Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany)

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Head of the Federal Foreign Office in the Central European country

title: "Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["lists-of-government-ministers-of-germany", "ministers-for-foreign-affairs-of-germany", "1871-establishments-in-germany", "lists-of-ministers-of-foreign-affairs"] description: "Head of the Federal Foreign Office in the Central European country" topic_path: "geography/germany" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_for_Foreign_Affairs_(Germany)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Head of the Federal Foreign Office in the Central European country ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox political post"]

Field	Value
post	Germany
Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs
native_name
insignia	Bundesadler Bundesorgane.svgclass=skin-invert
insigniasize	80px
department	Federal Foreign Office
image	Wadephul, Johann-1249.jpg
incumbent	Johann Wadephul
incumbentsince	6 May 2025
formation	21 March 1871
first	Hermann von Thile
website	auswärtiges-amt.de
::

| post = Germany Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs | native_name = | insignia = Bundesadler Bundesorgane.svgclass=skin-invert | insigniasize = 80px | insigniacaption = | department = Federal Foreign Office | image = Wadephul, Johann-1249.jpg | alt = | incumbent = Johann Wadephul | incumbentsince = 6 May 2025 | formation = 21 March 1871 | first = Hermann von Thile | last = | website = auswärtiges-amt.de The federal minister for foreign affairs () is the head of the Federal Foreign Office and a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The current office holder is Johann Wadephul. Since 1966, the minister for foreign affairs has often also simultaneously held the office of vice-chancellor of Germany.

History of the office

The Foreign Office was established within the North German Confederation in 1870 and its head, first appointed in 1871, had the rank of secretary of state. As the German constitution of 1871 installed the chancellor as the sole responsible government minister and since the Chancellor generally also held the position of foreign minister of Prussia, the secretary of state fulfilled a more subject role as an assistant to the chancellor, acting largely to draft correspondence rather than to actually direct the formation of foreign policy. This was especially true during the chancellorships of Otto von Bismarck (1871–1890) and Bernhard von Bülow (1900–1909), both of whom had considerable prior experience with foreign affairs, while secretaries at other times wielded more influence over the foreign policy.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1989-040-27,_Gustav_Stresemann.jpg" caption="[[Gustav Stresemann]], one of Germany's most influential Foreign Ministers and a 1926 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] laureate"] ::

In 1919, the Weimar Republic elevated the head of the foreign office to the position of foreign minister responsible for his department. As governments were now formed by parties entering coalitions with each other, individual ministers also gained independence towards from the chancellor.

After a succession of short-lived ministers, Gustav Stresemann, leader of the small National-liberal German People's Party, held the office of foreign minister in successive cabinets from 1923 to his death in 1929. His long term gave stability to Germany's foreign policy and improved the minister's position towards the relatively weak and short-lived chancellors. Stresemann was awarded the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize for his work for reconciliation between Germany and France.

The foreign office remained relatively unaffected by the establishment of the Nazi regime in 1933, as minister Konstantin von Neurath, appointed in 1932, remained in office until 1938; however, the office was increasingly marginalised in actual policy-making and with the replacement of Neurath by Ribbentrop lost any independent standing.

After World War II, two separate German states emerged in 1949, the democratic Federal Republic of Germany in the West and the communist-ruled German Democratic Republic in the East. While the Soviet Union ostensibly restored political sovereignty to its satellite and allowed for a Foreign Ministry of the GDR, West Germany's sovereignty was officially curtailed by the Western powers, especially in the field of foreign policy. In 1951 the Foreign Office was reestablished in West Germany, but Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was required to hold the office of Foreign Minister until the Western powers restored sovereignty to West Germany in 1955. Then, Heinrich von Brentano di Tremezzo succeeded as foreign minister in 1955. In 1990, the GDR ceased to exist as a separate state and its territory was reunited with West Germany.

From the 1966 Grand Coalition government of Kurt Georg Kiesinger onwards, the office has been held by a member of the smaller partner in coalitions. Therefore, the foreign minister also mostly holds the office of vice chancellor of Germany, although this has become less common in recent years – neither of the two most recent foreign ministers, Heiko Maas and Annalena Baerbock, have been vice chancellor, with the vice chancellorship being held by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz during Maas' tenure, and by Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck during Baerbock's.

List of officeholders

German Reich (1871–1945)

; State secretaries for foreign affairs (1871–1919) ::data[format=table] | Name (Birth–Death) | Portrait | Term of office | Chancellor | German Empire (1871–1918) | Weimar Republic (1918–1919) | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Hermann von Thile (1812–1889) | [[File:Hermann von Thiele a 001.jpg|100px]] | 21 March 1871 | 30 September 1872 | Bismarck | | | Hermann Ludwig von Balan (1812–1874) | [[File:Hermann Ludwig von Balan.jpg|100px]] | 3 October 1872 | 9 October 1873 | | | | Bernhard Ernst von Bülow (1815–1879) | [[File:Bernhard Ernst von Bülow.JPG|100px]] | 9 October 1873 | 20 October 1879 | | | | Joseph Maria von Radowitz Jr. (1839–1912) | [[File:Joseph Maria von Radowitz, de Christian Franzen.jpg|100px]] | 6 November 1879 | 17 April 1880 | | | | Chlodwig Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst (1819–1901) | [[File:Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst - Die Gartenlaube (1894) 773.jpg|100px]] | 20 April 1880 | 1 September 1880 | | | | Friedrich Graf zu Limburg-Stirum (1835–1912) | [[File:Friedrich zu Limburg-Stirum, German diplomat (1835-1912).jpg|100px]] | 1 September 1880 | 25 June 1881 | | | | Clemens Busch (1834–1895) | [[File:Clemens Busch, German diplomat (1834-1895).jpg|100px]] | 25 June 1881 | 16 July 1881 | | | | Paul Graf von Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg (1831–1901) | [[File:Count Paul von Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg.jpg|100px]] | 16 July 1881 | 24 October 1885 | | | | Herbert Fürst von Bismarck (1849–1904) | [[File:Herbert von Bismarck (C.W.Allers, 1892).jpg|100px]] | 24 October 1885 | 26 March 1890 | Bismarck Caprivi | | | Adolf Freiherr Marschall von Bieberstein (1842–1912) | [[File:Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein.jpg|100px]] | 31 March 1890 | 19 October 1897 | Caprivi Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst | | | Bernhard Graf von Bülow (1849–1929) | [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2004-0098A, Bernhard von Bülow.jpg|100px]] | 20 October 1897 | 23 October 1900 | Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst Bülow | | | Oswald Freiherr von Richthofen (1847–1906) | [[File:Oswald von Richthofen.jpg|100px]] | 23 October 1900 | 17 January 1906 | Bülow | | | Heinrich Leonhard von Tschirschky und Bögendorff (1858–1916) | [[File:Heinrich Leonhard von Tschirschky LOC 01127u.jpg|100px]] | 24 January 1906 | 25 October 1907 | | | | Wilhelm Freiherr von Schoen (1851–1933) | [[File:Paris, Baron Von Schon, German Amb. (LOC).jpg|100px]] | 26 October 1907 | 27 June 1910 | Bülow Bethmann Hollweg | | | Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter (1852–1912) | [[File:Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter (cropped).jpg|100px]] | 27 June 1910 | 30 December 1912 | Bethmann Hollweg | | | Gottlieb von Jagow (1863–1935) | [[File:Gottlieb von Jagow circa 1915 (cropped).jpg|100px]] | 11 January 1913 | 22 November 1916 | | | | Arthur Zimmermann (1864–1940) | [[File:Arthur Zimmermann.png|100px]] | 22 November 1916 | 6 August 1917 | Bethmann Hollweg Michaelis | | | Richard von Kühlmann (1873–1948) | [[File:Richard von Kühlmann cph,3b32192.jpg|100px]] | 6 August 1917 | 9 July 1918 | Michaelis Hertling (I) | | | Paul von Hintze (1864–1941) | [[File:Paul von Hintze 1915.jpg|100px]] | 9 July 1918 | 3 October 1918 | Hertling (I) | | | Wilhelm Solf (1862–1936) | [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R73059, Wilhelm Solf.jpg|100px]] | 3 October 1918 | 9 November 1918 | Baden (I) | | | Wilhelm Solf (1862–1936) | [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R73059, Wilhelm Solf.jpg|100px]] | 9 November 1918 | 13 December 1918 | Ebert (Council of the People's Deputies) | | | Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau (1869–1928) | [[File:Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau.jpg|100px]] | 13 December 1918 | 13 February 1919 | | | ::

; Ministers of foreign affairs (1919–1945) Political Party:

German Democratic Republic (1949–1990)

; Ministers of foreign affairs Political Party:

Federal Republic of Germany (1949–present)

; Ministers of foreign affairs, since 1951 Political Party:

References

Wright, Jonathan, ''Gustav Stresemann: Weimar's Greatest Statesman'' (2002)
"Federal Foreign OfficeThe History".

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