Embassy of Germany in London | |
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Location | Belgravia, London |
Address | 23 Belgrave Square/Chesham Place, London, SW1X 8PZ |
Coordinates | 51°29′54″N0°09′15″W / 51.49825°N 0.15425°W |
Ambassador | Miguel Berger [1] |
The Embassy of Germany in London is the diplomatic mission of Germany in the United Kingdom. [2] The embassy is located at Belgrave Square, in Belgravia. [2] It occupies three of the original terraced houses in Belgrave Square and a late 20th-century extension.
Prussian Legation Act 1850 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
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Long title | An Act to authorize the Purchase by the Prussian Minister of a Residence in England for the Use of the Prussian Legation, and to regulate the future holding of the same. |
Citation | 13 & 14 Vict. c. 3 |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 15 July 1850 |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
From 1842, Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen leased 4 Carlton House Terrace for the Prussian Legation. [3] In March 1849, the legation moved along the terrace to the larger 9 Carlton House Terrace, which was renamed 'Prussia House'. It's purchase was authorised by the Prussian Legation Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 3): this was necessary as before the passing of the Naturalization Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 14), only British subjects could legally own property in England.
Count Bernstorff replaced Baron von Bunsen in 1855, becoming the German Ambassador from 1867.
During the First World War, the building was occupied by the American Embassy (as protecting power) between 1916-1917, and then the Swiss Legation from 1918 to 1920. In 1921 the German Embassy resumed occupation.
During Hans Wesemann's 1936 trial over the kidnapping of pacifist writer Berthold Jacob from Basel, Switzerland, Wesemann admitted that the German Embassy in London had been used as a base for the activities of the Gestapo, the Nazi secret State police. [4] In 1937, Ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop hosted 1,000 people, including Prince George, Duke of Kent and his wife, Maria, Duchess of Kent, at the reopening of the Embassy at Carlton House Terrace which had undergone a £100,000 renovation. [5] In September 1939, the German Embassy burned its files following the onset of World War II. [6]
Throughout the war, the closed embassy remained intact under diplomatic conventions. But after World War II, with Germany itself occupied and German government properties taken up by the occupiers, Prussia House was requisitioned as enemy property, furniture and the works of art were sold in separate auctions. The British Fascist Robert Gordon-Canning attracted public attention when at one of these auctions he purchased a large marble bust of Hitler for £500 (equivalent to £27,000 today). [7] .
The Federal Republic of Germany moved its consulate and diplomatic operations to Belgrave Square, still operating as a consulate general. The consulate became a fully functional embassy in June 1951, the FRG leasing the building for 99 years in 1953. In the 1960s, the West German Embassy was the site of Jewish War veterans who were protesting signs in Germany of a revival of anti-Semitism. [8]
In the 1970s, office space in the embassy was tight so an extension was erected at Chesham Place, inaugurated in 1978. It won the Westminster City Council prize for architecture.
In 1990, after German reunification, the East German embassy building at 34 Belgrave Square became part of the German embassy.
Ulrich Friedrich-Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945.
Konstantin Hermann Karl Freiherr von Neurath was a German diplomat and Nazi war criminal who served as Foreign Minister of Germany between 1932 and 1938.
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Carlton House Terrace is a street in the St James's district of the City of Westminster in London. Its principal architectural feature is a pair of terraces, the Western and Eastern terraces, of white stucco-faced houses on the south side of the street, which overlook The Mall and St. James's Park. These terraces were built on Crown land between 1827 and 1832 to overall designs by John Nash, but with detailed input by other architects including Decimus Burton. Construction was overseen by James Pennethorne. Both terrace blocks are Grade I listed buildings. A separate but linked cul de sac at the terrace's western end is named Carlton Gardens.
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