German Embassy to the Holy See

Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Holy See
State level	bilateral
Position of the authority	Embassy
Supervisory authority (s)	Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Consist	since May 1, 1920
Headquarters	Rome
Authority management	Michael Koch , Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Website	heiliger-stuhl.diplo.de

The German Embassy at the Holy See maintains diplomatic relations between Germany and the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta .

Special features of diplomatic relations

→ Main article : Relations between Germany and the Holy See

The object of the relationship is not the State of Vatican City , but the Holy See as head of the universal Catholic Church. As the Pope's subject under international law, the latter is a “non-state sovereign power” since it represents not only the interests of the Vatican State , but the entire Roman Catholic Church .

Another special feature of the German Embassy to the Holy See is a firm belonging to the staff consultative minister counselor . He advises the ambassador on church affairs, maintains close relationships with the Curia and is sent on the proposal of the German Bishops' Conference .

For a long time Germany only had "official" relations with the Sovereign Order of Malta , a non-state subject under international law such as the Holy See. In November 2017, Germany and the Order of Malta established full diplomatic relations, the maintenance of which is the responsibility of the German Embassy to the Holy See.

history

The first permanent diplomatic missions of German states existed at the beginning of the 16th century. The emperor had accredited an ambassador to the Holy See until 1806. Bavaria had been represented in the Papal States since the beginning of the 17th century and Prussia since 1747 . Eminent scholars from Prussian ambassadors were repeated, including Wilhelm von Humboldt , Barthold Niebuhr and Christian von Bunsen . The Prussian legation was instrumental in founding the German Archaeological Institute in 1829, which was initially also located in the legation on the Capitol in Palazzo Caffarelli .

After the founding of the German Empire in 1871, the Curia Cardinal Gustav Adolf zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst was named for the office of Imperial Ambassador to the Holy See. Pius IX however, because of his attitude during the First Vatican Council, refused him accreditation, which led to serious diplomatic resentment ( Bismarck in the Reichstag on May 14, 1872: “ We are not going to Canossa ”). The post of Reich envoy was abolished in 1874, the individual representations of the member states continued to exist.

During the First World War , the Prussian legation and the Bavarian envoy left Rome. They stayed in Lugano, Switzerland , until the beginning of 1919 . On May 1, 1920 the Prussian embassy was converted to the embassy of the German Reich and Prussia's relations with the Holy See were terminated. At the same time a nunciature was opened in Berlin.

When the federal states were dissolved by the Nazi regime in 1934, the Bavarian representation at the Holy See was also closed and the double accreditation of the German ambassador as Prussian envoy ended. After the Allied invasion of Rome in June 1944, the ambassador and a colleague moved with their families to the neutral Vatican, the other employees were interned in Taormina .

Diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Holy See were established in 1954.

ambassador

The ambassador post is one of the most highly endowed (salary group 9 of salary order B ) and is therefore equal to those at the German embassies in Washington , Paris , London and Moscow . The composition of the ambassador to the Holy See occasionally deviated from the practice in Germany that as a rule no previous politicians are appointed as ambassadors. Examples are the former President of the Bundestag Philipp Jenninger and the former Minister Annette Schavan , who both became ambassadors to the Holy See. In July 2014, Schavan, the first woman to be appointed to this post, was also accredited by the Order of Malta in April 2018. Michael Koch has been the acting ambassador since August 2018 . There were both Catholic and Protestant German ambassadors to the Holy See.

List of German ambassadors to the Holy See

/ / German Empire
Diego from Bergen		1920-1943	evangelical
Ernst von Weizsäcker		1943-1945	evangelical
BR Germany
Wolfgang Jaenicke		1954-1957	evangelical
Rudolf Graf Strachwitz		1957-1961	Roman Catholic
Hilger van Scherpenberg		1961-1964	evangelical
Josef Jansen		1964-1966	Roman Catholic
Dieter Sattler		1966-1968	Roman Catholic
Hans Wolf Jaeschke Chargé d'Affaires (interim)		1968-1969
Hans Berger		1969-1971	Roman Catholic
Alexander Böker		1971-1977	evangelical
Walter Gehlhoff		1977-1984	evangelical
Peter Hermes		1984-1987	Roman Catholic
Paul Verbeek		1987-1990	Roman Catholic
Hans-Joachim Hallier		1991-1995	Roman Catholic
Philipp Jenninger		1995-1997	Roman Catholic
Jürgen Oesterhelt		1997-2000	evangelical
Theodor Wallau		2000-2002	Roman Catholic
Gerd Westdickenberg		2002-2006	Roman Catholic
Hans-Henning Horstmann		2006-2010	evangelical
Walter Jürgen Schmid		2010-2011	evangelical
Reinhard Schweppe		2011-2014	evangelical
Annette Schavan		2014-2018	Roman Catholic
Michael Koch		since August 2018	Roman Catholic

building

The embassy building is located in the Roman district of Parioli , north of the historic old town. The ambassador's residence and the office building were planned by the Munich architect Alexander von Branca and built between 1979 and 1984.

See also

• Apostolic Nunciature in Berlin
• German Embassy Rome

literature

• Michael F. Feldkamp : Catholic or Protestant? The dispute over the denomination of the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Holy See 1949 to 1954 , in: Ders .: Reichskirche und political Catholicism. Essays on church history and church legal history of modern times (= Propylaea of ​​the Christian Occident, Volume 3), Patrimonium-Verlag, Aachen 2019, pp. 153-174 ISBN 978-3-86417-120-8 .
• Jobst Knigge: The Ambassador and the Pope - Weizsäcker and Pius XII. The German Vatican Embassy 1943–1945. Series of publications Studies on Contemporary History, Volume 69, Kovač, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8300-3467-4 .

Web links

• Website of the German Embassy at the Holy See
• The Diplomatic Corps at the Holy See

Individual evidence

1. ↑ CV on heiliger-stuhl.diplo.de
2. ↑ Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Holy See: Contact for Church and Theology. German Embassy to the Holy See, accessed on July 27, 2018 : “Msgr. Oliver Lahl, Spiritual Counselor " 
3. ↑ ^{a b} A deserved office . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. February 3, 2014. Accessed July 31, 2014.

Coordinates: 41 ° 55 ′ 13.8 ″  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 6.5 ″  E