American–German Colony
The American–German Colony was founded in the 19th century by the American Protestant, Christian Restorationism movement, led by George J. Adams and Abraham McKenzie.
On 17 November 1917 British forces conquered Jaffa and the colony, and most of the male inhabitants of the colony, holding German citizenship, were deported with German prisoners of war to Sidi Bishr and other places in Egypt, later a part of them were sent in 1920 to Bad Mergentheim in Germany[6][7] In July 1918 women, elderly and children were deported too for two years, under police supervision, to the "Al Hayat" Hotel-Sanatorium in Helwan in Egypt.
After the Treaty of Lausanne, by which Turkey accepted the British mandate of Palestine, had been ratified on 5 August 1925, the public custody was lifted and the property restituted.
[12][13] Whereas the buildings of religious usage, like Immanuel Church and its rectory, had remained in public custody and had been handed over to the Lutheran World Federation in 1951 after an agreement of September of that year regulating Israel's compensation of expropriated Protestant religious property of secular purposes, such as schools, farms, factories etc., and the restitution of actual places of worship, cemeteries etc.
[14][15] In following years the area gradually suffered neglect, but later came to be re-developed or restored, including by a small number of American Christian restorationists, some of them family descendants from the original Maine community.
In 1873 the Templers erected the Tempelstift, i.e. the main office of the Temple Society, including also a school and a community hall, on then Seestraße 11 (i.e. Sea Street; now renamed and renumbered Rehov Auerbach 8), most likely following plans of the architect Theodor Sandel [de], one of their fellow faithful.
[16] In May 1878 the Templers moved these institutions to the German Colony in the Rephaim valley near Jerusalem and sold the Tempelstift building to the Russian-born German-naturalised Plato von Ustinow, one of Metzler's proselytes.
[18] ʾElhādīf (1857–1913) bought exotic plants and trees from all over the world in order to develop the garden of Ustinov's hotel into a botanical park.
[17] In his "Hôtel du Parc" Ustinow housed German Emperor William II, his wife Auguste Victoria, and their closest entourage on their stay in Jaffa on 27 October 1898.
Their travel agency Thomas Cook accommodated the imperial guests with Ustinow because his "Hôtel du Parc" was considered the only establishment in Jaffa suited for them.
[20] In 1897 and 1898 Templers of Jaffa and Sarona, arguing the title to the construction site would be under dispute, had intrigued with the Sublime Porte and the German Foreign Office against the plans to build Immanuel Church in the colony, so that the laying of the cornerstone, planned to be attended by William II, in his function as king of Prussia also officiating as supreme governor of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces, had to be delayed to after his stay.
[21] After the restitution of the Hôtel du Parc from public custody Magdalena Hall (1868–1945), Ustinov's widow, could dispose of it again and sold it in 1926 to the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews.
[23] Construction of a building to serve as the Consulate of the German Empire started in 1913 on Nablus Road (today, Eilat street 59 in Tel Aviv).
In addition, the Norton House was also home to the legendary Keren restaurant which to this day is considered a pioneer of Israeli fine dining.
