Swiss Embassy in Berlin
The Swiss Embassy Berlin is the seat of the diplomatic representation of the Swiss Confederation in Germany .
Location
The embassy building is located at the Otto-von-Bismarck-Allee on the southern outskirts of Berlin Spreebogen Park , close to the Federal Chancellery in the district Tiergarten of the district center .
history
The current seat of the Swiss Embassy was built by the architect Friedrich Hitzig in 1870/1871 as a private city palace in the Alsenviertel for Friedrich Frerichs . His patient, the writer Dostoyevsky , once described it as follows: "This lamp of German science lives in a palace (literally)."
In 1907 the house was sold to his neighbor, the rentier Max Esser, and in 1910 to the chemical manufacturer Erich Kunheim (the Kunheim company was the largest ammonia producer in Germany at the time, also a manufacturer of cyan , the raw material for the industrial production of Berlin blue ). In 1910/1911 the architect Paul Otto August Baumgarten integrated this previous building into the neoclassical Villa Kunheim . He expanded the originally two-story, seven-axis building to a three-story with nine axes. Ionic columns in wall niches above the high basement structure the facade. Putti reliefs decorate the frieze . The house became the center of Berlin society for a time.
The Swiss Confederation acquired the building in 1919. After renovations, from 1920 it served as the office of the Swiss legation and the ambassador's residence .
The embassy was the only building in the Spreebogen to survive the demolition work for the world capital Germania and the Second World War without serious damage. After the bombing began, the embassy was housed in Rauschendorf Castle near Sonnenberg . In the final phase of the Battle of Berlin , the embassy building was occupied by Soviet troops at the end of April 1945 and served as a base for the capture of the Reichstag . The members of the embassy who remained in the house were initially locked up in the basement and then transported to Moscow after the war , from where they were only allowed to return months later.
In the first post-war years, the building was the seat of the repatriation delegation , which dealt with the repatriation of Swiss citizens from the former German eastern regions . After the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949, the repatriation delegation became a Swiss delegation . In 1973 the delegation was converted into a consulate general . The Swiss embassy in Germany was located at or in Bonn until 1999 . From 1973 onwards, Switzerland maintained a representation in the East Berlin district of Pankow in the German Democratic Republic . Among the employees were the chef Peter Gross, who was convicted of escaping in 1975, as well as a chauffeur who spied on him. The embassy building erected in Esplanade 21 belonged to a standard type designed by Eckart Schmidt . It was no longer used after reunification.
After the final decision in favor of Berlin as the federal capital had been made, the building of the Consulate General became the seat of the branch office of the Swiss Embassy in Bonn in October 1992.
The embassy building was renovated and an extension on the east side was designed by the architects Diener & Diener . Even before the final work was completed in spring 2001, the Swiss embassy moved into the building in 2000.
One of the most famous ambassadors in Berlin in recent years was Thomas Borer , who was dismissed from his post in 2002 because of an affair made up by the Swiss tabloid SonntagsBlick . Paul Seger has been accredited as ambassador since August 28, 2018 .
literature
- Paul Widmer : 1867–2017, 150 years: The Swiss flag in the heart of Berlin, brochure of the Swiss Embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin 2017, online .
- Nicola Bröcker: Swiss Embassy Berlin / Swiss Embassy Berlin , Die Neue Architekturführer, No. 182, Stadtwandel Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86711-204-8 (German edition), ISBN 978-3-86711-205-5 (English version).
- Paul Widmer: Minister Hans Frölicher. The most controversial Swiss diplomat , Neue Zürcher Zeitung publishing house, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-03823-779-2 .
- Lucas Elmenhorst: Can you build nationally? The architecture of the embassies of India, Switzerland and Great Britain in Berlin , Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-7861-2623-2 (also dissertation at the Humboldt University 2009).
- Claudia Schwartz : The house in the neighboring country. The Swiss Embassy in Berlin's government district , Braun Verlagshaus, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-935455-03-8 .
- Paul Widmer: The Swiss Legation in Berlin. History of a difficult diplomatic post , Neue Zürcher Zeitung publishing house, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-85823-683-7 .
Web links
- Website of the Swiss Embassy Berlin
- Swiss Embassy Berlin on Facebook
- Swiss Embassy Berlin on Twitter
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- Embassy of Switzerland on berlin.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Fyodor Dostojewski, Anna Dostojewskaja: Correspondence 1866-1880 . Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1982, p. Letter # 535 v. 13./25.6.1874 .
- ↑ Message from the Ambassador , accessed on September 27, 2019.
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 16 ″ N , 13 ° 22 ′ 16 ″ E