Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic (Bonn)

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Former office building of the Syrian embassy, ​​Andreas-Hermes-Straße (2014)
Former residence building of the Syrian embassy, ​​Ferdinand-Lassalle-Straße (2014)

The embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic in the Federal Republic of Germany was based in the Hochkreuz district of Bonn from 1990 to 2002/03 . The former embassy building is located on the southern edge of the federal quarter on the edge of the Rheinaue between Andreas-Hermes-Straße (house number 5) and Ferdinand-Lassalle-Straße. It still belongs to the state of Syria, which intends to sell it.

history

After establishing diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany in 1953, Syria opened an embassy at the seat of government in Bonn, which was initially located at the previous location of the Syrian Consulate General in the Cologne district of Marienburg ( Lindenallee 64 ). Shortly thereafter (until 1954) she moved to Bad Godesberg , the spatial focus of the diplomatic missions, where she settled in Villa Kronprinzenstrasse 2 . With the merger of Syria and Egypt to form the United Arab Republic (UAR) in 1958, the former Syrian embassy was transformed into a joint embassy for both countries. After the union broke up in 1961, it was no longer the Syrian, but the Egyptian representation. Since then, the Syrian Arab Republic has maintained an embassy in Villa Rheinallee 9, with a military department in Südstadt (Argelanderstraße 61). While Syria's diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany were interrupted from May 13, 1965 as a result of their recognition of Israel , the Pakistani embassy with a "Department for the Interests of the Syrian Arab Republic" carried out business for the country from there. With the resumption of relations on August 7, 1974, Syria reopened an embassy, ​​which again took its seat in Bad Godesberg (Am Kurpark 2). The management of the embassy initially had an envoy as chargé d' affaires a. i. inside. The residence of the embassy, residence of the reigning from June 1976 Ambassador , was located in the district Muffendorf (monastery mountain road 72).

After Bonn had established itself as the seat of government , Syria was one of the countries in the 1980s that wanted to re-establish their diplomatic representation in a planned embassy district on the edge of the Rheinauenpark in the south of what was then the parliamentary and government district. As the only country on this site, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, which called Bonn's status as the seat of government into question, Syria began building an embassy building that included both the chancellery and the residence. The architect N. Kasri from Cologne (signature on the building application ) and the interior design designer Mohammed Walid Seirawan were commissioned with the design for the new building of the Syrian embassy . The ambassador at the time, Suleyman Haddad, had a decisive influence on the design . The interior decoration was imported entirely from Syria, and 40 Syrian artists worked on the craftsmanship on site. The construction took 14 million Deutschmarks to complete, and some furnishings were donated by entrepreneurs and private individuals. The move into the new embassy building with around 30 employees took place in the spring of 1990, the only one in the planned embassy district and the penultimate one in Bonn.

In the course of the relocation of the seat of government to Berlin (1999), the Syrian embassy moved there in 2002/03. Since then, still owned by Syria, it has occasionally been used for events by the German-Syrian Society . In 2005 the Syrian government decided to establish a consulate general and a cultural and tourism center in the building . The implementation of this decision was made dependent on the financing from the beginning and did not take place. Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011, members of the opposition have repeatedly demonstrated in front of the building, which was stormed by Kurds as part of such a demonstration in November 2012 . In June 2017 it became known that, contrary to earlier plans, Syria intends to sell the property in a two-month bidding process. The sale had not yet taken place in March 2018.

building

The Syrian embassy is one of the few remaining new embassy buildings in Bonn, which were built with the aim of representation through typical features of the country. It consists of a three-storey office building facing Andreas-Hermes-Strasse and a two-storey residential building facing Ferdinand-Lassalle-Strasse, connected by a low-rise building, and has a floor area of ​​around 4000 m² . Both parts of the building have a cubic (cube-shaped) basic shape, are plastered with white strips and have inner courtyards (atria). The middle connecting building houses a representative assembly room.

The building complex is held in an orientalizing design language , which is to be based in particular on Damascus of the 8th century during the rule of the Umayyad dynasty ("Damascus style"). Under wide Mittelrisalit the entrance portal is the firm with a wooden door by a double stepped jamb enclosed, consisting of the sparse window of red granite . The interior design of the building, including the two-story halls, is considered particularly magnificent. The floors are inlaid with marble , the walls and ceilings are ornamented with gold or decorated with inlays . In the basement there is a hammam , an Arabic-Islamic steam bath. The inner courtyard of the residence has a fountain and was originally also equipped with creepers .

"Oriental formal vocabulary combines with the massive structures to create a modern, foreign architecture - a kind of oriental postmodernism - of the kind that can only be found in this distinctive style in the extension of the Chinese embassy (...)."

- Angelika Schyma (2003)

literature

  • Angelika Schyma : With diplomatic restraint. Embassy architecture of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn from the founding of the state to the fall of the wall . In: Messages in Berlin , Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-7861-2472-8 , pp. 29–41 (here: pp. 38/39).
  • Hilda Ortiz Lunscken (ed.); Hilda Ortiz Lunscken, Ingeborg Fischer-Dieskau (Photos: Martin Krockauer): Pour Memoire. To Remind. As a reminder - ambassadorial residences on the Rhine. Ortiz-Lunscken Publishers, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-9806801-0-X , pp. 120-121.

See also

Web links

Commons : Andreas-Hermes-Straße 5 (Bonn)  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Address book of the federal capital Bonn 1952/53 , JF Carthaus, Bonn 1953, p. 540 .
  2. ↑ Bulletin of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government , Deutscher Bundes-Verlag, 1953, p. 1072.
  3. ^ Stamm-Leitfaden durch Presse und Werbung , Stamm-Verlag, 1965, p. 191
  4. ↑ a b Tobias C. Bringmann: Handbuch der Diplomatie 1815–1963: Foreign Heads of Mission in Germany and German Heads of Mission abroad from Metternich to Adenauer , Saur, Munich 2001, ISBN 978-3-598-11431-1 , p. 401.
  5. ^ List of diplomatic missions and commercial missions of foreign countries in the Federal Republic of Germany] (as of February 1, 1966) . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (Ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1966 No. 27 , p. 872 , Annex 1 ( online at the information system of the Hessian State Parliament [PDF; 5.0 MB ]).
  6. ↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions and other representations in Bonn (as of September 1974)
  7. ↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions and other representations in Bonn (as of June 1977)
  8. ↑ Fire in the former Syrian residence , General-Anzeiger , June 12, 2003
  9. ↑ Michael Wenzel: Small story (s) Bad Godesberger Messages , 2nd edition 2011, pp. 66–69.
  10. ↑ Diplomatic missions and consular missions in the Federal Republic of Germany , as of September 2002 (Bundesanzeiger Verlag)
  11. ↑ Another 22 embassies with the first address in Bonn , General-Anzeiger , November 28, 2002
  12. ↑ Journey to the Orient begins in the Syrian Embassy , General-Anzeiger , July 11, 2008
  13. ↑ Further vacant embassies and residences , General-Anzeiger , April 15, 2010
  14. ↑ Extra-territorial area , Berliner Zeitung , July 21, 2010
  15. ^ German-Syrian Society - Events
  16. ^ A residential park near the city , Kölner Stadtanzeiger , December 30, 2005
  17. ^ Westdeutscher Rundfunk , local time from Bonn, November 2012
  18. ↑ Syria is selling its former embassy in Bonn , General-Anzeiger , June 28, 2017
  19. ↑ Many ex-embassies in Bonn are empty and have expired , General-Anzeiger , March 14, 2018
  20. ↑ Angelika Schyma: In diplomatic restraint. Embassy architecture of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn from the founding of the state to the fall of the wall.

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 16.5 ″  N , 7 ° 8 ′ 51.3 ″  E