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List of ambassadors of the United States to Germany

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Ambassador of the United States to Germany
Botschafter der Vereinigten Staaten in Deutschland
Seal of the United States Department of State
Incumbent
Alan Meltzer
Chargé d'Affairs ad interim
since July 26, 2024[1]
NominatorThe President of the United States
AppointerThe President
with Senate advice and consent
Inaugural holderJohn Quincy Adams (as Minister)
Formation1797
WebsiteU.S. Embassy – Berlin

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.

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

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This 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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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 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)

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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 June 29, 1925 January 21, 1930
Frederic M. Sackett, Ambassador February 12, 1930 March 24, 1933
William E. Dodd, Ambassador 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)

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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 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 October 31, 1994 June 17, 1996
James D. Bindenagel, Chargé d'Affaires 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)

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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 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

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• Prussia-United States relations

References

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  1. ^ "Alan Meltzer, new Chargé d'Affaires". July 26, 2024.
  2. ^ Zengerle, Patricia (February 8, 2022). "U.S. Senate votes to confirm Biden's ambassador to Germany". Reuters. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
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