President Steinmeier opens new German embassy building in Vienna

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier officially opened Germany's new embassy building in the Austrian capital Vienna on Wednesday.

"It is a modern and democratic building, bright and open, welcoming and inviting, understated but responsible," he said at the ceremony, which was also attended by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen and his wife Doris Schmidauer.

Steinmeier himself had decided to demolish the old embassy, which had fallen into disrepair, during his time as foreign minister. The new building was designed by the Leipzig-based architectural firm Schulz und Schulz.

Van der Bellen called the embassy building "a new chapter in German diplomacy in Austria" and a symbol of the "close partnership" between the two countries. He added that he thought "something great has been achieved here."

The building, which cost some €45.5 million ($53 million), houses not only the embassy but also the permanent mission of Germany to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Around 100 employees work in both missions.

However, the star of what Steinmeier called the "house-warming party" was not the two heads of state, but the German-Austrian tenor Jonas Kaufmann, whom Steinmeier had invited as a guest.

He received by far the most applause when, after two Strauss songs, he sang the classic tribute to the city, the first line of which translates as "Vienna, Vienna, only you alone shall always be the city of my dreams."

Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender are on a three-day state visit to Austria. To conclude their trip they plan to visit the Brenner Base Tunnel construction site near Innsbruck on Friday.