Chancellor Tea House

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chancellor Tea House (2011)

As chancellor teahouse one is pavilion in the park of Palais Schaumburg in Bonn district of Gronau referred. It was built in 1955 on the banks of the Rhine (Wilhelm-Spiritus-Ufer) and was used by the Chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany for confidential discussions, sometimes also for private purposes. The teahouse is available as part of the area of the former Federal Chancellery as a monument under monument protection .

history

At the request of the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer , the tea house was built in 1955 by the Federal Building Directorate according to its own design as a place of retreat. It stands on the foundations of a previously existing garden hall, a Walhalla view architecture, which belonged to Villa Selve , which was demolished in 1955 . The tea house includes a room with a basement of around 25 square meters, an attached small tea kitchen and a terrace with a view of the Rhine. It is located at the lower end in the park of the Palais Schaumburg, which served as the Federal Chancellor's first official residence from 1949 to 1976.

Adenauer liked to retreat to the countryside and used the inconspicuous "Konradsruh", as the tea house was also called by its employees and later popularly, for confidential discussions with state guests and journalists. A trusting exchange was made possible in a private atmosphere. For example, he always invited US press correspondents there before traveling to the United States .

It is known of the future Chancellor Helmut Schmidt that he exchanged ideas there with the then US President Gerald Ford and his wife Betty in 1975 . Schmidt's wife Loki also liked to use the Chancellor's tea house during her husband's tenure from 1974 to 1982; she wrote her books there. Helmut Kohl and the then Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbatschow held an often-quoted one-to-one conversation in June 1989 on the initiation of German reunification in the Chancellor's tea house with a view of the Rhine . Since the meetings with the respective hosts in the tea house took place outside the official protocol , no guest lists were kept.

Furnishing

The sober, factual building was - due to the frugal requirements of the budget committee of the Bundestag - furnished simply and without any luxury. The main square room has a small tea kitchen ; a stone floor, ruffled curtains with flower patterns and bag lamps show the ambience of the 1950s at the time of construction. A telephone call line connects the tea house with the Chancellery; a complete pipeline was refused in 1958 for cost reasons.

Redevelopment

The modern-style chancellor's bungalow, built in 1963–1965, and the buildings of the Federal Chancellery on Bundeskanzlerplatz , newly built in 1976 , were transferred to the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) after the seat of government was moved from Bonn to Berlin (1999) . The bungalow was no longer used for official purposes after 1999 and was listed as a historical monument in 2001 . The Wüstenrot Foundation included the Chancellor's bungalow and the Chancellor's tea house in its memorial program in 2006. After extensive renovation and repair, the bungalow was reopened on April 17th, 2009. 1.8 million euros were spent on the renovation of the bungalow and tea house; the BMZ contributed 45,000 euros of this.

Since April 2011, the Chancellor's tea house - together with the Chancellor's bungalow - has been accessible as part of guided tours. These are organized by the visitor service of the House of History (HdG). The HdG also organizes concerts and readings in the bungalow.

Future use

Both the Federal Ministry involved and the Foundation for the History of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Wüstenrot Foundation do not want to leave the Chancellor's tea house in a “museum-like rigor” in the future; rather, it should be used as a “lively meeting place” for guests of the BMZ, among others.

Web links

Commons : Chancellor Tea House  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of monuments of the city of Bonn (as of March 15, 2019), number A 3972
  2. ↑ The information is taken from the legally binding list of monuments of the city of Bonn. It is managed by the Lower Monument Authority , from which the entries for the individual monuments can be obtained for a fee.
  3. ^ New painting for Adenauer's old tea house in Bonn ; World compact, April 15, 2011
  4. ↑ Olga Sonntag : Villas on the banks of the Rhine in Bonn: 1819–1914 , Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-416-02618-7 , Volume 2, Catalog (1), p. 359 (also dissertation University of Bonn, 1994)
  5. ↑ A visit to Adenauer's tea house , General-Anzeiger Bonn, April 15, 2011
  6. ↑ "Konradsruh" awakened to new life ; Kölnische Rundschau, April 15, 2011

Coordinates: 50 ° 43 '21.4 "  N , 7 ° 7' 8.6"  E