HICOG settlement Plittersdorf

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HICOG housing estate Plittersdorf (1952)
Typical apartment building in the settlement (2014)
Aerial view of the settlement (2009)

The HICOG settlement Plittersdorf (often " American colony") is a settlement in Plittersdorf , a district of Bonn city district Bad Godesberg , in 1951 for employees of the US High Commission was established (HICOG).

location

Stimson Memorial Chapel, church on Kennedyallee

The HICOG settlement is in the north of the Plittersdorf district and borders on Bonn's Rheinaue . It extends over the streets Kennedyallee , Columbusring, Steubenring, Europastraße, Martin-Luther-King-Straße and Turmstraße.

history

After Bonn had become the seat of government of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 , the US High Commission, as the service of the High Commissioner of Germany (HICOG) and part of the Allied High Commission, initially took its seat in Frankfurt am Main . At the end of 1950 the decision was made to completely relocate the US High Commission to the Bonn enclave and to set up the headquarters in the Bad Godesberger Deichmannsaue . While the housing projects initiated for this purpose for the German employees of the commission were to be implemented in Muffendorf - Pennenfeld and Tannenbusch , the choice for a settlement for the American employees fell on Plittersdorfer Aue at the end of 1950. The property was owned by the Carstanjen community of heirs , with whom the US representatives began property negotiations on January 2, 1951.

The Plittersdorfer settlement was built from February 1951 in a construction period of only nine months at a cost of 112.4 million D-Marks , the topping-out ceremony took place on June 1 and the move into from November 5, 1951. The settlement was planned by the architects Sep Ruf , Otto Apel , Rudolf Letocha, William Rohrer and Martin Herdt. It comprised 500 apartments with an area of ​​mostly 120 to 143  m² , which were built in the form of three-storey row residential buildings in the cubic style and were partially staggered. The settlement is accessed by concrete roads which, following the American model, are extraordinarily wide and form a contrast to the surrounding residential areas. For the head of the American high commission, five representative residences were built on the banks of the Rhine (today Turmstrasse and Martin-Luther-King-Strasse), including one for the deputy high commissioner and later envoy (Turmstrasse 44). The HICOG settlement in Plittersdorf is considered to be the largest construction project to date in West Germany after the Second World War, at times around 3,200 workers were employed on the construction site.

The - in the settlement of a complete supply infrastructure, including a thermal power station, a church arose Stimson Memorial Chapel - a childcare center and a helipad of the US Army included. On the eastern edge of the HICOG settlement on Martin-Luther-King-Strasse, an "American Elementary School" (founded in 1952) supported by the US Department of Defense , to which an "American High School" was added in 1971, and the "American Embassy Club" (Founded in 1951) built as a sports and leisure club, which included a tennis facility, swimming pool and restaurant. The club was considered an international meeting place for politicians, diplomats and journalists. An English-language cinema, an American gas station and an official US post office next to an American supermarket (a so-called PX store ) were added later - all facilities were also paid for in US dollars . In 1963 the streets of the settlement became the property of the city of Bad Godesberg.

After the Allied High Commission and thus also the American High Commission were dissolved in 1955, the residents of the settlement were mainly members of the US embassy in the Deichmannsaue , but increasingly also other embassies and American companies. From 1972 to at least 1981 the house at 8 Europastraße served as the residence of the Ambassador of Guatemala . During the Second Gulf War, the settlement was almost like a fortress. With the relocation of the seat of government and the US embassy to Berlin , the settlement was abandoned by the USA in the summer of 1999 and then placed under monument protection. From 1998 to 2001 the "Vereinigte Bonner Wohnungsbau AG" ( VEBOWAG ) acquired them gradually from the USA and the Federal Property Office in order to rent them out or to sell them on as condominiums . For this purpose, the entire settlement was subjected to a comprehensive renovation, which was only completed in 2013 for the last houses. The two American schools merged into the Bonn International School in 1997 , for which the previous school building was demolished and a new building was erected in its place from 2004 to 2006. The former American Club, whose associated swimming pool was demolished, has been empty since the US embassy moved and should be converted for use by the school from 2013/14. The former kindergarten has been preserved, while the former heating and power station and the cinema on Kennedyallee were demolished in favor of a new building.

Aerial view of the Bonn International School

Monument protection

Major parts of the HICOG estate are listed as historical monuments ; the entry in the list of monuments of the city of Bonn took place on August 14, 2000. The scope of protection also includes the former kindergarten, the former American Club (Martin-Luther-King-Straße 12) and the Stimson Memorial Chapel .

literature

Web links

Commons : HICOG-Siedlung Plittersdorf  - Collection of pictures

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Helmut Vogt: Guardians of the Bonn Republic: The Allied High Commissioners 1949–1955
  2. ^ US Army airfield / helipad , Military Airfields Directory
  3. ↑ On the way to an international school , General-Anzeiger , January 24, 1997, Bonn city edition, p. 10
  4. ↑ BIS wants to use the former American Club , General-Anzeiger , August 25, 2012
  5. ↑ CDU wishes to be renamed , General-Anzeiger, September 14, 2012
  6. ↑ Article on the dissolution of the HICOG settlement in the New York Times of   August 15, 1999 (accessed August 18, 2013)
  7. ↑ The "Rheinauer" are coming , General-Anzeiger , September 23, 2008
  8. ↑ CDU: High quality of living in the settlement preserved , General-Anzeiger, July 17, 1996, Bonner Stadtausgabe, p. 8
  9. ↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of the diplomatic corps in Bonn (status: May 1972)
  10. ↑ Foreign Office (ed.): List of diplomatic missions and other representations in Bonn (as of February 1981)
  11. ↑ The renovation is almost complete , General-Anzeiger, July 19, 2012
  12. ↑ Brownfield becomes a play area , General-Anzeiger, April 2, 2013
  13. ↑ a b Citizens want to save kindergarten , General-Anzeiger , December 12, 2016
  14. ↑ List of monuments of the city of Bonn (as of March 15, 2019), pp. 18/30/33/40/53/55, number A 3620

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 18.5 ″  N , 7 ° 9 ′ 27 ″  E