Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium (Bonn)

Former office building of the Belgian embassy (2013)

Coming Muffendorf , 1953–1999 residence of the embassy

The Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium in the Federal Republic of Germany was located in Bonn's parliamentary and government district from 1951 to 1999 . The former office building of the embassy , built in 1971/72, is located in the district of Gronau on Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße (house number 7), a side street of Adenauerallee ( B 9 ), opposite the Federal Cartel Office (formerly Federal President's Office ).

history

Villa Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße 14 , until 1954 the office building of the Belgian embassy (2013)

Belgium was one of the eleven states that had been accredited with a diplomatic mission for the Federal Republic of Germany to the Allied High Commission at the seat of government in Bonn since December 15, 1949 . The position of head of the Belgian mission was initially carried out by an envoy . His residence was initially in the house at Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse 22 on the northern edge of the new parliamentary and government district; the mission's office was provisionally located at Görresstrasse 42 at the latest from 1951 in the Villa Friedrich-Wilhelm-Strasse, which was rented for this purpose 14 home. With the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in May 1951, Belgium opened the office of its embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany. As the residence of the embassy, residence of the ambassador, the Kommende Muffendorf was purchased in Bad Godesberg in 1952 and moved into by 1954 at the latest. Therefore, on June 30, 1954, the embassy office was relocated to the previous residence building at Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 22.

When the Belgian government began to adjust to a longer presence at the Bonn government seat, it was planning to build the embassy office on the same street around 1970. The Federal Property Office had the "Villa Pflüger" located there (Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 7), built in 1899 in the form of the picturesquen Baroque according to a design by the architects Kayser & von Großheim and most recently used as an office building, acquired and sold to Belgium. After a corresponding building application from June 25, 1971, it was demolished in order to build the new embassy building in its place. The Belgian architects André and Jean Polak , who became famous through the construction of the Atomium (1958), were commissioned with the design; for this project they entered into a collaboration with the Cologne studio Peter Neufert / Mittmann. The Belgian embassy was able to move into the office building in 1972 at the latest. The information and culture department, the consular department and the trade department of the embassy were most recently located at the current location of the Belgian consulate general in the “Belgian House” in Cologne (Cäcilienstraße 46).

In the course of the relocation of the seat of government , the Belgian embassy moved to Berlin in 1999 (→ Belgian embassy in Berlin ). In Bonn (Rheinweg 31, Gronau district), a branch office of the embassy with the agriculture department, which was ultimately responsible for Wallonia and headed by an embassy counselor, was left until at least 2006 . The former embassy building has served since 2000 under the name “Josef-Biber-Haus” as the seat of the Association of German Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Specialists (building owners) as well as other interest groups and companies, including the international city association ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability .

building

The Belgian embassy building, erected on a rectangular floor plan and with its narrow side facing Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse, is a four-storey reinforced concrete skeleton structure with a recessed attic . The facade is characterized by natural stone slabs hung like a ribbon . The entrance is in the middle and is bordered by a flight of stairs , it leads to a glass reception hall . The elevator and staircase are in the core of the building. The work rooms are designed as open- plan offices .

“It is the contrasting materials that draw the eye with their clear, strict arrangement. The [B] au impresses with its undisguised self-confident brutality. (...) In contrast to the Canadian embassy with its fortress-like cohesion, the Belgian embassy conveys a tremendous tension with its material contrast . "

- 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: Embassies in Berlin . Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-7861-2472-8 , pp. 29–41 (here: pp. 37/38).

Web links

Commons : Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 7 (Bonn) - Collection of images

Entry for the office of the Belgian Embassy, Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 7 in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association (description by Angelika Schyma and Elke Janßen-Schnabel, LVR Office for Monument Preservation in the Rhineland , 2014/2016)

Individual evidence

^ Helmut Vogt : Foreign missions in Bonn . In: Guardians of the Bonn Republic: The Allied High Commissioners 1949–1955 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-70139-8 , pp. 156-160.
^ 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.
↑ The Guide for Press and Advertising, Volume 4 , W. Stamm, 1951, p. 427.
↑ the time Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße 10
^ Rudolf Agstner : Representation - Embassy - Branch Office: an obituary for Austria's diplomatic mission in Bonn from 1950 to 2006 . In: Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein , Stadtarchiv Bonn (ed.): Bonner Geschichtsblätter: Yearbook of the Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein , ISSN 0068-0052 , Volume 55/56, Bonn 2006, pp. 293–326 (here: p. 307 f.).
↑ Olga Sonntag : Villas on the banks of the Rhine in Bonn: 1819–1914 , Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-416-02618-7 , Volume 3, Catalog (2), pp. 164/165. (also dissertation University of Bonn, 1994)
↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions in the Federal Republic of Germany , as of March 1992
↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions and other representations in the Federal Republic of Germany , as of April 1995
↑ List of diplomatic missions and other representations in the Federal Republic of Germany ( Memento from June 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) (as of May 2006), Foreign Office
^ Paperback of public life, volume 56 , NfA sales and advertising company, 2007, p. 340.
^ History , Association of German Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Specialists eV
↑ ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability , City of Bonn
↑ 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 .

50.723061 7.114916Coordinates: 50 ° 43 '23 " N , 7 ° 6' 53.7" E

[1] Helmut Vogt : Foreign missions in Bonn . In: Guardians of the Bonn Republic: The Allied High Commissioners 1949–1955 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-70139-8 , pp. 156-160.

[2] 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.

[3] The Guide for Press and Advertising, Volume 4 , W. Stamm, 1951, p. 427.

[4] the time Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße 10

[Agstner2006-5] Rudolf Agstner : Representation - Embassy - Branch Office: an obituary for Austria's diplomatic mission in Bonn from 1950 to 2006 . In: Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein , Stadtarchiv Bonn (ed.): Bonner Geschichtsblätter: Yearbook of the Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein , ISSN 0068-0052 , Volume 55/56, Bonn 2006, pp. 293–326 (here: p. 307 f.).

[6] Olga Sonntag : Villas on the banks of the Rhine in Bonn: 1819–1914 , Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-416-02618-7 , Volume 3, Catalog (2), pp. 164/165. (also dissertation University of Bonn, 1994)

[7] Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions in the Federal Republic of Germany , as of March 1992

[Liste1995-8] Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions and other representations in the Federal Republic of Germany , as of April 1995

[9] List of diplomatic missions and other representations in the Federal Republic of Germany ( Memento from June 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) (as of May 2006), Foreign Office

[10] Paperback of public life, volume 56 , NfA sales and advertising company, 2007, p. 340.

[11] History , Association of German Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Specialists eV

[12] ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability , City of Bonn

[13] 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 .