Its chancery, designed by Egon Eiermann and opened in 1964, is located in northwest Washington, D.C. As of August 2023, the German ambassador to the United States is Andreas Michaelis.

That building, constructed in 1873 as a private residence on a design by Adolf Cluss, was subsequently expanded to include 70 rooms, and would be occupied by Germany – with wartime interruptions – for nearly 50 years.

[5] During the years prior to American entry into World War I, Franz von Papen was posted at the embassy as a military attache, though was ultimately declared persona non grata by the U.S. government as a result of suspected espionage.

[6][7][8] Following the conclusion of World War I, in 1921, Germany reestablished diplomatic relations with the United States and the German embassy reoccupied its former chancery.

[11] A serious diplomatic incident occurred in January 1941 when U.S. Navy sailors Edward Lackey and Harold Sturtevant, both on leave from the psychiatric ward of the Navy's Mare Island Hospital where they had been treated for sleep walking, scaled a fire escape, tore down the flag from the German consulate in San Francisco and destroyed it.

The two sailors were briefly jailed and dismissed from military service, though following the onset of war with Germany they were pardoned and allowed to reenlist.

The chancery of the embassy was surrendered by Switzerland to the United States government as trustee of the Allied Control Council that month.

United States Senator William Langer opposed the sale, saying the site should be held in trust by the U.S. government for the future use of Germany.

Although the FRG agreed to assume all debts and obligations of the former East Germany, the landlord's attorney later wrote that "without disclosing any confidences, I can say that our client did not necessarily find the Federal Republic and its embassy entirely consistent in its public and private positions".

[30] Germany maintains consulates general in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco.