Chancellor's Bungalow

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Chancellor's Bungalow 1979 ...
... and 2012
Rhine view with armored glass front
View of the back from the park
Federal Chancellor Brandt receives actors in the Chancellor's bungalow (1971)
Bernhard Heiliger : Figur tree (1957–58) in the park of the chancellor's bungalow
In the foreground the seating group with Eames lobby chairs ; in the background the reconstructed, so-called Chancellor's sofa by Sep Ruf

The former residential and reception building of the German Chancellor in Bonn is known as the Chancellor's Bungalow . It was used for this purpose from 1964 to 1999. The bungalow is located in the park between the former Federal Chancellery (today's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development ) and Palais Schaumburg , the Bonn office of the Federal Chancellor . It stands roughly on the site of the former Villa Selve , which was demolished in 1955.

The building is an important example of 1960s architecture with traditions going back to the 1920s and has been a listed building since 2001 . It is also a stop on the Path of Democracy History Trail .

Building history

The later Federal Chancellor Ludwig Erhard commissioned the residence as a symbol of the cosmopolitan and modern spirit of the Federal Republic of Germany - still in his function as Minister of Economics . His predecessor, Konrad Adenauer , had come to Bonn every day from his private home in Rhöndorf . The architect Sep Ruf , who was friends with Erhard and had already built his private house, was commissioned in 1963 to construct a representative and modern building in the tradition of classical modernism in the park of the former Federal Chancellery , the Palais Schaumburg . The building (approx. 1963–1966) is considered an outstanding example of West German post-war architecture. The construction costs amounted to around two million German marks .

The intended impression of weightlessness led to a design based on a steel frame construction with point supports and a flat roof. These are two mutually offset squares with an outer length of 24 m × 24 m and 20 m × 20 m, each with an 8 m × 8 m atrium courtyard .

The larger square is reserved for the representation functions. In addition to the entrance and reception hall, it has a study, a large reception room, a dining room, the kitchen and a family dining room that leads to the living and sleeping area.

The room construction is variable and allows a view. Sliding and retractable walls make flexible room combinations possible. For example, a music room and a fireplace hall can be separated.

The chancellor's and wife's bedrooms in the living space are mirror images and each have a dressing room, work area, bedroom and bathroom. They wrap around the sleeping atrium with a swimming pool in a U-shape. There are also three servants' rooms with a kitchenette, two guest rooms, a private living room and the staff lounge at the transition to the kitchen.

As part of the tightened security measures during the threat from the RAF , a bulletproof glass front was placed in front of the terrace in 1977 ; this was supposed to fend off any shelling from the right bank of the Rhine. In 1983/84 an additional cellar was built outside the bungalow to store interchangeable furniture.

The materials are elegant and simple in keeping with the zeitgeist. The floors and terraces are tiled in travertine , the ceilings are suspended with Brazilian pine . The furnishings, which Ruf also significantly designed with the furniture - for example in the design of lamps with linen fabric , parchment or Japanese bark and tables made of glass and metal - was changed and supplemented by the various residents.

Usage history

The then incumbent Federal Treasury Minister Werner Dollinger handed over the key to Ludwig Erhard on November 12, 1964. In his address he is committed to the architecture of the building:

"You see the house here built [...] in terms of furnishings and arrangement, as it is in keeping with the nature of my wife and me."

The attitude of the Federal Chancellors towards the building varied. Federal Chancellor Adenauer is ascribed the following saying:

"I don't know which architect built the bungalow, but he deserves ten years."

While client Erhard praised the building, his successor Kurt Georg Kiesinger criticized the lack of comfort. He had the interior designer Herta-Maria Witzemann set up medieval works of art and period furniture . Willy Brandt stayed in his Foreign Minister's service villa ( Kiefernweg 12 ) and only used the bungalow for representative purposes such as receptions and, after an intervention by Federal President Gustav Heinemann, also let state guests there - including the Belgian royal couple from April 27-30, 1971 Baudoin and Fabiola  - stay overnight. Helmut Schmidt lived there for eight years. The Chancellors paid rent to the federal government for private use.

Helmut Kohl lived in the Chancellor's bungalow for the longest : almost 17 years from 1982 to September 30, 1999. His successor in office, Gerhard Schröder (elected Chancellor on October 27, 1998), did not move into the Chancellor's bungalow due to the approaching move to Berlin and continued to leave Helmut Kohl live there. He described the bungalow as an "absurd building - in the sense of a Federal Chancellor's apartment". This criticism related to the privately used part, which was very narrow and not very comfortable. Kohl changed - like more or less all the hosts who followed Erhard - the rooms according to his personal taste. He had silk fabric pulled over the brick walls, a halogen starry sky installed in the dining room and a large Persian carpet laid out there. Schröder left the private sleeping part of the bungalow to Kohl until the government moved and only used the representative part sporadically.

Current usage

The building has been empty since the Federal Government moved to Berlin in 1999; The second seat of the Federal Chancellery has been located in the Palais Schaumburg, which is part of the site. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development moved the end of 2005 in the lying in close proximity, former Federal Chancellery not and its extensions, in the chancellor's bungalow, as this is not suitable for use by the Ministry. In 2003, the bungalow was used for a short time for some broadcasts of the TV political magazine Kanzlerbungalow of the WDR .

In Berlin it was actually planned to build another chancellor's residence in the so-called chancellor garden of the new chancellery . This did not happen for cost reasons. Instead, there is only one small apartment on the top floor of the central building that Gerhard Schröder only used during the week. Angela Merkel continues to live in her private apartment in Berlin-Mitte.

Between 2007 and 2009 the Wüstenrot Foundation renovated and restored the Chancellor's bungalow. The Foundation for the History of the Federal Republic of Germany has set up a small permanent exhibition and offers guided tours for groups. The building is also used for events such as readings and concerts.

Chancellor's bungalow from a bird's eye view

Contribution to the Venice Biennale

2014 Kanzlerbungalow central part was the German contribution to the 14th Architecture Biennale in Venice . The Swiss architect duo Alex Lehnerer and Savvas Ciriacidis built it 1: 1 into the German pavilion as the only contribution. The so-called Chancellor's sofa designed by Ruf , which is now being rebuilt in small series, served as the central piece of furniture in the exhibition .

reception

“The overall visual impression of the group of buildings is determined by the light and weightless elegance, which, beyond any pathos, radiates serenity and dignity at the same time. (...) The resident feels spaciousness, limitless openness, objectivity, order. (...) The impression of the open, weightless and strictly ordered is paired with the impression of the differentiated in material and grouping. The differentiation avoids uniformity, coldness and rigidity - properties that modern architecture are repeatedly criticized. "

- Erich Steingräber : 1967

“There aren't many good examples of 'democratic' and transparent building in Bonn's government district. One of the best is undoubtedly the residential and reception building for the official residence of the Federal Chancellor. (...) A clear structure, consistent design, careful coordination of materials and harmonious integration into the surrounding landscape characterize the building. (...) [Calm and balanced, kept light and weightless, full of views on all sides, it reveals the private and state existence of the resident equally (...). "

- Frank-Lothar Kroll : 1989

“[The Chancellor's Bungalow] is Mies van der Rohe 's variant of the Berlin National Gallery - strictly horizontal, provocatively open with its all-round glazed walls, transparency geometry in the park with a kind of atrium core of modest intimacy. Always suffering from the conflict that here the modern abolition of the bourgeois individual must be reconciled with the old-fashioned needs of a highly private residential function. "

- Mathias Schreiber : 1992

“[Erhard] owes one of the few examples of modern architecture in Bonn. This is all the more astonishing as it is precisely this Chancellor that is associated with conservative comfort. (...) Chancellor Kiesinger proved (...) not exactly expertise or even tolerance when he compared the bungalow (...) with a railroad car. A comparison that scorns the intricacies of the floor plan. "

- Jan Thorn-Prikker : 1992

“Sep Ruf's Kanzlerbungalow (...) was good modern architecture, if not original. It has rightly been called the »variant of Mies van der Rohe's national gallery«. "

- Klaus von Beyme : 2000

literature

  • Sep call. Kanzlerbungalow, Bonn , texts: Andreas Schätzke / Joaquín Medina Warmburg, Edition Axel Menges, Stuttgart / London 2009, ISBN 978-3-932565-72-4 .
  • Georg Adlbert: The Chancellor's Bungalow . Preservation, repair, new use , Krämer, Stuttgart 2010 (2nd extended edition), ISBN 978-3-7828-1536-9 .
  • Foundation House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany, Wüstenrot Foundation (ed.): Kanzlerbungalow , Prestel, Munich / Berlin / London / New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-3-7913-5027-1 .
  • Burkhard Körner: The Chancellor's bungalow by Sep Ruf in Bonn. In: Bonner Geschichtsblätter. Yearbook of the Bonn home and history association . Volume 49/50, Bonn 1999/2000 (2001), ISSN  0068-0052 , pp. 507-613.
  • Jörg Diester: Secret files of the Chancellor's Bungalow. Bunkers under government buildings in Bonn and Berlin . Handicraft publishing house, Düsseldorf 2017, ISBN 978-3-86950-427-8 .
  • Andreas Denk , Ingeborg flag : Architectural guide Bonn . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-496-01150-5 , p. 84.
  • Interior views

  • Restoration of Erhard's study in the Chancellor's bungalow. The opening of the bookshelves, which were covered by cupboard doors at Erhard, goes back to Kiesinger 1966–1969 .

  • Restoration of the dining room as it was during the period in office and in the style of Kohl 1982–1998 (2009)

  • Reception in the Chancellor's bungalow by Chancellor's wife Hannelore Kohl (1988)

  • Guest book

Web links

Commons : Kanzlerbungalow  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ 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), pp. 213–254. (also dissertation University of Bonn, 1994)
  2. ↑ List of monuments of the city of Bonn (as of March 15, 2019), p. 3, number A 3708
  3. ↑ Sep Ruf. Chancellor's bungalow, Bonn . Texts: Andreas Schätzke / Joaquín Medina Warmburg, Stuttgart / London 2009
  4. ^ H. Riese: living and reception building of the Federal Chancellor (Chancellor bungalow) . In: Mathias Schreiber (Ed.): German architecture after 1945. 40 years of modernism in the Federal Republic . DVA, Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 73 ff.
  5. ^ Jörg Diester: Secret files of the Chancellor's Bungalow. Bunkers under government buildings in Bonn and Berlin . Verlaganstalt Handwerk, Düsseldorf 2017, ISBN 978-3-86950-427-8 , pp. 145/146.
  6. ^ Paul Swiridoff: The bungalow. Residential and reception building for the Federal Chancellor in Bonn. Neske Verlag, Pfullingen 1967 (text by Erich Steingräber)
  7. ↑ Sep Ruf Design. Family reputation website; Retrieved April 24, 2017
  8. ^ House of History: Leaflet Kanzlerbungalow
  9. ^ "Palais Schaumbad" for the Chancellors , WDR-Mediabox, 2009 ( memento of April 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) in the archive, accessed on January 2, 2013
  10. ^ Jörg Diester: Secret files of the Chancellor's Bungalow. Bunkers under government buildings in Bonn and Berlin . Handicraft publishing house, Düsseldorf 2017, ISBN 978-3-86950-427-8 , pp. 111–118.
  11. ↑ Mysterious Places - Chancellor's Bungalow . WDR documentary, broadcast on ARD on February 3, 2014
  12. ↑ Doesn't even burn . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 1967, p. 20 ( online ).
  13. ↑ einestages.spiegel.de
  14. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung April 16, 2009
  15. ↑ George Adlbert, Registrar bungalow. Preservation, repair, new use, Stuttgart / Zurich 2009
  16. ^ Foundation House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany, Wüstenrot Foundation (ed.): Kanzlerbungalow, Munich / Berlin / London / New York NY 2009
  17. ↑ bungalowgermania.de
  18. ↑ Thomas Kliemann: The living room of the republic . In: General-Anzeiger , June 6, 2014, accessed April 24, 2017
  19. ↑ Frank Kaltenbach: Ambiguous Hybrid: Bungalow Germania at the Venice Biennale , in detail from June 5, 2014, accessed on April 24, 2017
  20. ↑ Claudia Bousset: Furniture with a History: The Chancellor's Sofa from August 11, 2015, accessed on April 24, 2017
  21. ↑ The Chancellor's sofa. Manufacturer's website; Retrieved April 24, 2017
  22. ↑ Local time : The Chancellor's sofa at the 14th Architecture Biennale in Venice on June 11, 2014, accessed on April 24, 2017
  23. ↑ The Federal Minister for Spatial Planning, Building and Urban Development (ed.); Wolfgang Leuschner: Federal Buildings 1965–1980 . CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1980, ISBN 3-7880-9650-0 , p. 324/325.
  24. ^ Frank-Lothar Kroll: Federal capital Bonn. A Danaer present? In: Federal Ministry for Building, Regional Planning and Urban Development (Ed.): Forty Years Federal Capital Bonn 1949–1989 . CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1989, ISBN 3-7880-9780-9 , pp. 92-115 (here: p. 102).
  25. ^ Mathias Schreiber: Self-representation of the Federal Republic of Germany: Representation of the state in buildings and memorials . Jörg-Dieter Gauger, Justin Stagl: State Representation (= writings on cultural sociology , volume 12). Reimer, Berlin 1992, ISBN 978-3-496-00429-5 , pp. 191-204 (here: p. 197).
  26. ↑ Jan Thorn-Prikker: No experiments - everyday things on the edge of state architecture . In: Ingeborg Flagge, Wolfgang Jean Stock (Hrsg.): Architecture and Democracy . Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-7757-0402-7 , pp. 246-259 (here: pp. 252 255).
  27. ↑ Klaus von Beyme: Make State. State architecture of the 20th century in Germany . In: Romana Schneider, Winfried Nerdinger , Wilfried Wang (eds.): Architecture in the 20th century. Germany . Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3-7913-2293-3 , pp. 95-103.

Coordinates: 50 ° 43 '17.3 "  N , 7 ° 7' 4.5"  E