The United States first established diplomatic relations with Austria when
Henry A. P. Muhlenberg was appointed first U.S.
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the
Austrian Empire on February 8, 1838. When according to the
Compromise of 1867 the empire became the union of
Austria-Hungary, the Ministers were so commissioned. The legation officially was elevated to the status of an
embassy on May 14, 1902, with
Robert Sanderson McCormick as first
U.S. Ambassador. When upon the
American entry into World War I the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Austria-Hungary in April 1917,
Spain handled the representation of U.S. interests in Vienna for the duration of the war. In 1921 the U.S. diplomatic mission reopened as a
legation. The
Neo-baroque embassy building at Boltzmanngasse 16 was constructed from 1902 to 1904 according to plans designed by architect
Ludwig Baumann. It was originally built as the new location of the
K.k. Akademie für Orientalische Sprachen, which had been established in 1754 (the precursor of the present-day
Diplomatic Academy of Vienna). The studying conditions were severely restricted after the Austrian
Anschluss to
Nazi Germany, and the building was temporarily used as a
Wehrmacht military hospital. At the conclusion of
World War II, U.S.
occupation troops seized the building until 1946. The U.S. Government finally purchased the building on June 30, 1947, at the intercession of
Eleanor Lansing Dulles and with the consent of the Austrian
National Council. The U.S. Mission in Austria held the status of a legation from 1947 until 1951, when it officially became an embassy, with
Walter J. Donnelly as the first U.S. ambassador to serve in Vienna since
Frederic Courtland Penfield departed in World War I. The current representative of the United States in Austria is
Chargé d‘Affaires a.i. Kami A. Witmer. == See also ==