The Umweltbundesamt (; UBA, ) is the environment agency of the German government. Together with the
Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
The German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (, ''BfN'') is the German government's scientific authority with responsibility for national and international nature conservation. BfN is one of the government's departmental research agencies an ...
, the
Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management, and the
Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz ("federal office for nuclear radiation protection"), it operates under the jurisdiction of the
. The tasks of the office are primarily "the scientific support of the federal government (including the Federal Ministries for the Environment, Health, Economy and Climate Protection, Education and Research, Transport and Digital Infrastructure), the implementation of environmental laws (e.g., emission rights trade, admission of chemicals, medicinal and pesticides), and public information on environmental protection", based on independent research. With around 1,600 employees, the agency is the largest environmental authority in Europe.
History
In the early 1970s, the
FDP politician and then-interior minister
Hans-Dietrich Genscher
Hans-Dietrich Genscher (21 March 1927 – 31 March 2016) was a German statesman and a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1969 to 1974, and as Federal Minister for Foreign Affa ...
called for the creation of an environmental authority to match similar bodies in the US and Sweden. Against resistance, especially by the
Ministry of Health, which feared a loss of competence in the field of environmental protection, the Federal Office of Environmental Affairs was created in 1973, and on 22 July 1974, became the Federal Environment Agency, as an independent federal authority, based in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. The decision of the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
, on 19 June 1974, which established
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
as the seat of the office, led to official protests by the
GDR
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...
state department the following day. The
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
also opposed this, as it deemed the 1971
Four-Power Agreement to be violated by a federal agency based in Berlin.
After
Germany's reunification, a number of federal agencies were relocated to the former East Germany to support the structurally weak region. The UBA's headquarters, with around 1,000 employees, was moved to
Dessau-Roßlau
Dessau-Roßlau () is a '' kreisfreie Stadt'' (urban district) in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Elbe and Mulde. The town was formed by merging the towns of Dessau and Roßlau as part of the 20 ...
, a city of 80,000 inhabitants in
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...
.
Presidency
The president of the Umweltbundesamt from 1974 to 1995 was the lawyer Heinrich von Lersner. He was succeeded by economist Andreas Troge, who led the agency until 2009, before ceding it to
Jochen Flasbarth, who remained until 2013. Maria Krautzberger led the department between 2014 and 2020 and was succeeded by
Dirk Messner.
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Environmental agencies in Germany