There have been diplomatic relations between the state of Israel and West Germany since 1965. The first embassy, opened on August 24, 1965, was located in Cologne's Ehrenfeld district.[citation needed] The following year, the embassy was moved to the Bad Godesberg district of Bonn.[citation needed] With the relocation of the German seat of government after unification, the Israeli embassy was moved in August 1999 from Bonn to Berlin. Until then there had been an Israeli Consulate-General at Schinkelstraße 10 in the Grunewald district of West Berlin.[citation needed]
The current embassy building was built in the period 1999-2001.[3] It was designed by Israeli architect Orit Willenberg-Giladi. She is the daughter of the late Samuel Willenberg, the last known survivor of the August 1943 Treblinka revolt, and his wife Ada. In 2013 she was selected to design the Holocaust education center planned for the former site of Treblinka extermination camp.[4]