Building of the Yugoslavian legation in Berlin
The Building of the Yugoslavian Legation in Berlin was built from 1938 to 1940 for the diplomatic representation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the German Empire.
The building of the Yugoslavian Legation is located at the western end of Rauchstraße on a slightly trapezoidal corner plot, which is bordered to the north by Rauchstrasse, to the west by Drakestrasse and to the south by Corneliusstrasse.
Corneliusstraße is named after the historical painter Peter von Cornelius, Rauchstraße after the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch and Drakestraße after his pupil Friedrich Drake.
Most branches of the family had converted to the Protestant faith by the middle of the 19th century at the latest, were successful, acquired wealth and a high social position.
[12] The family was forced to sell the villa and property in 1938 on the basis of the Reichsgesetz über die Neugestaltung Deutscher Städte.
[13] As part of the Development Plan of the National Socialist chief architect Albert Speer as General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital (GBI) for the construction of the world capital Germania The area known today as the Embassy Quarter at the southern Tiergarten was declared a diplomatic quarter.
For the realization of his plans, residential buildings in Berlin were demolished in 1938-1939, the tenants to be relocated were given replacement apartments, which became available at Speer's instigation through the eviction and deportation of Jews.
[14] In order to make room for the "Royal Yugoslavian Legation", three plots of land were expropriated and merged: Rauchstraße 17 and 18 and Drakestraße 4.
[18] Today, the former site of the Yugoslav Legation is occupied by residential buildings erected before the move as part of the Internationale Bauausstellung 1987.
[19] Construction was originally scheduled to take 8 months, but on 31 August 1939, on the eve of World War II, the GBI canceled all implementation work on the redesign of Berlin.
On October 7, 1940, the Yugoslavian legation moved into the building, and on November 29, 1940, the official handover and inauguration took place, at which the Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was represented by a state secretary.
This part of the building, which houses the offices for administrative operations, is plastered, with cornices and window reveals being executed in travertine, as in the residence wing.
On the eastern flank of the Kanzleitrakt is a garage for a single car, set back about 3 m from the façade and directly adjacent to the neighboring property.
Above the main portal was a relief by the sculptor Arno Breker with the Yugoslavian coat of arms, which was removed during the conversion of the building.
Fifteen years later, Gies created the Federal Eagle on the front of the Bundestag, which became the symbol of the Bonn Republic.
The recessed part of the chancellery wing contains another entrance, above which there was a "standing stone coat of arms" made of Gauinger travertine by the Yugoslavian artist Vilma Lehrmann, which has not survived.
[24] In 1940, the Yugoslavian legation, headed by Ivo Andrić, who later won the Nobel Prize for Literature, moved into the new building.
Andrić had been in the diplomatic service of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (from 1929: Kingdom of Yugoslavia), founded two years earlier, since 1920 and had reached the pinnacle of a remarkable career in 1939: at the beginning of April he was appointed Minister without Portfolio, traveled to Berlin and handed over his diplomatic accreditation on 19 April 1939.
Two days later, Yugoslav forces close to the German wartime enemy Great Britain carried out a coup d'état.
In 1953, the Allied Commandant's Office established the Supreme Restitution Court for Berlin (ORG), which from then on had its seat in the building of the former Yugoslavian legation.
[32] With its appointment of a Swedish national as president and an equal number of Allied and German judges, it is the first of its kind to be established in Germany.
[33]The Land Berlin sold the property and building in 1995 to the German Council on Foreign Relations, founded in 1955, which has used it as its headquarters since moving in in 1999.
The Envoy Room is named after Otto Wolff, who headed the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations for 45 years and was Honorary President of the DGAP.
[39][40] Another central topic was security policy, in particular the threat of terrorism[41] and nuclear proliferation,[42] the new role of NATO[43] and the transformation of the Bundeswehr.
[48] A highlight was the celebration of Hans-Dietrich Genscher's 80th birthday in March 2007, when almost all the foreign ministers involved in the negotiation of the Two Plus Four Treaty came together for a fireside chat in the "Kurt Birrenbach Saal": Shevardnadze (USSR), Dumas (France), Meckel and de Maizière (both GDR), Skubiszewski (Poland) and Service beer (Czechoslovakia).
[49] The Mendelssohn Bartholdy family, Agfa and Aryanization World capital Germania, Albert Speer and the embassy district Nazi architecture, Werner March and the legation building Use during the Second World War: Yugoslavian legation, Eastern Ministry, guest house Post-war use: military mission, ORG, DGAP
