993 |
| Richard Holbrooke, Ambassador | 
|
October 19, 1993 | September 12, 1994 |
| Charles E. Redman, Ambassador | .jpg)
|
October 31, 1994 | June 17, 1996 |
| James D. Bindenagel, Chargé d'Affaires | .jpg)
|
June 17, 1996 | September 10, 1997 |
| John C. Kornblum, Ambassador | 
|
September 10, 1997 | July 7, 1999 |
Heads of the U.S. Embassy at Berlin (1999–present)
edit| Name and title | Portrait | Presentation of credentials |
Termination of mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| John C. Kornblum, Ambassador |
|
July 7, 1999 | January 16, 2001 |
| Daniel R. Coats, Ambassador | 
|
September 12, 2001 | February 25, 2005 |
| William R. Timken, Ambassador | 
|
September 2, 2005 | December 5, 2008 |
| John M. Koenig, Chargé d'Affaires | 
|
December 6, 2008 | September 2, 2009 |
| Philip D. Murphy, Ambassador | 
|
September 3, 2009 | August 26, 2013 |
| John B. Emerson, Ambassador | 
|
August 26, 2013 | January 20, 2017 |
| Kent Logsdon, Chargé d'Affaires | 
|
January 20, 2017 | May 8, 2018 |
| Richard Grenell, Ambassador | 
|
May 8, 2018 | June 1, 2020 |
| Robin Quinville, Chargé d'Affaires | 
|
June 1, 2020 | July 1, 2021 |
| Woodward Clark Price, Chargé d'Affaires | .jpg)
|
July 1, 2021 | February 17, 2022 |
| Amy Gutmann, Ambassador | 
|
February 17, 2022 | July 13, 2024 |
| Woodward Clark Price, Chargé d'Affaires |
|
July 13, 2024 | July 26, 2024 |
| Alan Meltzer, Chargé d'Affaires | July 26, 2024 | Incumbent |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Alan Meltzer, new Chargé d'Affaires". July 26, 2024.
- ^ Zengerle, Patricia (February 8, 2022). "U.S. Senate votes to confirm Biden's ambassador to Germany". Reuters. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
