The ambassador of Russia to Germany is the official representative of the president and the government of the Russian Federation to the president and the government of Germany.
The ambassador and his staff work at large in the embassy of Russia in Berlin. There is a consulate-general in Bonn. The current Russian ambassador to Germany is , incumbent since 10 January 2018.
History
Diplomatic relations between the forerunners of the modern states of Germany and Russia date back to the early eighteenth century. The Tsardom of Russia, and following its formation in 1721, the Russian Empire, opened up diplomatic relations with many of the historic Germanic states. With the formation of the German Empire in 1871, primarily under the auspicies of Prussia and under Kaiser Wilhelm I, the Russian envoy to Prussia, Pavel Ubri, was appointed the ambassador to the united German Empire. Representation to many of the constituent Germanic states that joined the German Empire continued, with representatives often having the title of envoy or resident minister. With the outbreak of the First World War, which pitted the Russian and German empires against each other, representation to these states, and to the German Empire as a whole, was broken off.
The February Revolution in 1917 overthrew the Imperial monarchy, bringing the Russian Provisional Government to power, which continued the war with Germany. The Provisional Government was itself overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution that year, subsequently establishing the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Negotiations were opened with Germany with a view to ending the war between the two countries, resulting in a commission led by Adolph Joffe which negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and Russia's withdrawal from the war in 1918. Joffe was then appointed diplomatic representative to Germany, until 5 November 1918, shortly before the end of the First World War, when he and his embassy were expelled for their agitation and support for the German revolution that was beginning to sweep the country.
Relations between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and what informally was the Weimar Republic, following the fall of the German Empire in 1918, were restored on 16 April 1922. Nikolay Krestinsky was appointed diplomatic representative on 20 June 1922, at first representing the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and then from 23 July 1923, the newly-formed Soviet Union. Representation continued throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including during Adolf Hitler's rise to power and the establishment of the fascist government rule of Nazi Germany from 1933 onwards. Representation was briefly upgraded to ambassadorial exchanges on 9 May 1941, during the incumbency of Vladimir Dekanozov, but on 22 June 1941, Axis forces launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, and diplomatic relations were broken off.
With the end of the war in 1945, allied forces occupied Germany, with Soviet forces present in large parts of Eastern Germany, which fell under the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, agreed under the terms of the Potsdam Agreement. Relations deteriorated between the allied powers, and on 7 October 1949, the German Democratic Republic was declared in the region of the Soviet occupation zone. It was a communist state, heavily influenced and supported by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union soon established official diplomatic relations with this new state, on 15 October 1949, with Georgy Pushkin appointed envoy on 16 October that year. Relations were upgraded to embassy level on 19 September 1953, and thereafter representatives had the title of ambassador. The Soviet Union was slower to establish relations with the state established in the other allied-occupied areas in 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany, but agreed to open relations on 13 September 1955, with the first ambassador Valerian Zorin, appointed on 27 November 1955. The Soviet Union continued to appoint representatives to both nations throughout most of the twentieth century.
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, reforms and reorientation of foreign policy in the Soviet Union had begun to lead to the disintegration of both the Warsaw Pact alliances and the Soviet Union itself. The push for German reunification began to gather pace in 1989, and eventually culminated in the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and its constituent territory being unified with the Federal Republic of Germany. The incumbent ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, , was now the representative to a united Germany. The collapse of communist governments in Eastern Europe presaged the fall of the dominance of the Soviet communist party, and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Terekhov continued in post as ambassador of Russia to Germany until 1997.
At its height, the Russian Federation maintained its embassy in Berlin, as well as consulates-general in Bonn, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, and Munich. Following the deterioration of relations in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia reduced the number of German diplomats allowed in Russia. Germany responded with a similar enforced reduction in Russian personal operating in Germany, and ordering the closure of four of the five consulates. The Russian foreign ministry decided to retain the consulate-general in Bonn, while the remaining four were closed.
List of representatives to Germany (1871-present) Russian Empire to the German Empire (1871-1914) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesPavel UbriEnvoy until 7 December 1871Ambassador after 7 December 187118 January 1871 22 December 1879Peter SaburovAmbassador22 December 18798 February 1884 Nikolay Orlov Ambassador8 February 1884 17 March 1885Pavel ShuvalovAmbassador1 April 1885 13 December 1894 Aleksey Lobanov-RostovskyAmbassador6 January 189526 February 1895Ambassador10 March 18959 May 1912 Ambassador1912 1 August 1914
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to Germany (1918-1923) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesAdolph JoffeDiplomatic representativeMarch 19185 November 1918Credentials presented on 20 April 1918Nikolay KrestinskyDiplomatic representative20 June 192223 July 1923 Credentials presented on 8 July 1922
Soviet Union to Germany (1923—1941) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesNikolay KrestinskyDiplomatic representative23 July 192326 September 1930Lev KhinchukDiplomatic representative26 September 193020 September 1934Credentials presented on 9 December 1930Jakob SuritzDiplomatic representative20 September 19347 April 1937Credentials presented on 26 October 1934Konstantin YurenevDiplomatic representative16 June 193711 October 1937Credentials presented on 21 July 1937Georgy AstakhovChargé d'affaires19371938Diplomatic representative6 May 19382 September 1939 Credentials presented on 13 July 1938Diplomatic representative2 September 1939 26 November 1940Credentials presented on 3 September 1939Vladimir DekanozovDiplomatic representative until 9 May 1941Ambassador after 9 May 194126 November 194022 June 1941Credentials presented on 19 December 1940 Operation Barbarossa and the Great Patriotic War - Diplomatic relations interrupted (1941-1949)
Soviet Union to the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesGeorgy PushkinEnvoy16 October 194926 May 1952 Credentials presented on 4 November 1949Ivan IlyichevEnvoy1 June 195229 May 1953 Credentials presented on 5 June 1952 Vladimir SemyonovEnvoy until 19 September 1953Ambassador after 19 September 195329 May 1953 17 July 1954Credentials presented on 1 October 1953 Georgy PushkinAmbassador17 July 195421 February 1958 Credentials presented on 28 July 1954 Mikhail PervukhinAmbassador21 February 1958 15 December 1962Credentials presented on 14 March 1958Pyotr AbrasimovAmbassador15 December 196218 September 1971Credentials presented on 17 December 1962Mikhail YefremovAmbassador30 October 19717 March 1975 Credentials presented on 30 October 1971Pyotr AbrasimovAmbassador7 March 1975 12 June 1983Credentials presented on 15 March 1975Vyacheslav KochemasovAmbassador12 June 198324 May 1990Credentials presented on 11 August 1983Gennady ShikinAmbassador24 May 19903 October 1990
Soviet Union to the Federal Republic of Germany (1955-1991) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesValerian ZorinAmbassador27 November 1955 14 October 1956Credentials presented on 7 January 1956Andrey SmirnovAmbassador14 October 195619 May 1966Credentials presented on 3 November 1956Semyon TsarapkinAmbassador25 May 196623 February 1971Credentials presented on 12 July 1966 Valentin FalinAmbassador23 February 197110 November 1978Credentials presented on 12 May 1971 Vladimir SemyonovAmbassador10 November 1978 15 April 1986Credentials presented on 21 November 1978 Ambassador15 April 198624 April 1990Ambassador24 April 199025 December 1991
Russian Federation to Germany (1991-present) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesAmbassador25 December 19913 September 1997Ambassador3 September 199725 February 2004Ambassador5 April 200421 June 2010Vladimir GrininAmbassador21 June 201010 January 2018Ambassador10 January 2018
Previous German states NameEstablishmentTerminationNotesTo the Imperial Diet1757 1799To the German Confederation1744 1866180319141785 191417091866183919141709 191418291914To Prussia1701187118471914181519141744191418001914
Notes
References