Embassy of Canada (Bonn)

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Former office building of the Canadian embassy (2013)

The Canadian Embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany was based in Bonn's parliamentary and government district from 1949/50 to 1999 . The former office building of the embassy , built between 1967 and 1969, is located in the Gronau district on the edge of the Johanniter district on Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße (house number 18) at the corner of Johanniterstraße.

history

Villa Lindenallee 70 in Cologne-Marienburg, residence of the embassy until the mid-1960s

Canada 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 function of head of the Canadian mission was initially performed by a lieutenant general . It was located at Zitelmannstrasse 14 on the southern edge of the newly created parliamentary and government district by 1950 at the latest, and in 1952 it was listed at Zitelmannstrasse 22 (built in 1930, British headquarters until 1949) and also had a consular department there . This building was also owned by the Canadian Embassy and a western extension was added in 1955. The residence of the embassy, ​​residence of the Canadian ambassador, was in Cologne-Marienburg at Villa Lindenallee 70 . The trade department of the embassy was temporarily located outside the office building in Bad Godesberg ( Kennedyallee 35), the visa department at different locations in Cologne (first Buchheimer Straße 64/66, then Hohenzollernring 60-62).

When the Canadian government began to adjust to a longer presence at the Bonn government seat, it planned to build the embassy office not far from the old location in the mid-1960s. The Department of Public Works acted as the client , and the Canadian architectural firm Bolton, Ellwood & Aimers from Montreal were commissioned with the planning and design . In 1967 the foundation stone was laid for the new embassy building, and in 1969 it was completed. The embassy residence was relocated from Cologne to the Bad Godesberg district of Rüngsdorf (Fasanenstrasse 25) around the time the new office was being built. In May 1985 the ambassador temporarily gave up the residence on the occasion of the G7 summit in Bonn in order to make it available to the Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney during his five-day stay. The consular and immigration department of the embassy was most recently located on Bundesstrasse 9 in the Friesdorf district ( Godesberger Allee 119).

In the course of relocating the seat of government , the Canadian embassy moved to Berlin in 1999 (→ Canadian embassy in Berlin ). The state was able to quickly sell the former office building to a real estate company, which had it converted from autumn 2001 to summer 2002 with the aim of renting it out as an office building at a cost of around 30 million D-Marks , adding to it and adding a glass, elliptical extension. The property was named "Kanadahaus" and is today the headquarters of Action Press Holding AG and its subsidiary Infas , a market and social research institute. Since 2010/11, it has also housed departments of Deutsche Post AG .

building

Original condition

The Canadian embassy building was originally a three-story, elongated and block-like reinforced concrete skeleton structure . The basement , surrounded by a free-standing reinforced concrete column construction and serving as a parking area, was located below street level, so that the building appeared to be two-story from the street. The external support system was also visible on the ground floor as a protruding grid. The upper floor cantilevered, the facade was divided by high rectangular precast concrete parts with loopholes-like light slits between anodized metal frames. The central entrance was accessible via an outside staircase on the long side of the building on the street side. Overall, the result was a "defensive, closed impression" of the building, particularly due to the heavy-weight and dominating upper floor.

Inside, the horizontal two flush included undeveloped building 50 external offices in total, in the building there were core (without exposure) meeting rooms, archives and library. The representative embassy rooms were accessible from the entrance hall. The interior was generous and ranged from marble- paneled floors and walls to natural wood.

"The hermetic building with its narrow, high windows makes an elegant, but forbidding impression, which is not least due to a 'transantlantic' modernity that is a foreign body in its surroundings."

- Michael Gassmann (2001)

After the renovation in 2001/02

In the course of the renovations and extensions carried out after the embassy moved out, the building was given a fundamentally new appearance. The base fell away when the site was filled up, the building was increased by a recessed top floor ( stacked floor ) and the entrance was relocated. A major change on the ground floor are new, large windows. The building is now dominated on its east side by a five-storey, elliptical and glass extension, which also has a stacked storey. The new building complex created in this way comprises an office area of ​​4,700 m².

  • Canada house, in the foreground the elliptical extension

See also

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. 35/36).
  • 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. 126/127 .
  • 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. 30-31.

Web links

Commons : Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße 18 (Bonn)  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  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. ↑ a b Entry on residential building, Zitelmannstrasse 22, British headquarters, hotel "Zum golden Stern", seat of the Canadian embassy in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association (with a brief description of the LVR office for the preservation of monuments in the Rhineland by Angelika Schyma and Elke Janßen -Beak, 2005)
  4. ^ Official Journal for Schleswig-Holstein , State Administration Schleswig-Holstein, Office for the Interior, 1952, p. 449.
  5. ^ Bulletin of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government , Press and Information Office, Deutscher Bundes-Verlag, 1954, p. 1554.
  6. ^ List of diplomatic missions and commercial agencies 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 ]).
  7. ^ List of diplomatic missions and commercial missions of foreign states in the Federal Republic of Germany (as of September 25, 1968) . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (Ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1969 No. 4 , p. 133 , Annex 1 ( online at the information system of the Hessian State Parliament [PDF; 5,8 MB ]).
  8. ^ List of diplomatic missions and commercial missions of foreign states in the Federal Republic of Germany (as of September 25, 1968) . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (Ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1970 No. 24 , p. 1209 , Annex 1 ( online at the information system of the Hessian State Parliament [PDF; 5.4 MB ]).
  9. ^ Envoy had to move out to make room for PM during Bonn summitt , The Citizen, Ottawa, May 11, 1985
  10. ↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions in the Federal Republic of Germany , as of March 1992
  11. ↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions and other representations in the Federal Republic of Germany , as of April 1995
  12. ↑ Bonn Council Information System - Statement by the Administration (PDF), September 2006
  13. ↑ All-round glazed ellipse as an "eye-catcher" , General-Anzeiger , May 17, 2001
  14. ↑ Two former embassies become office buildings , General-Anzeiger, October 4, 2001
  15. ^ Post rents Canada and Holland House in Bonn , Immobilien Zeitung , November 24, 2010
  16. ↑ 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 . In: Embassies in Berlin .
  17. ↑ Michael Gassmann: Built messages . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 26, 2001, No. 224, p. 52.

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 '48.1 "  N , 7 ° 7' 48.8"  E