Headquarters of the Federal Intelligence Service

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Headquarters of the Federal Intelligence Service
Zentrale des Bundesnachrichtendienstes
View of building entrance from Chausseestraße
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Office
Architectural style	International Style
Address	Chausseestraße 96, Mitte, 10115
Town or city	Berlin
Country	Germany
Coordinates	52°32′02″N 13°22′36″E / 52.533889°N 13.376667°E / 52.533889; 13.376667
Current tenants	Federal Intelligence Service (BND)
Construction started	2006
Topped-out	March 2010
Completed	November 2016
Opened	2017
Cost	€1.086 billion
Client	Institute for Federal Real Estate
Owner	Germany
Technical details
Floor count	Nine stories above ground
Floor area	260,000 square metres (2,800,000 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Jan Kleihues
Architecture firm	Kleihues + Kleihues
Other information
Number of rooms	5,000+
Public transit access	Schwartzkopffstraße

The Headquarters of the Federal Intelligence Service or the BND Headquarters (German: Zentrale des Bundesnachrichtendienstes, colloquially the BND-Zentrale) is the headquarters of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) of Germany, and is located at the Chausseestraße in the Mitte district in the centre of Berlin. It is also known colloquially by the metonym Chausseestraße. The building that houses its headquarters is the world's largest intelligence building, somewhat larger than the CIA headquarters at Langley.^[1]

History

The complex was designed by the architect firm Kleihues + Kleihues. Construction started in 2006 and was completed in 2017. With 260,000 m² (2.8 million ft²), it is the world's largest intelligence headquarters, somewhat bigger than the CIA headquarters at Langley, and around 4,000 people work there. It is also Berlin's second largest building, after Berlin Tempelhof Airport.^[2] The first employees moved into the new complex in late 2017; the relocation from the former headquarters in Pullach was completed in the autumn of 2018.^[3]

The headquarters is located near the former trace of the Berlin Wall, on the eastern side, some 350 meters (1150 ft) from the canal which marked the border to West Berlin during the Cold War, and directly adjacent to the former Chausseestraße crossing point. The headquarters are built on the site of the former stadium Stadion der Weltjugend.

Following the decision to build the new BND headquarters there, a massive urban renewal has taken place in the neighbourhood, with many new construction projects opposite the BND headquarters, including high-end apartment buildings, a new park, the Café Top Secret, a new hotel, and buildings housing office spaces and retail stores.^[4]

The headquarters includes a visitor center that is open to the public; it is the first intelligence organisation to have such a center.^[5]

Although completed in 2017, the official opening was held in February 2019. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany attended and made this statement: "In an often very confusing world, now, more urgently than ever, Germany needs a strong and efficient foreign intelligence service". At the time, some 4,000 employees were expected to work from this location, moving here from the former headquarters in a suburb of Munich. The agency's total number of employees, in Germany and other countries, was approximately 6,500.^[6][7]

References

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