Just a few of UBA’s offices: Dessau-Roßlau, Berlin-Bismarckplatz, Zugspitze air measuring station Quelle: Silvia Sinah / UBA / Betriebsgesellschaft Umweltforschungsstation Schneefernerhaus GmbH
Our headquarters are located in Dessau-Roßlau in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where we have been since 2005. Our other offices are in Berlin, Bad Elster (Saxony), Langen (Hesse), Merseburg (Saxony-Anhalt), Salzgitter (Lower Saxony) and Cottbus (Brandenburg). We also operate a seven station measurement network extending from Zingst on Rügen island to Zugspitze.
We have been headquartered in Dessau-Roßlau in the regional state of Saxony-Anhalt since 2005. All of our divisions are based here. For information on the locations of our various division offices, see our organizational chart.
Our building, which was designed by sauerbruch & hutton architekten, was awarded the 2009 German gold medal for sustainable construction. Distinctions of this nature from the Federal Ministry of Construction and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen are awarded for exemplary new office buildings, based on ecological, economic, and sociocultural criteria, as well as location, planning and technical realization.
The building’s energy concept is based on the use of renewable energy, to which end solar panels were built into the folding roof of the entry area (Forum), and solar collectors were installed on the Forum’s flat roof. Both of these amenities are used for solar powered air conditioning in the building, mainly the auditorium and IT areas. Thanks to our geothermal heat exchangers – currently the world’s largest facility of this type with more than five kilometers of piping – exhaust air is conditioned underground and is used for heating or air conditioning depending on the time of year.
You are more than welcome to come see our unique building for yourself, visit our Fachbibliothek Umwelt (environmental library), which houses a large collection of environmental books, and pick up free brochures on environmental matters at our visitors center. You can also take a virtual 360° tour of the building.
In September 2023, a new extension with at least zero energy standard was opened next to the main building. On our construction project page (in German) you will find information, photos and videos about the project.
Part of the UBA in Dessau-Roßlau is also the listed building "Wörlitzer Bahnhof". It is the seat of the German Centre for Micropollutants (SZB), which was established in 2021 at the German Environment Agency.
Aerial shot of the UBA building in Dessau-Roßlau Quelle: Firma Busse
UBA Dessau-Roßlau main entrance Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
Rear façade of UBA Dessau-Roßlau Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
The lobby (forum) of UBA Dessau-Roßlau Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
UBA in Dessau-Roßlau: View of atrium Quelle: Umweltbundeamt
Interior views of UBA Dessau-Roßlau: inner façade in atrium Quelle: Silvia Sinah
Interior views of UBA Dessau-Roßlau: Stairs and bridges in atrium Quelle: Silvia Sinah
In the environmental library of UBA Dessau-Roßlau Quelle: Silvia Sinah
Citizens’ service visitors lounge at UBA Dessau-Roßlau Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
Canteen and pond at UBA Dessau-Roßlau Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
Seat of the German Centre for Micropollutants (SZB): the listed building "Wörlitzer Bahnhof" Quelle: Janek Kubelt / UBA
The UBA office building Berlin-Grunewald (Bismarckplatz) will remain closed until about 2025/26 due to renovation and modernization work. The address of the temporary accommodations is:
Our building on Berlin’s Bismarckplatz was our HQ from 1974 (the year of our founding) until we relocated to our present building in 2005. This building is currently home to German Emissions Trading Authority (part of UBA Division V) and some staff members of our General Services Division, the director’s office, and our PR office.
We also provide brochures free of charge at the Bismarckplatz office. Exhibitions on environmental subjects are held here on a regular basis as well.
The Bismarckplatz building, which dates back to the 1930s, is slated for renovation and energy modernization.
From 2020 to around 2026, the building, which dates back to the 1930s, is being renovated for energy efficiency. During this time, most of the office workplaces are housed in the temporary accommodation "City Campus" on Berlin's Buchholzweg. The Berlin-Colditzstraße site, which is equipped with laboratories and laboratory technology, is temporary accommodation for Department II 2.5 "Water Analysis Laboratory" until the UBA laboratory site in Berlin-Marienfelde has been expanded.
Aerial view of UBA building in Berlin-Grunewald (Bismarckplatz) Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
Main entrance of UBA Berlin-Grunewald (Bismarckplatz) Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
Gate of UBA site in Berlin-Grunewald (Bismarckplatz) with image of the eco-label Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
Our Berlin-Dahlem office is home to staff members from the following units:
Department II 1 Environmental Hygiene
Some Section II 3 Drinking Water and Swimming Pool Water Hygiene staff members
Some Section II 3.3 Drinking-water Resources and Treatment staff members
Section IV 1.4 Health Pests and their Control
To facilitate these activities, our Correnplatz office has labs, as well as breeding facilities for cockroaches, head lice and other pests.
The building used to be the headquarters of Institut für Wasser-, Boden- und Lufthygiene (WaBoLu) (Water, soil and air hygiene institute), which was absorbed by the UBA in 1994.
In the long term, the aforesaid units and staffers will move to the UBA site Berlin-Marienfelde and the Correnplatz site will be shut down.
Our Berlin-Marienfelde office is home to staff members from the following units:
Section II 3.3 Drinking Water Resources and Treatment
Section III 2.5 Monitoring Methods, Waste Water Management
Section IV 2.4 Substances Hazardous to Water - Ecotoxicological Laboratory
Section IV 2.5 Trace Analysis, Artificial Ponds and Streams
In addition to various laboratories, our Berlin-Marienfelde office also operates our flowing, flow-through and stagnant system simulation facility (FSA) where we do research into areas such as the effect of pharmaceutical drugs and pesticides on the ecosystems of the facility’s artificial watercourses and ponds.
The federal government’s first zero energy office building, for 31 UBA staff members, was completed in 2013 at our Marienfelde site. For further information, as well as photos and videos, concerning the zero energy concept and the construction phase, see our building project page.
UBA in Berlin-Marienfelde Quelle: Christoph Zinsius / Umweltbundesamt
UBA in Berlin-Marienfelde: Hall of the artificial stream and pond system Quelle: Christoph Zinsius / Umweltbundesamt
UBA in Berlin-Marienfelde: gutters of the artificial stream and pond system Quelle: Christoph Zinsius / Umweltbundesamt
UBA in Berlin-Marienfelde: artificial ponds of the artificial stream and pond system Quelle: Christoph Zinsius / Umweltbundesamt
UBA in Berlin-Marienfelde: the newly built “Haus 2019“ zero-energy building Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
Our Langen office in the regional state of Hesse is home to staff members from the following units:
Section II 4.4 Air Quality Standards and Monitoring Methods
Section II 4.5 Air Monitoring Network
Our Langen office is the nerve center of our air monitoring network.
Once our Berlin-Grunewald building on Bismarckplatz has been renovated and modernized, the aforesaid units and staffers will move there and the Langen office will be closed.
Our Bad Elster office in the regional state of Saxony is home to staff members from the following units:
Some Department II 3/Drinking Water and Swimming Pool Water Hygiene staff members
Section II 3.1 General Aspects of Drinking Water Hygiene
Section II 3 Drinking Water and Swimming Pool Water Hygiene
Section II 3.4 Drinking Water/Water Distribution
Section II 3.5 Microbiology of Drinking Water and Swimming Pool Water
Section II 3.6 Toxicology of Drinking Water and Swimming Pool Water
Once our Berlin-Grunewald building on Bismarckplatz has been renovated and modernized, the aforesaid units and staffers will move there and the Bad Elster office will be closed.
The "National Centre for Environmental and Nature Conservation Information (umwelt.info)" (Department I 1) operates at the Merseburg site in Saxony-Anhalt.
The goal of the working group is to compile all information available nationwide on environmentally relevant topics and to prepare it in a way that is suitable for the target group, so that it is available to citizens, scientists and researchers, companies and industry, as well as administrative bodies.
To achieve this goal, the working group is involved in the creation and operation of the web portal “umwelt.info”, which provides environment-related metadata, services, reports, research findings, expert opinions, educational materials and information on legal and administrative regulations, funding programmes and procedures of the environmental and nature conservation administrative bodies for use as a source of information.
The Konrad repository is used for the storage of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste. In mid-2019, the Federal Ministry for the Environment transferred the tasks of a construction service for the Konrad repository to the German Environment Agency. The responsibility applies to the public construction tasks resulting from the Lower Saxony Building Code and the Konrad planning approval decision regarding the above-ground buildings and traffic areas of the repository. The reason for this is that the constructor and later user of the repository, the Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE), is not allowed to take over these tasks itself as an extended building supervisory authority.
The UBA site in Cottbus is home to Section III 2.8 "Decarbonization in Industry" and staff from Sections I 2.2 and I 2.7, who work on the task of "Decarbonization in Transport".
Air quality measuring stations
We monitor air quality at the following measuring stations:
UBA air quality measuring station on Zugspitze Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
Observation area of UBA's Neuglobsow air quality measuring station on Lake Stechlin in Brandenburg Quelle: Christoph Zinsius / Umweltbundesamt
UBA Schauinsland air quality measuring station in the Black Forest Quelle: Christoph Zinsius / Umweltbundesamt
UBA Schmücke air quality measuring station in the Thuringian Forest Quelle: Christoph Zinsius / Umweltbundesamt
UBA Waldhof air quality measuring station on the Lüneburg Heath Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
UBA Westerland air quality measuring station on the island of Sylt Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
UBA Zingst air quality measuring station on the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula of the Baltic Sea Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
Construction projects
Till 2030, we want to be the first German Federal Agency which is greenhouse gas neutral. Information on the progress of our construction projects is available on our construction project page (in German), where you’ll find texts, photos and videos. You can learn more there about how in the summer of 2013 our Berlin-Marienfelde office became the federal government’s first zero energy building, and how the planning process for the new wing of our Dessau-Roßlau building integrated solar panels into the building facade.
Quelle: Umweltbundesamt
Auf der Spur der Luft - Das Luftmessnetz des Umweltbundesamtes
Luft kennt keine Grenzen. Luftverunreinigungen können tausende von Kilometern zurücklegen, Grenzen überschreiten und sich weltweit in der Erdatmosphäre ausbreiten. Deshalb erfordert die die Überwachung und Langzeitbeobachtung von Luftschadstoffen und ihrer Wirkungen internationale Zusammenarbeit. Den deutschen Beitrag dazu liefert das Luftmessnetz des Umweltbundesamtes. Sieben Messstationen in sogenannten Reinluftgebieten analysieren seit fast 50 Jahren Luft, Feinstaub und Regenwasser auf ferntransportierte, menschenverursachte Luftschadstoffe und deren Wirkungen auf Ökosysteme. Anlässlich des EU-Jahres der Luft stellt das Umweltbundesamt daher sein Luftmessnetz, dessen Aufgaben und ausgewählte Ergebnisse in einem Kurzfilm und einer neuen Broschüre dar.
