On August 13, 2025, a high-level video conference between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump was held on the fourth floor of the German Federal Chancellery in Berlin, a location locally nicknamed the “federal washing machine.” Several European leaders attended, and the meeting was conducted under maximum security conditions.
The Chancellery, located on Willy-Brandt-Straße in central Berlin, opposite the Bundestag and near the Spree River, is famous for its modern architecture with large windows and reinforced concrete structure. It is one of the largest government buildings in the world and a symbol of German governance.
The fourth floor, also called the “secret floor”, houses the Lagezentrum (“Situation Center”), where sensitive strategic issues, international crises, and major political decisions are discussed. The area provides direct access to key offices while ensuring complete privacy for international delegations.
The meeting room itself is fully isolated and windowless, equipped with encrypted communication systems and protection against electronic eavesdropping. During such meetings, interpreters may be excluded, and all participants—including Zelensky and advisors to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz—must leave phones and electronic devices outside before entering.
Daily, the room hosts internal meetings between the Chancellor, ministry representatives, intelligence, and security services, as well as highly sensitive diplomatic discussions.
The Chancellery, designed between 1992–1998 by architects Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank during Helmut Kohl’s tenure, officially opened in 2001 under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. It has been compared to the U.S. Situation Room but with a key difference: while the American Situation Room is often publicly visible, Germany’s “secret floor” remains shrouded in absolute discretion.
