Twitter has purportedly chosen Berlin as the location of its German headquarters and has already hired its first German head of staff and other employees, reports Focus magazine.

Back in January, Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey announced that the company had plans to expand into Germany, but Twitter’s selection, while officially unconfirmed, has come as some surprise, with Hamburg and Munich, the two cities where Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft have their local headquarters, typically favoured over the German capital.

This is Twitter’s third European office, following openings in London and Dublin.

Focus notes that the job vacancies for German staff have now been removed from Twitter’s international hires page, although it’s unclear how many people will be working in the new office.

Dorsey recently flew to Berlin to speak with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, tweeting that “the world needs her on Twitter”.

Just landed in Berlin for a visit with Chancellor Angela Merkel. I’ve been wanting to meet her for a while: the world needs her on Twitter.

— Jack Dorsey (@jack) March 15, 2012

Merkel, however, turned down Dorsey’s invitation, and does not have an official presence on the micro-blogging network (although parodies, of course, exist).

We’re waiting on confirmation from Twitter and will update accordingly.

(Sources: Focus, The Next Web.)