Australian embassy to the GDR

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Australian embassy to the GDR (completed 1975), architect: Horst Bauer

The Australian Embassy at the GDR ( English: Australian Embassy at the GDR ; a formulation that took into account the legal status of Berlin at that time) was the seat of the diplomatic representation of Australia in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1973 to 1986 April 2017, the building at Grabbeallee 34 in the Berlin district of Niederschönhausen ( Berlin-Pankow district ) houses the Atelierhaus Australian Embassy (OST) .

History and architecture

To accommodate the multitude of new diplomatic missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the GDR Council of Ministers commissioned around 140 prefabricated buildings. They were created in two new diplomatic quarters in what was then the Pankow district .

The GDR assigned Australia the largest model called IHB-III (Ingenieur-Hochbau-Berlin III), with a floor area of ​​2,428.8 square meters. It was developed by the architect Horst Bauer , who, among other things, built the famous Café Moskau (1964) on Karl-Marx-Allee . The long, low-lying building with three floors consists of prefabricated concrete slabs . It has partition walls and mosaic elements by the renowned ceramist Hedwig Bollhagen , true to the Art in Architecture program . Like other capitalist states, Australia signed a 99-year lease and paid a price for it. Unlike other embassies, the Australian also had a tennis court in the garden.

The IHB-III model was ultimately only built for two countries, Australia and Iraq . The former Iraqi embassy is in the neighborhood and has been in disrepair since it was abandoned in 1990.

In use from 1973 to 1986

Side view of the embassy with ceramic protective walls by Hedwig Bollhagen

The building as well as the adjacent garden and tennis court are the result of the recognition of the GDR by Australia on December 22, 1972, just one day after the signing of the basic treaty for the mutual recognition of the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR. Thus Australia was the first capitalist country to officially recognize the GDR. The embassy in East Berlin was one of several trading posts that Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam opened in the Eastern Bloc countries , including Moscow, Belgrade, Beijing and Warsaw.

In 1978 and 1979, during Malcolm Fraser's reign , the Australian Trade Development Council reviewed international trade relations and came to the conclusion that the East Berlin branch should be abandoned. The Australian embassy to the GDR then prematurely terminated the lease in 1986. The Australian diplomats left the GDR and handled embassy affairs in the two German states from their representation in Warsaw until 1989/90 .

After 1990

After the fall of the Berlin Wall , the TLG trust property company took over the former Australian embassy when it sold numerous state properties from the former GDR. After 1996 the building changed hands several times. It initially housed a medical laboratory, then the media company tape.tv , which has since gone bankrupt . The building was privatized in 2010 by the Federal Real Estate Agency . In 2014, the entrepreneur Lars Dittrich planned to demolish the building. However, on the initiative of District Councilor Jens-Holger Kirchner , it was listed as a historical monument in autumn 2015, which means that the former embassy building was preserved.

After the new German government had passed the Berlin / Bonn law and the seat of government was relocated to Berlin, Australia set up an embassy here again. The embassy of Australia was created through the expansion of a representative building on Wallstrasse in the Berlin-Mitte district . It opened here in 2003.

Atelier House Australian Embassy (East)

Logo Atelierhaus Australian Embassy (East)

The real estate company Prexxot GmbH has been the owner of the former embassy building in Grabbeallee since 2015. Its plans to set up luxury apartments on the site by 2018 were delayed.

Since April 2017, the former embassy building has housed the studios of around 30 artists from various fields. They have joined forces to form the organization Atelierhaus Australian Embassy (East) (e. ViG) , which organizes various public events. The Atelierhaus hopes that in the long term the building will become a self-organized artist's house with a studio program, public garden and exhibition space. In addition, an exhibition entitled Ex-Embassy was opened in August 2018 , with contributions from artists, authors and researchers from Australia and Germany as well as the indigenous nations Quandamooka , Kamilaroi and Wiradjuri .

Web links

Commons : Australian Embassy to the GDR  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andrew Vincent et al .: The Australian Embassy in Berlin . Verlagshaus Braun, Salenstein, Switzerland 2003, ISBN 3-935455-21-6 , pp. 72 .
  2. ^ Martin Petsch: Embassies in Berlin . Ed .: Kerstin Englert and Jürgen Tietz. 2nd Edition. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-7861-2472-6 , pp. 42-56 .
  3. ↑ Joachim Nawrocki: At 4 o'clock it is over. In: Zeit Online. November 30, 1973. Retrieved April 3, 2018 .
  4. ^ Peter Monteath: The German Democratic Republic and Australia . In: Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe . tape 16 , no. 2 . Routledge, August 2008, pp. 213 .
  5. ↑ Boris Schedvin: Emissaries of Trade: A History of the Australian Trade Commissioner Service . Ed .: National Library of Australia Cataloging-in-Publication. Barton, ACT: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra 2008, ISBN 978-1-921244-57-5 .
  6. ↑ Boris Schedvin: Emissaries of Trade: A History of the Australian Trade Commissioner Service . Ed .: National Library of Australia Cataloging-in-Publication. Barton, ACT: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra 2008, ISBN 978-1-921244-57-5 , pp. 306-307 .
  7. ^ Ambassador in the State Council on a farewell visit. Neues Deutschland (Archive), December 18, 1986, accessed on April 3, 2018 .
  8. ↑ a b Art in the Plattenbau . In: Berliner Zeitung , 25./26. August 2018, p. 18.
  9. ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
  10. ↑ Susanne Ehrlerding: Former Australian embassy may not be demolished. Der Tagesspiegel , October 20, 2015, accessed on April 3, 2018 .
  11. ^ Judith Jenner: New Message. In: Der Tagesspiegel. pressreader, March 31, 2018, accessed April 6, 2018 .
  12. ^ Sonja Hornung, Rachel O'Reilly: Ex-Embassy exhibition and text series. August 1, 2018, accessed October 30, 2018 (German, English).

Coordinates: 52 ° 34 '31.4 "  N , 13 ° 23' 57.6"  E