Estonian Embassy in Berlin

Estonian Embassy in Berlin
State level	bilateral
Position of the authority	Embassy
Supervisory authority (s)	Foreign Ministry
Headquarters	Berlin
ambassador	Alar Streimann
Website	Estonian Embassy

Estonian Embassy in Hildebrandstrasse

Buddy Bear in front of the Estonian Embassy in Berlin

The Estonian Embassy in Berlin (officially the Embassy of the Republic of Estonia , Estonian Eesti Vabariigi Suursaatkond ) is the diplomatic representation of Estonia in Germany . The embassy building is located at Hildebrandstrasse 5 in the Berlin district of Tiergarten in the Mitte district . Alar Streimann has been the ambassador since September 11, 2019 .

Estonia has honorary consulates in Bonn , Bremen , Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg , Kiel , Schwerin and Stuttgart .

history

History of the embassy building

The chocolate manufacturer Theodor Hildebrand acquired a larger piece of land in 1852 between the Landwehr Canal and the southern edge of the zoo . After it had been divided into several smaller pieces of land, the first houses were built in 1853 on the site of the present embassy building and south of it. In 1870, the purveyor to the court, Joseph A. Robrecht, acquired the property at Hildebrandstrasse 5 and in 1883, the architects Kayser und v. Enlarge Großheim . The next major change took place in 1895. Robrecht's daughter, who had inherited the property a year earlier, had the building expanded by the architects Reimarus & Hetzel . The original building was demolished. The new building, a historicist style house, has largely been preserved to this day. Only the southern section bordering the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung is no longer in its original condition.

First Estonian independence (1918-1940)

After the upheavals of 1918, many owners were no longer able to keep their villas and so it came about that the property at Hildebrandstrasse 5 was sold by its owner to the Estonian consul Voldemar Puhk in 1920 . However, since the Republic of Estonia did not have sufficient funds, Puhk bought the property as a private individual. On May 15 of the same year, the Estonian Embassy began operating in the building and the house was redesigned. The consulate was set up on the upper floors, while the remaining rooms were used for representative and residential purposes.

Second World War and subsequent period

In August 1940 the embassy was handed over to the Soviet Union . When war broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union the next year , the building was taken over by the German Foreign Ministry and converted into an office building. The south wing was given its current shape and the two-storey staircase, which was previously open, was closed.

Fortunately, the building was one of the few to escape destruction during the Second World War . It was one of only three buildings that remained on Hildebrandstrasse.

After the end of the war, the building came under the trusteeship of the major Western victorious powers and a lawyer was hired to manage the building as a tenement house during the "absence of the owner". This was necessary because, due to the location of the Tiergarten district in the British sector, the Republic of Estonia continued to own the property, as the United Kingdom had not recognized the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union. On the other hand, the Estonian government in exile was not recognized by the Federal Republic. However, low rents and the unfavorable location close to the Berlin Wall ensured that the house fell into disrepair.

After regaining independence (since 1991)

After Estonia regained independence and the associated resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Republic of Estonia has been the owner of the property again since September 1991. Before the Berlin location was used again, Estonia was represented in Germany by the Baltic Information Office, which opened in October 1991 in Bonn at Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz 1-7. The Estonian department was headed by Tiit Matsulevitš , who was appointed ambassador of his homeland to Germany in November 1991. Due to the need for larger rooms, the move to Bonn's government district followed in 1993 (→ entry in the embassy list ). On June 28, the new embassy building was opened by the Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar . The house had been bought earlier this year and adapted for its new use.

In March 1998 the branch office of the embassy started its work in Berlin. Her main tasks included preparing for the embassy to move from Bonn to Berlin, i.e. renting a temporary office and initiating the renovation of the embassy building at Hildebrandstrasse 5 in the embassy district . In May 1999 the last tenant moved out of the embassy building. The Estonian Embassy has been active in Berlin since July of the same year. The rented office space at Kurfürstendamm 56 has been used by the consular department of the embassy since February. In August 2000, after lengthy preparations, the renovation of the embassy building on Hildebrandstrasse began, and since June 1, 2001, the offices and representative rooms of the Embassy of the Republic of Estonia as well as the ambassador's residence have been located in this building again. As a result, the former embassy building in Bonn was sold. In September 2001, Estonian President Lennart Meri reopened the historic embassy building .

Head of the Estonian diplomatic mission in Germany

Term of office	Surname	annotation
1919	Establishing diplomatic relations
1919-1919	Mihkel Martna	Representative of the Republic of Estonia in Berlin
1919-1920	Eduard Vilde	first also representative of the Republic of Estonia in Berlin, from 1919 envoy
1921-1933	Karl Menning	from 1921 to 1923 chargé d'affaires and consul general, from 1923 envoy
1933-1936	Friedrich Karl Akel	Envoy
1936-1939	Karl Tofer	Envoy
1939-1940	Rudolf Möllerson	Envoy
1940-1991	Break in relations as a result of the Soviet occupation of Estonia
1991-1996	Tiit Matsulevitš	ambassador
1996-2000	Margus Laidre	ambassador
2000-2004	Riina Ruth Kionka	Ambassador
2004-2008	Clyde Kull	ambassador
2008–2012	Mart Laanemäe	ambassador
2012-2016	Kaja Tael	Ambassador
2016-2019	Mart Laanemäe	Ambassador (2nd term)
since 2019	Alar Streimann	ambassador

literature

• Kerstin Englert, Jürgen Tietz (ed.): Embassies in Berlin. Berlin 2003, p. 198 f. ( ISBN 3-7861-2472-8 )
• Kirsten Baumann, Natascha Meuser: Berlin residences. Visiting the ambassadors of the world. 2nd Edition. Berlin 2003, pp. 48-53 ( ISBN 3-935455-19-4 ).
• The Embassy of the Republic of Estonia in Berlin. History and renovation of the building at Hildebrandstrasse 5 . Brochure from the Estonian Embassy in Berlin, undated

Web links

Commons : Estonian Embassy in Berlin  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Website of the Estonian Embassy in Berlin
• Entry in the Berlin State Monument List: Hildebrandstrasse 5, Estonian Legation

Individual evidence

1. ^ Estonian representations, Federal Foreign Office, accessed December 16, 2019

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 30.4 "  N , 13 ° 21 ′ 33"  E