(by Ludwig Biewer, Political Archive of the German Foreign Office)
Excellent report about the German Foreign Office
Effective as of 1 January 1870, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Prussia was transformed into the Foreign Office of the North German Confederation, and its budget passed from the budget of the Kingdom of Prussia to that of the North German Confederation. By decree of 8 January 1870, which entered into force on 10 January 1870, the chancellor of the North German Confederation, Otto von Bismarck, gave this new authority the name ”Foreign Office of the North German Confederation”. This name, presumably chosen in analogy to the British Foreign Office in London, was to make it clear that the authority was subordinate to the chancellor. The Prussian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, for its part, had been established in the course of the major Prussian reforms of 1808 and traced its origins to the Prussian Cabinet Ministry of 1728.
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