Embassy of the Republic of Turkey (Bonn)

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Former office building of the Turkish embassy (2010)
Former residence building of the Turkish embassy (2010)

The Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in the Federal Republic of Germany was located in the Bad Godesberg district of Bonn from 1954 to 1999 . The embassy buildings erected for this task in 1965–1967 were located near the banks of the Rhine in the Mehlem district , the office building on Utestraße (house number 47) at the corner of Gernotstraße (house number 5) and the residence on Gernotstraße and Rüdigerstraße. After the headquarters of the Turkish embassy was relocated to Berlin in 1999 , the buildings stood empty and were demolished in 2012.

history

Villa Rolandshöhe near Rolandseck, from 1956 to 1969 residence of the Turkish ambassador (2011)

After the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, Turkey opened an embassy accredited to the Allied High Commission at the seat of government in Bonn on March 6, 1950 . She was initially based at the residence of the envoy, Nizamettin Ayaşlı , in Cologne's Excelsior Hotel Ernst . According to a resolution of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on July 24, 1951 to end the state of war with Germany, the two states resumed diplomatic relations with one another. The previous legation was converted into an embassy, ​​and the Turkish envoy took on the role of ambassador from August 16, 1951 . The embassy was located in the Bonn district of Gronau (Drachenfelsstraße 8) in the center of the new parliament and government district until at least 1953 . In 1954 at the latest, she moved to Bad Godesberg , the geographic focus of the diplomatic missions. There she took her seat in the Villa Rheinallee 34 in the Godesberg villa district , various departments of the embassy were housed in the building Rheinallee 53 from the end of the 1950s. The ambassador's residence was initially the Villa Stirzenhofstrasse 21 in the Plittersdorf district , and from 1956 the Villa Rolandshöhe near Rolandseck in the municipality of Oberwinter south of Bonn.

When the Turkish government began to adjust to a longer presence at the Bonn government seat, in the mid-1960s it planned to build a new embassy office and residence as the ambassador's residence on almost 5,000  m² of land in the Bad Godesberg district of Mehlem. The Turkish architect Vedat Özsan from Bonn and Ankara was commissioned with the design . Planning began in 1964 and construction took place from 1965 to the end of 1967. After the shell had been completed , construction defects were discovered, which led to a six-month break in construction and necessitated stabilization work. After approval by the Turkish building inspection commission, the ambassador and the office were able to move into the new embassy building at the end of October 1969. The official inauguration of the new buildings took place on July 5, 1970. When the Republic of Azerbaijan was founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union , it established diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany in 1992 and initially commissioned the Turkish embassy to represent its interests.

In the course of relocating the seat of parliament and government , the Turkish embassy moved to Berlin in the summer of 1999 . Parts of the valuable equipment of the former embassy building were later transferred there. The property had been vacant since the move, but was still owned by the Republic of Turkey. 2005 requested the Rheinische Conservation Office , the building as a "built document of the old Federal Republic" under monument protection to provide. The city of Bonn, as the lower monument authority , did not comply with this request, but in 2009 approved the requested demolition of the former embassy residence; however, it was not carried out for the time being. In the spring of 2012, a project developer acquired the entire property in order to have condominiums built there in two new buildings . The necessary demolition of the former embassy building began in mid-October 2012. The new residential buildings were built from spring 2013, their arrangement at right angles to one another corresponds to that of the previous buildings.

On Kurfürstenallee in the center of Bad Godesberg, a monumental replica of a Hittite sun disk by the Turkish sculptor Metin Yurdanur (* 1951) has been standing since December 1989 as a gift from the Turkish embassy to the city of Bonn on the occasion of its 2000th anniversary celebration (1989) .

building

The ensemble of buildings of the Turkish embassy was divided into a three -story office building with an extended basement , a two-story residential building with a recessed upper floor and an outbuilding with three apartments . All buildings were flat-roofed reinforced concrete structures clad with travertine and dark natural wood, but differed significantly in style . The office building consisted of two cubic structures, offset from one another and connected by a corridor, and had a usable area of 2262  m² . The defining design feature of the facade was the reinforced concrete scaffolding as well as the contrasting room-high window areas with dark frames and heat sources.

The residence with a usable area of ​​2,050 m² was a representative designed, nested building characterized by wide concrete surfaces. The roof edges cantilevered as parapets, the upper floor accommodated a roof terrace . The entrance was formed by a porch resting on four pillars and portals with bronze doors (transferred to Berlin before the demolition) on which the Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty from 1259 BC was written in cuneiform . Was engraved. Among the artfully executed in typical local idiom interior elements were facing the garden stained glass window with oriental motifs, delusions of Izmir - marble , conservatories , pebble floors and a Turkish marble seating area. The ambassador's reception rooms were on the first floor, the private living rooms on the upper floor.

The garden design was also done in typical forms. The complex was criss-crossed by clad paths and, in addition to bushes and trees, included a fountain, a water basin made of Turkish marble, natural stone steps and walls as well as flower-covered pebble beds, some of which continued inside the office and residence.

“The will for modernity also inspired the Turkish architect Vedat Öszan (...). With the residence he succeeded in creating a monumental combination of modern villa construction and an oriental room concept. "

- Michael Gassmann (2001)

“The architectural ensemble played with contrasts. Although made of the same materials - reinforced concrete, travertine and wood - a greater stylistic difference between the two main structures is hardly conceivable, clearly defining the separation of administration, representation and privacy. "

- Angelika Schyma (2003)

See also

literature

  • Bredenbeck , Moneke, Neubacher (Ed.): Building for the Federal Capital (= Edition Critical Edition , Volume 2). Weidle Verlag, Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-938803-41-7 , pp. 89-92.
  • Angelika Schyma : Turkey in Bonn - Turkish embassy and residence are looking for a new use . In: Denkmalpflege im Rheinland , ISSN  0177-2619 , Volume 23, Issue 2, 2006, pp. 72-77.
  • 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. 36/37).
  • 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. 80-81.
  • Ursel and Jürgen Zänker: Building in Bonn room 49–69. Attempt to take stock . In: Landschaftsverband Rheinland (Hrsg.): Art and antiquity on the Rhine . Guide to the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn . No. 21 . Rheinland-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1969, p. 127/128 .

Web links

Commons : Embassy of the Republic of Turkey (Bonn)  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Address book of the federal capital Bonn 1949/50 . In: City of Bonn, City Archives (ed.); Helmut Vogt : "The Minister lives in a company car on platform 4": The beginnings of the federal government in Bonn 1949/50 , Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-922832-21-0 , p. 222.
  2. ↑ Diplomatic and other official foreign missions as well as representations of international organizations in the Federal Republic of Germany (as of March 1, 1954). In: Federal Ministry of Finance (Ed.): Bulletin of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government , Deutscher Bundes-Verlag, 1954, p. 382 ff.
  3. ^ Stamm-Leitfaden durch Presse und Werbung , Stamm-Verlag, 1959, p. 712.
  4. ^ Address book of the city of Bad Godesberg 1954/55 , JF Carthaus, Bonn 1955, p. 237. ( online ULB Bonn )
  5. ↑ Senin's Failure , Der Spiegel , June 27, 1956.
  6. ^ Paris train station , Der Spiegel , October 13, 1969.
  7. ↑ a b Controversy over monument protection for the embassy in Mehlem ( Memento from January 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , General-Anzeiger , July 9, 2009.
  8. ↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions and other representations in the Federal Republic of Germany , as of December 1993
  9. ↑ Earthquake victims entering autumn with little hope ( Memento of October 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) , Hurriyot Daily News, September 27, 1999
  10. ↑ What will happen to the former Turkish embassy? , General-Anzeiger , April 23, 2005.
  11. ↑ a b c Buildings and land are available , General-Anzeiger, April 13, 2012.
  12. ↑ Turkish Embassy in Mehlem. 80 residents will move to the Nibelungenkarree in two years , General-Anzeiger, October 16, 2012; Former Turkish Embassy. Citizens' dialogue with flashlight , General-Anzeiger, October 26, 2012
  13. ^ Gabriele Zabel-Zottmann: Sculptures and objects in the public space of the federal capital Bonn - installed from 1970 to 1991 . Dissertation, Bonn 2012. Part 2, pp. 108/109. ( online ; PDF; 5.8 MB)
  14. ^ Information board , Wikimedia Commons
  15. ↑ a b c 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.
  16. ↑ Michael Gassmann: Built messages . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 26, 2001, No. 224, p. 52.

Coordinates: 50 ° 39 ′ 52.4 "  N , 7 ° 11 ′ 27.2"  E