The Embassy of the United States of America in Berlin is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in the Federal Republic of Germany. It started in 1797, with the appointment of John Quincy Adams to Berlin, the capital of Prussia. There was no permanent building for the embassy until 1930, with the purchase of the Blücher Palace. During the United States involvement in World War II, the embassy ceased operations.
During the Cold War, the United States had two embassies: one in Bonn, the capital of West Germany, and one in East Berlin, the capital of East Germany. In 1999, the embassy would fully be moved back to Berlin, and as of September 2021, it is located at the Pariser Platz.
The U.S. Embassy in Berlin probably began with the 1797 appointment of John Quincy Adams to the then capital of Prussia, Berlin. At the time these missions in Berlin, Prussia were called legations, and there were other American legations in other parts of what would later become a unified German state. There were breaks in these formative years of German-American diplomatic relations where there was no official American diplomatic presence in Berlin. After the late 19th century the term embassy would be used to describe the American mission to the new unified German empire. There was also a break in relations with Germany during World War I. In these early years the embassy (or legation) of the U.S. in Berlin changed as frequently as a new ambassador changed his residence, the two being the same. The last temporary embassy location was on Bendlerstraße (Berlin) 39 (now Stauffenbergstraße), close to the Tiergarten.
In 1930 the Blücher Palace, located on Pariser Platz, was purchased as a new and permanent home for the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. There was a fire in the Blücher Palace on April 15, 1931 before it could be fully utilized and converted for embassy use. Money shortages in America, due to the Depression, plus soured relations with the Nazi regime (after 1933) further delayed the refurbishing of the damaged building.
