Polish Embassy in Berlin

Unter den Linden runs east from the Brandenburg Gate through the historic government quarter of Berlin-Mitte, and number 70-72 is the Polish chancery — the largest Polish diplomatic mission in the European Union and one of Warsaw's most consequential bilateral posts. The current chancery building, ceremonially reopened in 2020 on the same site that has hosted the Polish embassy since the 1960s, is the operational centre for a bilateral relationship of historical and contemporary depth: Germany is Poland's largest single trading partner, the home of the largest Polish-speaking community outside Poland (around 860,000 Polish citizens plus a further two to three million residents of Polish origin and dual nationality), and a co-driving force in the European Union and NATO. The embassy houses the bilateral chancery and a large Consular Section with jurisdiction over the six eastern German states (Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia) — the rest of Germany is covered by the Polish Consulates-General in Hamburg, Cologne and Munich.

The Consular Section serves the Polish community across eastern Germany — the largest single Polish diaspora in the EU, concentrated in Berlin itself with substantial communities in Brandenburg's commuter belt, in the historic Polish-Saxon border region around Dresden and Görlitz, and across the Mecklenburg and Pomeranian coast. Standard services include ordinary and biometric passport issuance, the new mDokumenty digital identity card processing, civil-status registration of births and marriages abroad through the Registers in Warsaw, registration of Polish citizenship by descent (a major workload for the embassy given the large Polish-German population with claims to confirm), legalisation of German documents for use in Poland and apostille processing, voter registration for Polish parliamentary and presidential elections (the embassy is the polling station for Berlin), the PESEL national identity number and tax-identification services, and crisis assistance in detention, hospitalisation, repatriation or bereavement. Notarial certifications, certified translations into Polish, and powers of attorney are routinely processed. The Consular Information Centre on +49 30 7001 4800 provides phone-based first-line guidance.

Investment promotion runs in both directions and operates on a scale that few other bilateral diplomatic relationships match. German foreign direct investment in Poland is the largest single source of FDI into the Polish economy; Polish investment into eastern Germany has grown sharply over the past decade and is now concentrated in logistics, real estate, retail and small-and-medium manufacturing. The embassy economic section facilitates introductions for Polish investors looking at German municipal infrastructure projects, energy-transition manufacturing (Polish suppliers to German solar, battery and wind value chains), and the consolidating retail real-estate market in the eastern German states. Polish startup ecosystems in Warsaw, Krakow and Wrocław are anchors for German venture-capital flow eastward; the embassy is the bilateral interlocutor for the relevant PAIH and AHK Polska programmes.

Cultural and educational work is the second-largest portfolio after consular services, anchored by the Polish Institute Berlin (Polnisches Institut Berlin) on Burgstraße and its sister institute in Düsseldorf. The Institute runs Polish-language teaching, Polish cinema programming at Kino Babylon, Polish literary translation and publication support, the annual Polish Music Festival, and the Polish-German theatre programming at the Maxim Gorki Theater and the Berliner Ensemble. Educational mobility is anchored by the Polish-German Youth Office (Polsko-Niemiecka Współpraca Młodzieży / Deutsch-Polnisches Jugendwerk) — one of the largest bilateral youth-exchange programmes in Europe, in operation since 1991 — and by Erasmus+ mobility between Polish universities (Warsaw, Krakow Jagiellonian, Wrocław, AGH Krakow, Warsaw School of Economics) and the major Berlin and eastern German institutions. The Polish-German Science Foundation (Deutsch-Polnische Wissenschaftsstiftung) coordinates joint research funding. The embassy hosts the annual Polish Independence Day reception on 11 November and supports the Polish-German Reconciliation Foundation and the Polish-German Year of cultural programming.

All consular and visa services run through the e-Konsulat appointment portal at secure.e-konsulat.gov.pl — applicants select an appointment slot at the embassy's consular section in Berlin and present documentation on the booked date. Visa applications, passport renewals, civil-status registration, citizenship-by-descent confirmation, mDokumenty processing and notarial work are all booked through the portal. The Consular Information Centre on +49 30 7001 4800 provides phone-based clarification during working hours (Monday and Wednesday to Friday 09:00–17:00 Warsaw time). For genuine emergencies — detention, hospitalisation, lost passport, road accident — the 24-hour emergency line +49 30 7001 4801 is the route.