Israeli embassy in Berlin

The Israeli embassy in Berlin is the headquarters of the diplomatic mission of Israel in Germany. It is located in the Berlin district of Schmargendorf at Auguste-Viktoria-Straße 74.

history

Israeli Embassy on Auguste-Viktoria-Strasse

Ambassador's residence in the old villa

Diplomatic relations between the State of Israel and West Germany have existed since 1965. The first embassy, ​​opened on August 24, 1965 (previously there was an embassy ), was located in the Cologne district of Ehrenfeld . The following year it moved its headquarters to the Bad Godesberg district of Bonn (→ entry in the embassy list ). With the relocation of the seat of government , the Israeli embassy moved from Bonn to Berlin in August 1999, where until then there was only one Israeli consulate general at Schinkelstrasse 10 ( Grunewald ).

The ambassador resides in the villa of the former Jewish commercial councilor Hermann Schöndorff (1868–1936; co-founder of the Schöndorff brothers , Karstadt board member from 1920 to early 1931 ). The building, which is now a listed building, was designed in 1929–1930 by the Karstadt construction office under architect Philipp Schaefer with a shell made of limestone . As a result of the “ seizure of power ” by the National Socialists , the Schöndorff family was forced to sell the house and in 1934 to emigrate from Germany to Paris .

Later the house belonged to the Diakonisches Werk , which set up the Oberlin-Seminar vocational school there. In 1997 the Berlin group of companies Specker Bauten GmbH (currently: Cenda Invest AG) bought the property; on behalf of the State of Israel, it also took over the general planning and project control of the following construction measures.

In 1998, the State of Israel acquired the villa and the approximately 9,000 m² property. The interior of the ambassador villa was redesigned according to a design by Esther Bachrach Yaacobi, wife of the former Israeli minister and UN ambassador Gad Yaacobi .

The embassy is housed in a new building on the property, which was built in 1999-2001 according to plans by the Israeli architect Orit Willenberg-Giladi , daughter of the survivor of the Treblinka concentration camp , Samuel Willenberg , in collaboration with the Berlin architect Wolfgang Keilholz. The embassy facade consists of six elements that stand for the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. Willenberg-Giladi had previously designed the Israeli embassies in Bangkok , Canberra , Geneva and Manila . Like the ambassador's villa, the facade is clad with shell limestone. Some smaller outbuildings of the villa were demolished for the construction.

The inauguration took place on May 9, 2001, the 53rd anniversary of Israel's independence .

On March 17, 2020, the embassy was temporarily closed after Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff tested positive for COVID-19 .

See also

• List of the Israeli ambassadors in Germany

Web links

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

• Web presence of the Israeli embassy in Berlin
• Embassy of the State of Israel, architectural monument. In: Lexicon: Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf from A to Z. District Office Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf of Berlin, accessed on April 4, 2010 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Monika Grübel, Georg Mölich (ed.): Jewish life in the Rhineland: from the Middle Ages to the present , Böhlau Verlag, 2005, p. 311.
2. ↑ PDF at www.digitalis.uni-koeln.de
3. ^ Exilpresse Digital - German-language exile magazines 1933–1945. Retrieved January 10, 2012 . 
4. ^ Rudolf Lenz:  Schöndorff, Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 402 f. ( Digitized version ).
5. ↑ Monument Auguste-Viktoria-Straße 74–78, Schöndorff House, Oberlin Seminar, 1929–1930
6. ↑ The new domicile. In: Berliner Zeitung. November 16, 1998, accessed January 10, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Azo: Opening of the Israeli Embassy: "The most beautiful day in life". In: Der Tagesspiegel. May 10, 2001, accessed January 21, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Israel. In: BauNetz. Retrieved January 10, 2012 . 
9. ↑ Embassy Israel: Ambassador @JIssacharoff & the envoy of the Embassy of the State of Israel in Berlin @aasagui tested positive for the #Coronavirus on Tuesday. You are in quarantine at home and you are feeling fine ... (1/2) pic.twitter.com/04hhxxZO3g. In: @IsraelinGermany. March 17, 2020, accessed March 19, 2020 . 

Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 0.8 ″  N , 13 ° 17 ′ 19.6 ″  E