Embassy of the United Kingdom, Berlin

British Embassy, Berlin (Britische Botschaft, Berlin) is the United Kingdom's diplomatic mission to Germany. It is located on 70-71 Wilhelmstraße, near the Hotel Adlon. The current ambassador is Sir Sebastian Wood.Palais StrousbergBefore moving to the Wilhelmstraße the British mission used, among others, the Building Leipziger Platz 12 and the Dutch Palace (Niederländisches Palais), this from 1797 to 1803. The original building at 70 Wilhelmstraße, known as the Palais Strousberg and designed by August Orth, was built in 1868 by the railway magnate Bethel Henry Strousberg. In December 1884 the United Kingdom bought the site after renting it for some years after Strousberg's bankruptcy and the subsequent sale of the building to Hugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen in 1876. Wilhelmstraße was then a centre for the German government, being the location of the Imperial Chancellery and the Foreign Ministry.When diplomatic relations were broken off at the outbreak of World War I the building stood empty. Surviving a fire during the upheavals of the 1919 revolution, it was reoccupied in 1920 when Edgar Vincent d'Abernon became Ambassador. At the beginning of World War II relations were broken off again. The building was heavily damaged by Allied bombing during the war and was demolished in 1950. The title to the land nevertheless remained in the possession of the British state.