The Consul-General of Germany in Shanghai (previously known as the Consul) is the Federal Republic of Germany's diplomatic representative within the city of Shanghai in the People's Republic of China. The consulate was first established as an office of the North German Confederation in 1869 and became the consulate of the German Empire on its formation in 1871. The present Consulate has existed since 1982 at Yongfu lu 181, with the Consul-General's residence in the same street at no. 151.
Consulate history German contacts in China had been much earlier however, with the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Customs Union sending Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg and a diplomatic expedition to the Far East between 1859 and 1862, visiting China, Japan and Siam. On 2 September 1861, Eulenberg concluded a Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Treaty between Prussia and the States of the German Customs Union and China, effectively establishing for German citizens the same extraterritorial rights enjoyed by the other major powers.
With China's ratification of the treaty in 1863, the German states were accorded the right to establish consulates in China, although Prussia had already established one such consulate in the Shanghai International Settlement in 1862. C.W. Overweg served as the first Prussian Consul and the Free City of Hamburg had also established a consulate in Shanghai at that time. The consulate was first established as an office of the North German Confederation in 1869. Originally only titled as a 'Consul', on 12 November 1877 the serving German Consul in Shanghai, Carl Friedrich Conrad Lueder, was upgraded to the status of Consul-General.
When China entered the First World War on the Allied side in 1917, China broke off diplomatic relations between Germany and German interests were thereafter managed by the Netherlands as the Protecting power. The Consulate-General in Shanghai was reestablished in 1921, following the separate peace treaty with China. This consulate was closed following the outbreak of the Second Sino Japanese War as Nazi Germany was an ally of Japan, and withdrew recognition of the Nationalist Government. In 1941 Germany appointed a new Consul-General in Shanghai dealing with relations with the Japanese puppet Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, which operated until the end of World War II. The current Consulate-General to the People's Republic of China in Shanghai has been operating since 15 October 1982 and is located in the former French Concession at no. 181 Yongfu lu (formerly known as "Rue du Pere Huc"), with the Consul-General's residence in the same street at no. 151. The residence and consulate are historic listed buildings in the Spanish Mission Style of the 1920s-30s.
List of Consuls-General Consuls, 1869–1877 NameTenure BeginTenure EndNotesWalter Georg Alfred Annecke18691875Consul for the North German Confederation from 1869 to 1871.Carl Friedrich Conrad Lueder21 October 187512 November 1877
Consuls-General, 1877–1945 NameTenure BeginTenure EndNotesCarl Friedrich Conrad Lueder12 November 18771879Johann Heinrich Focke18791884Johannes Lührsen18841888Otto von Strübel18881899Wilhelm Knappe18991906Paul von BuriOctober 1906February 1913Hubert KnippingFebruary 19131917Relations suspended due to China's entry into First World War.Fritz August Thiel19211929Heinrich Rüdt von Collenberg19291933Hermann Kriebel19331937German relations severed after outbreak of Second Sino-Japanese War.Martin Fischer19411945
Consuls-General, 1982–present NameTenure BeginTenure EndNotesWerner Handke15 October 19821985Hannelore Theodor19851991Helmut Arndt19911994Rolf-Rüdiger Zirpel19951998Kurt Leonberger19982002Wolfgang Röhr20022007Albrecht von der Heyden20072010Wolfgang Röhr20102014Peter RothenSeptember 2014July 2017Christine D. Althauser August 2017 2024Norbert Riedel 2024
References
External links Generalkonsulat Shanghai