Embassy of the French Republic (Bonn)

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Former office building of the French embassy, ​​photo taken shortly before the demolition (2011)

The embassy of the French Republic in the Federal Republic of Germany was based in the Bad Godesberg district of Bonn from 1955 to 1999 . The office building of the embassy , built in 1950 and 1952, was in the Rüngsdorf district between Rheinstraße and An der Marienkapelle street above the Rheinhotel Dreesen . In 2012 it was canceled.

history

Former French high commission: Rheinhotel Dreesen and behind the office building of the later embassy (2009)
Ernich Palace, residence of the embassy (2010)

As an allied control and occupation power , France initially had no embassy at the Bonn government seat after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 . In 1949, the French high commission had its seat in the Rheinhotel Dreesen, where office space was created for this purpose. In 1950, the High Commission had an additional office building built parallel to the hotel on the confiscated property based on a design by the Frankfurt architect Johannes Krahn , which had three floors and 70 rooms. In anticipation of the approaching repeal of the occupation statute and the necessary, but already desired by the city of Bad Godesberg, the approval of the Rheinhotel Dreesen, which is important for tourism, plans for a further office building began at the end of 1951. The French delegation for the Bonn enclave promised the hotel owners, who owned the property required for this, the early repair and clearance of the hotel by April 1, 1952 if they waived the resistance to the confiscation.

The four-storey office building II , connected to the already constructed one via an intermediate corridor and also designed by Krahn, was built on the slope and perpendicular to the Rhine. It had 90 rooms, together with office building I , this was 40 fewer than in the Rheinhotel Dreesen. The extension building was completed in late summer 1952 and the hotel was released in September 1952. When the Paris Treaties came into force on May 5, 1955, the French High Commission was converted into a regular embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany. Ernich Castle near Remagen served as the residence of the embassy, ​​the residence of the ambassador . As early as 1951, a guest house of the French Republic (design: Johannes Krahn) was built in a similar style south of the high commission building on the corner of Rolandstrasse / Am Schwimmbad , which initially comprised 68 rooms and later became known as the Cercle Français . It also owned a public restaurant , which, like the guest house hotel, was run by the French military. The French embassy also had a defense technology department in the district of Mehlem (Am Glückshaus 3), which had emerged from the Mission Technique (MT) integrated into the embassy in 1968 and based in Koblenz , as well as a labor and social department in the district of Rüngsdorf (Ubierstrasse 130) .

With the relocation of the seat of government , the French embassy, ​​which last had 150 employees, moved to Berlin in 1999 (→ French embassy in Berlin ). The former embassy buildings were now empty, and the former guest house was also closed. In the summer of 2005, both buildings went into the possession of private investors, and the Cercle Français was demolished in early 2006 for the construction of condominiums . In spring 2006, the city revoked the monument status of the former embassy building in order to enable demolition here as well. After the development plans for the 9000 m² property met resistance, it changed hands again in 2010. The new investor planned the construction of nine two- and three-storey “city villas” comprising around 50 apartments. Gutting began in early 2011, and the former embassy buildings were demolished in early 2012. At the end of 2013, the redesign of the site, more than two thirds of which will consist of a park , should be completed.

École de Gaulle-Adenauer in the district of Mehlem (2014)

For members of the French high commission and later the embassy, ​​there was a French school in Bad Godesberg from 1950 with an École maternelle and an École Élémentaire (elementary school), which from 1957 was housed in a house belonging to the Etzental settlement (Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 63) was. There was also a college in 1961 and a lycée in 1984 - largely financed by the French Foreign Ministry . While the Collège and Lycée were closed in 2000 as the embassy moved to Berlin, the École maternelle and École Élémentaire, based in the Mehlem district, continue to exist under the name École de Gaulle-Adenauer . It is the only one still in existence of the institutions originally created for the French embassy in Bonn that resulted from the time of Bonn as the seat of government.

building

The two office buildings of the French embassy were three- to four-storey steel frame buildings , clad with creamy white travertine and connected by a glazed corridor. With the terrain sloping towards the Rhine, the number of storeys increased. The stairwells were glazed, the balustrade and balcony grilles were made of anodized aluminum and the windows had steel profiles .

“A cheerful lightness that is graceful in detail pervades the architecture. Krahn managed to express French charm in the buildings. "

- Angelika Schyma (2003)

See also

literature

  • Helmut Vogt : Guardians of the Bonn Republic: The Allied High Commissioners 1949–1955 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-70139-8 , pp. 100-103, 224-225.
  • Angelika Schyma : The former French embassy in deep sleep . In: Denkmalpflege im Rheinland , ISSN  0177-2619 , Volume 21, 2004, pp. 121–124. ( online )
  • 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: Embassies in Berlin . Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-7861-2472-8 , pp. 29–41 (here: pp. 31/32).
  • Michael Wenzel: Small story (s) Bad Godesberger Messages , 2nd edition 2011, pp. 30–34.

Web links

Commons : At the Marienkapelle 3 / Rheinstraße 52 (Bonn)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yearbook of Defense Technology , Volume 9, Wehr und Wissen, 1975, p. 56.
  2. ^ The Federal Republic of Germany, Volume 70, Issue 1 , C. Heymann, 1970, p. 459.
  3. ↑ Bayerisches Jahrbuch , C. Gerber, 1980, p. 542.
  4. ↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions in the Federal Republic of Germany , as of March 1992
  5. ↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions and other representations in the Federal Republic of Germany , as of April 1995
  6. ↑ Cercle Français has a new owner , General-Anzeiger , July 28, 2005
  7. ^ Another piece of capital history less , General-Anzeiger, February 2, 2006
  8. ↑ Investor wants to build city villas with 65 apartments on the banks of the Rüngsdorf Rhine , General-Anzeiger, August 20, 2008
  9. ↑ Planned demolition: A "Rhine entrée" is being built in Rüngsdorf , General-Anzeiger, July 29, 2010
  10. ^ Demolition of the French Embassy begins in January , General-Anzeiger, November 10, 2010
  11. ↑ Trouble about the renovation of the former French embassy , General-Anzeiger, March 29, 2011
  12. ^ Demolition of the former French embassy begins , General-Anzeiger, January 10, 2012
  13. ↑ With the lift here for the view of the Rhine , General-Anzeiger, February 25, 2012
  14. ↑ France does not want to pay , General-Anzeiger, June 2, 1999, p. 8.
  15. ^ The French school is threatened with closure , General-Anzeiger, October 20, 1999, p. 14.
  16. ↑ École de Gaulle-Adenauer: Our story ( Memento from March 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ↑ 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 ° 40 ′ 59.8 "  N , 7 ° 10 ′ 30.2"  E