Syrian Embassy in Berlin
The Syrian Embassy in Berlin (officially: Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic , Arabic سفارة الجمهورية العربية السورية في برلين) is the headquarters of the Syrian diplomatic mission in Germany. The embassy building is located in the Rauchstraße 25 in Berlin district of Tiergarten of the district center . The Syrian Embassy in Berlin is also subordinate to honorary consulates in Hamburg and Bremen .
history
The first diplomatic representative of Syria in Berlin was Ibrahim al-Istiwani , who in 1939 was accredited as a commercial attaché at the French embassy in Berlin. From 1950 onwards, al-Istiwani was Syrian Consul General in Cologne , and from October 1953 he was Ambassador Extraordinary and Ministre Plenipoteciario in Bonn . From 1953 to 1999 the Syrian Embassy in Germany was in Bonn, first at Kronprinzenstrasse 2 and then from 1990 on Andreas-Hermes-Strasse 5 in Bonn.
The GDR established diplomatic relations with Syria in 1969. The embassy was located at Otto-Grotewohl-Strasse 3a (now: Wilhelmstrasse 66) in Berlin-Mitte .
With the capital city resolution , a consolidation of the Syrian representations and a relocation to Berlin was inevitable. To this end, Syria acquired the city villa at Rauchstrasse 25 in 2002 and had it converted into an embassy.
Embassy since the civil war
In 2011 the Syrian civil war began . In early February 2012, two Syrian spies were arrested in Berlin and four Syrian diplomats were subsequently expelled. After the expulsion of the Syrian Ambassador Radwan Loutfi on May 29, 2012 for the Hula massacre, another four diplomats were expelled at the beginning of December 2012. The then Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle wanted to reduce “relations with the Assad regime to an absolute minimum”. The embassy is currently closed (as of 2019).
According to information from the Berliner Zeitung , the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office initiated an investigation at the end of January 2017 because the Syrian embassy is said to have issued passports without verification, but with an extra fee.
building
The villa at Rauchstrasse 25 is the only building in the block that survived the bombing war and post-war renovations . The town house was built in 1912 to plans by Georg Albert Rathenau and Friedrich August Hartmann in neoclassical embossed reform style built. The building has a basement , two full floors and a loft with dormer windows under the mansard roof . Broad pilasters made of shell limestone and decorated with architectural decorations rise above the low basement . The central axis of the facade is designed as a central projecting arched towards the street , which is closed off by a balcony on the top floor level.
The building was rebuilt in 2002/2003 and now houses the Syrian embassy. The architect of the renovation was Abdalrahman Mahamid. The representative rooms are located on the first full floor, with the office and administration one floor higher. An extension was added to the old building.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Representations of Syria. Ministry of Foreign Affairs; accessed on June 21, 2015
- ^ Official recognition of the GDR by Syria . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 6, 1969, p. 1.
- ^ Diplomatic and other representations . In: Telephone book for the capital of the GDR , 1989, p. 100.
- ↑ a b Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic. In: BauNetz
- ↑ Press release of the Federal Foreign Office of February 9, 2012, accessed on March 27, 2017
- ^ Wave of deportations against ambassadors of Syria. In: NZZ , May 29, 2012, accessed on March 26, 2017
- ↑ Germany has four Syrian embassy employees. In: waz.de , December 10, 2012, accessed on March 27, 2017
- ↑ Syrian embassy is said to have issued passports for an "extra fee". In: Berliner Zeitung , January 27, 2017
- ↑ Rauchstrasse 25
Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 30 ″ N , 13 ° 21 ′ 0.6 ″ E