List of ambassadors of France to Germany

This list of ambassadors of France to Germany and precursors of the modern German state also includes top-ranking French diplomats in Germany who did not formally have the ambassador title.

Ambassadors to the Holy Roman Empire

This section is about France's envoys to the Perpetual Diet at Regensburg (1663–1806). For France's ambassadors to the Holy Roman Imperial Court, see list of ambassadors of France to Austria.

The former French Legation to the Perpetual Diet in Regensburg

• 1630–1633: François Leclerc du Tremblay^[1]
• 1653–1654: François Cazet de Vautorte
• 1658–1674: Robert de Gravel
• 1679–1688: Louis de Verjus
• 1716–1723: Jacques-Vincent Languet de Gergy
• 1726–1730: Théodore Chevignard de Chavigny
• 1741–1742: Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet de Belle-Isle
• 1763–1772: Louis-Gabriel Du Buat-Nançay
• 1775–1780: Marc Marie de Bombelles
• 1797–1799: Théobald Bacher

Ambassadors to the German Confederation

Ambassadors to the German Confederation, also accredited to the Free City of Frankfurt, include:

• 1818–1830: Charles-Frédéric Reinhard (1761–1837)
• 1830–1839: Jean Baptiste de Alleye de Ciprey (1784-184?)
• 1840–1842: Antoine Louis Deffaudis (1786–1869)
• 1842–1847: Justin de Chasseloup-Laubat (1800–1847)
• 1848–1855: Auguste Bonaventure de Tallenay (1795–1863)
• 1855–1858: Gustave de Montessuy
• 1858–1864: Alfred de Salignac-Fénelon (1810–1883)
• 1864–1866: Edmé de Reculot (1815–1891)

For partial lists, see footnote^[2] and.^[3]

Ambassadors to German states

France established permanent diplomatic missions to individual German states during the Thirty Years War or shortly thereafter, most notably Bavaria, Cologne, Prussia, Saxony and the free Hanseatic cities at Hamburg, all of which date from a time around the 1620s to 1640s.^[4]

Bavaria: French envoys to the Bavarian Court at Munich 1624–1626: Victor Claude Alexandre de Faneau 1626–1631: Henri de Gournay de Marcheville 1631–1632: Hercule de Charnacé 1679–1680: Charles Colbert de Croissy 1687–1688: Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars 1743–1745: Daniel François de Gélas de Lautrec 1745–1746: Théodore Chevignard de Chavigny 1746–1748: Armand de Vignerot du Plessis 1748–1755: François de Baschi 1755–1756: Hubert de Folard 1756–1757: Louis-Gabriel Du Buat-Nançay 1776–1776: François Barbé-Marbois 1777–1778: Anne-César de La Luzerne 1780–1789: Messire Louis de Montezan 1792–1792: Frédéric Flamen d'Assigny 1798–1799: Charles-Jean-Marie Alquier 1803–1809: Louis-Guillaume Otto 1810–1814: Louis de Narbonne-Lara 1814–1816: Jules de Polignac 1816–1820: Auguste Delagarde 1821–1826: Louis-Toussaint de la Moussaye 1827–1831: Marie-Théodore de Rumigny 1832–1833: Charles-Joseph Bresson 1833–1834: Alfred de Vaudreuil 1835–1849: Paul-Charles-Amable de Bourgoing 1850–1851: Édouard Thouvenel 1880–1882: Gustave Olivier Lannes de Montebello 1888–1896: Camille Barrère 1897–1904: Jules Henrys d'Aubigny 1904–1907: Alfred Chilhaud-Dumaine 1907–1909: Ernest René Joseph Adrien Bourgarel 1909–1914: Henri Allizé 1920–1924: Émile Dard 1924–1933: Charles François de Paule Lefèvre d'Ormesson 1933–1934: Aimé Leroy  Cologne: French envoys to the Cologne Court at Bonn 1758–1760: Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil  Hamburg: French envoys to Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg 1637–1642: Claude de Mesmes 1661–1675: Pierre Bidal d'Asfeld 1768–1770: Emmanuel Marie Louis de Noailles 1788–1790: Jean-François de Bourgoing 1795–1805: Charles-Frédéric Reinhard 1805–1810: Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne 1825–1829: Jean Baptiste Gaspard Roux de Rochelle

Prussia: French envoys to the Brandenburg-Prussian Court at Berlin 1614–1614: Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul 1655–1656: Antoine de Lumbres 1660–1661: Charles Colbert de Croissy 1661–1661: Hugues de Lionne 1679–1679: Simon Arnauld, Marquis de Pomponne 1715–1715: Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquess of Torcy 1732–1739: Jacques-Joachim Trotti, marquis de La Chétardie 1740–1748: Louis Guy Henri de Valori 1750–1752: Richard Francis Talbot 1756–1756: Louis Jules Mancini Mazarini 1768–1769: Adrien-Louis de Bonnières 1790–1791: Elénor-François-Elie, Comte de Moustier 1798–1799: Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès 1799–1800: Louis-Guillaume Otto 1800–1802: Pierre de Ruel, marquis de Beurnonville 1802–1804: Louis Pierre Édouard, Baron Bignon 1805–1806: Antoine de Laforêt 1799–1806: Géraud Duroc, special envoy 1808–1813: Antoine Marie Philippe Asinari de Saint-Marsan 1814–1816: Louis Charles Victor de Riquet de Caraman 1816–1821: Charles François, Marquis de Bonnay 1821–1822: François-René de Chateaubriand 1822–1824: Maximilien Gérard de Rayneval 1824–1825: Paul-Charles-Amable de Bourgoing 1825–1828: Emmanuel Louis Marie Guignard de Saint-Priest 1828–1831: Hector-Philippe, comte d'Agoult 1831–1831: Carel Hendrik Ver Huell 1831–1831: Charles, comte de Flahaut 1833–1834: Charles Joseph, comte Bresson 1843–1849: Napoléon-Hector Soult, marquis of Dalmatia 1849–1849: Jean Gilbert Victor Fialin, duc de Persigny 1849–1850: Emmanuel Arago 1850–1851: Alexandre, comte de Lurde 1851–1853: Armand Lefebvre 1853–1859: Lionel de Moustier 1859–1862: Godefroi de La Tour d'Auvergne-Lauraguais 1863–1864: Charles de Talleyrand-Périgord 1864–1870: Vincent Benedetti  Saxony: French envoys to the Saxon Court at Dresden 1815-1816: Joseph Fouché 1816-1817: Marc-René, count of Montalambert 1816, 1817-1818: Edouard Dillon 1818–1820: Victor de Fay de La Tour-Maubourg 1820–1827: Marie-Théodore de Rumigny 1827–1830: Georges de Riquet de Caraman 1830–1832: Charles-Frédéric Reinhard 1832–1835: Paul-Charles-Amable de Bourgoing

At the time of the German Confederation additional missions were opened in Baden, Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau and Württemberg.^[2][3] After disestablishment of the German Confederation and establishment of the North-German Confederation, France's mission at Berlin became France's principal mission to Germany.

Ambassadors to the German Empire and Germany (1871–1939)

Ambassador André François-Poncet with German field marshal Erhard Milch

For main sources for this section, see footnote^[5] and.^[6]

Start of term	End of term	Ambassador
1872	1877	Elie de Gontaut-Biron[7]
1877	1881	Raymond de Saint-Vallier
1881	1886	Alphonse Chodron de Courcel
1886	1896	Jules Gabriel Herbette
1896	1902	Emmanuel Henri Victurnien de Noailles
1902	1907	Georges Paul Louis Bihourd
1907	1914	Jules Cambon
1914	1920	Break in diplomatic relations during World War I and its aftermath
June 1920	December 1922	Charles François Laurent[8]
1922	1931	Pierre de Margerie
1931	1938	André François-Poncet
1938	1939	Robert Coulondre

Ambassadors to West Germany

For main sources for this section, see footnote^[9] and.^[10]

Diplomatic relations between France and Germany were cut following the invasion of Poland in 1939. France restored diplomatic relations with West Germany in 1949 and with East Germany in 1973.

Start of term	End of term	Ambassador
1949	1955	André François-Poncet (Allied High Commissioner from 1949 to 1955 and ambassador after August 1, 1955)
1955	1956	Louis Joxe
1956	1958	Maurice Couve de Murville
1958	1962	François Seydoux de Clausonne
1962	1965	Roland de Margerie
1965	1970	François Seydoux de Clausonne
1970	1974	Jean Sauvagnargues
1974	1977	Olivier Wormser
1977	1981	Jean-Pierre Brunet
1981	1983	Henri Froment-Meurice
1983	1986	Jacques Morizet
1986	1992	Serge Boidevaix (German reunification occurred in 1990)

Ambassadors to East Germany

For the main source for this section, see footnote^[9] and.^[10]

Diplomatic relations between France and Germany were cut following the invasion of Poland in 1939. France restored diplomatic relations with West Germany in 1949 and with East Germany in 1973.

Start of term	End of term	Ambassador (or diplomat of highest rank)
1973	1974	Jacques Jessel (Chargé d'Affaires)
1974	1976	Bernard Guillier de Chalvron
1976	1981	Henry Bayle
1981	1981	Xavier du Cauzé de Nazelle[11]
1981	1986	Maurice Deshors[12]
1986	1990 (German reunification)	Joëlle Timsit

Ambassadors to post-reunification Germany

For main sources for this section, see footnote^[9] and.^[10]

Start of term	End of term	Ambassador
1986	1992	Serge Boidevaix (German reunification occurred in 1990)
1992	1993	Bertrand Dufourcq
1993	1999	François Scheer
1999	2007	Claude Martin
2007	2011	Bernard de Montferrand
2011	2014	Maurice Gourdault-Montagne
2014	2017	Philippe Étienne
2017	2022	Anne-Marie Descôtes
2022		François Delattre[13]

See also

• France–Germany relations

References

1. Le Bas, Philippe (1844). France. Dictionnaire encyclopédique (in French). Paris: Firmin Didot frères. p. 893.
2. Count Guillaume de Garden (1861). Répertoire diplomatique: annales du droit des gens et de la politique extérieure (in French). J. Claye. pp. 45–46 (2nd volume).
3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (France) (1887). "X: Ambassadeurs, envoyés extraordinaires, etc de France à l'étranger de 1815 à 1855". Annuaire diplomatique et consulaire de la République Française (in French). Vol. 9. Paris, Imprimerie Nationale. p. 321.
4. Le Bas, Philippe (1844). France. Dictionnaire encyclopédique (in French). Paris: Firmin Didot frères.
5. Aballéa, Marion (2012). "Entre soumission politico-administrative et goût de l'initiative individuelle: les diplomates français en poste à Berlin de 1871 aux années 1930". L'Europe, nouvelles approches (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. pp. 9–28. ISBN 9782296966864. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
6. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (France). "La France en Allemagne. Hier - un peu d'histoire" (in French). French Embassy in Berlin. Archived from the original on 12 March 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
7. Resigned in December 1877.
8. • Joly, Hervé (2012), "Les dirigeants des grandes entreprises industrielles françaises au 20e siècle. Des notables aux gestionnaires", Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire (in French), 2 (114): 25, doi:10.3917/vin.114.0016, retrieved 2017-10-17
9. "Liste chronologique des représentants permanents de la France avec rang d'ambassadeur auprès de commissions, organisations et conférences internationales" (PDF) (in French). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (France). p. 37. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
10. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (France). "Ambassadeurs en Allemagne depuis 1955" (in French). French Embassy in Berlin. Retrieved 20 January 2013. Also available in German Archived 2015-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
11. "Décret du 5 janvier 1981" (in French). Journal officiel de la République française. 7 January 1981. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
12. "Décret du 9 septembre 1981" (in French). Journal officiel de la République française. 11 September 1981. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
13. Philippe Ricard (31 July 2022), Le chassé-croisé des ambassadeurs renouvelle la direction du ministère des affaires étrangères Le Monde.