Ambassador, Berlin Mayor Duel Over New U.S. Embassy

A picture of U.S. Ambassador John Kornblum in this week’s issue of Der Spiegel, Germany’s most influential weekly newsmagazine, shows him in a cowboy hat and sheriff’s badge, blowing on the muzzle of a smoking gun.

The photograph of the envoy as wannabe Wyatt Earp is from this year’s Mardi Gras celebration in Cologne, where Kornblum served as master of ceremonies for the annual masquerade.

But with a real high noon standoff ensuing between Kornblum and Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen over construction plans for a new U.S. Embassy in this recently restored capital, the image of an omnipotent frontier lawman is one that many Germans find fitting.

Kornblum and Diepgen have acquired the roles of respective gunslingers for their governments’ positions in a protracted conflict delaying construction of the new embassy on prestigious Pariser Platz, the historic heart of Berlin. A new British Embassy on the square is already nearing completion, and construction is underway on the French mission.

Officially, Berlin authorities and U.S. diplomats are stymied over how to reconcile stepped-up security standards in the wake of last year’s terrorist attacks on U.S. missions in East Africa with the need for Pariser Platz to function as the main traffic and tourist artery of the capital.

A U.S. proposal for diverting traffic from the embassy area and limiting pedestrian access is designed to meet Washington’s new requirements for a 32-yard security setback for the $150-million facility. But the idea has met with an unconditional nein from city authorities, who must approve the building plans and any incumbent infrastructure revisions.

Berlin politicians traveled to Washington for talks with State Department officials last month but returned without a hint of compromise or a date for further discussions.

But outside the formal confines of negotiations, Kornblum and Diepgen have been taking verbal potshots at each other. At a ceremony last month to open Germany’s 1,000th McDonald’s hamburger outlet, Diepgen flippantly wondered whether the Golden Arches might be in the embassy building plans. His comment triggered barbed ripostes from Kornblum, who suggested that Germany is ungrateful toward the country that pulled it out of fascism’s ashes.

German media have lambasted Kornblum as arrogant and anachronistic, saying he views the U.S.-German relationship from a colonial perspective. The Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel carried several reports citing German officials’ suggestions that if the U.S. needs so much security, perhaps it would be best to build the embassy elsewhere in the capital.

The latest Der Spiegel quoted politicians saying Kornblum, a career diplomat who speaks fluent German, has damaged U.S.-German relations with his “mulishness and rude intonations.” It also quoted an unidentified State Department official as saying Kornblum is “more part of the problem than the solution,” triggering speculation here that his days as ambassador may be numbered.

“No one has ever mentioned that to us--that the [city government] is just biding its time” until a change of envoys to resolve the conflict, said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Anne M. Chermak. “And our response to these rumors would be to say, what better time to reach agreement than with this man who is so familiar with Germany and is such a friend of the city of Berlin?”

The U.S. government has owned the site near the Brandenburg Gate since 1931 and is committed to building there. “We feel Pariser Platz is the heart of the capital of this country, and it is where important decisions are being made affecting the transatlantic relationship,” Chermak said.

The official line from City Hall is likewise that the location of the new embassy is not in question.

Those city officials seeking to resolve the construction conflicts have needed time to examine the U.S. proposal and ponder alternatives, said Michael-Andreas Butz, a city government spokesman, in explaining why no further negotiations are on the agenda.

With the nearly 500 U.S. diplomats and staff members now spread among five Berlin buildings, some observers note facetiously that the security issue may be best served by the status quo--as there currently is no obvious U.S. target.