It was set up in April 1933 in the Hotel Adlon in Berlin immediately after the Nazi Machtergreifung ("Seizure of power").

It was one of the central authorities for the foreign policy of Nazi Germany, alongside the Foreign Office (AA) under the leadership of Neurath, the Nazi Party's Auslandsorganisation (NSDAP/AO) of Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, Joachim von Ribbentrop's special bureau (Dienststelle Ribbentrop) and part of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (RMVP) under Joseph Goebbels.

[2] The APA lost its political importance and function in July 1941 at the latest, when Rosenberg was appointed head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO).

In February 1943, the APA was shut down as part of the "total war effort" measures.

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