Palais Blücher

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Brandenburg Gate and Palais Blücher at the right edge of the picture, photograph by Friedrich Albert Schwartz 1885
Palais Blücher and Haus Sommer (1932)

The Palais Blücher was located at Pariser Platz  2 at the later Königgrätzer Straße  140 in a prominent place in Berlin in the immediate vicinity of the Brandenburg Gate .

history

Front to Friedrich-Ebert-Straße , formerly Königgrätzer Straße (approx. 1929)
Ruins of the Palais Blücher, Ebertstrasse (March 1957)
US Embassy at Pariser Platz 2 (1939)
New US embassy building (left) and new summer house (right) on Pariser Platz, 2008

After 1815, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. left the city ​​palace to his General Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher for his services - especially in the battle of Waterloo - as a reward.

The palace was completely rebuilt or rebuilt into a late classical palace by the master builder Karl (?) Richter and the master plasterer H. Beyerhaus in 1869–1870 on the basis of the old palace. According to the description of H. Beyerhaus, the facade was executed as an artificial stone facade made of Roman cement mortar using the "cement casting technique " that was new at the time .

In January 1922, Blücher's descendant Gebhard , 4th Prince Blücher von Wahlstatt, sold the palace to the Latvian-American banker Zimding. During the Weimar Republic , the American ambassador resided in the rented complex at Bendlerstrasse 39 (today Stauffenbergstrasse) until the United States bought Palais Blücher from the banker for 1.8 million US dollars in 1931 to set up their embassy there. The building burned down on April 15, 1931. The reconstruction took several years and only on April 1, 1939 could the American ambassador start his work there, now also with the secondary address " Hermann-Göring- Strasse  21" (today Ebertstrasse ). The cornice figures and the Blücher coat of arms on the front facing Pariser Platz had been removed. When the German Reich declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941, the embassy was closed.

The buildings were badly damaged by the effects of the war until 1945. After the division of Berlin , the remains of the Palais Blücher were initially in the Soviet sector of Berlin, and from 1949 in the border area between East and West Berlin . In 1957 the government of the GDR had the ruins of the Palais Blücher torn down.

After German reunification , the United States got back the property on which the Palais Blücher stood and built its new embassy building in Germany there. This was officially inaugurated on July 4th, 2008.

Web links

Commons : Palais Blücher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ The only remaining building in the Berlin area with this facade design - and according to the Beyerhaus also the first of its kind in the design - is Biesdorf Palace in Berlin-Biesdorf, built from 1867–1869.
  2. ^ Palais Blücher

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 55 "  N , 13 ° 22 ′ 42"  E