Phone +43 1 313390 | Ambassador Alexa L. Wesner | |
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Location Boltzmanngasse 16
Vienna, Austria Opened June 30, 1947; 69 years ago (1947-06-30) Address Boltzmanngasse 16, 1090 Wien, Austria Hours Closed now Thursday8:30AM–4:30PMFriday8:30AM–4:30PMSaturdayClosedSundayClosedMonday8:30AM–4:30PMTuesday8:30AM–4:30PMWednesday8:30AM–4:30PM Profiles | ||
The Embassy of the United States of America in Vienna is the main United States diplomatic mission to Austria. Since 1947 the embassy building is located on Boltzmanngasse 16, in the Alsergrund district of Vienna.
History
The United States first established diplomatic relations with Austria when Henry A. P. Muhlenberg was appointed first U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Austrian Empire on 8 February 1838. When according to the Compromise of 1867 the empire became the union of Austria-Hungary, the Ministers were so commissioned. The legation officially was elevated to the status of an embassy on 17 May 1902, with Robert Sanderson McCormick as first U.S. Ambassador.
When upon the American entry into World War I the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Austria-Hungary in April 1917, Spain handled the representation of U.S. interests in Vienna for the duration of the war. In 1921 the U.S. diplomatic mission reopened as a legation.
The Neo-baroque embassy building at Boltzmanngasse 16 was constructed from 1902 to 1904 according to plans designed by architect Ludwig Baumann, then as the new location of the K.k. Academy for Oriental Languages established in 1754 (the precursor of the present-day Diplomatic Academy of Vienna). The studying conditions were severely restricted after the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany and the building was temporarily used as a Wehrmacht military hospital. At the conclusion of World War II, U.S. occupation troops seized the building until 1946.
The U.S. Government finally purchased the building on 30 June 1947, at the intercession of Eleanor Lansing Dulles and with the consent of the Austrian National Council. The U.S. Mission in Austria held the status of a legation from 1947 until 1951, when it officially became an embassy, with Walter J. Donnelly as the first U.S. ambassador to serve in Vienna since Frederic Courtland Penfield departed in World War I.
The current United States Ambassador to Austria is Alexa L. Wesner, who presented her credentials to the Austrian president Heinz Fischer on 22 October 2013.