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| Bellevue Palace | |
|---|---|
Schloss Bellevue | |
 | |
  Location within central Berlin. | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Neoclassical |
| Location | Spreeweg 1 10557Berlin-Tiergarten, Germany |
| Coordinates | 52°31′03″N13°21′12″E / 52.51750°N 13.35333°E /52.51750; 13.35333 |
| Construction started | 13 October 1785 (1785-10-13) |
| Completed | 1786 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Michael Philipp Boumann |
Bellevue Palace (German:Schloss Bellevue,pronounced[ʃlɔsbɛlˈvyː]ⓘ), located inBerlin'sTiergarten district, has been theofficial residence of thepresident of Germany since 1994. Theschloss is situated on the banks of theSpree river, near theBerlin Victory Column, along the northern edge of theGroßer Tiergarten park. Its name – the French for "beautiful view" – derives from its scenic prospect over the Spree's course.
Designed by architect Michael Philipp Boumann (1747–1803),Schloss Bellevue was erected in 1786 as a residence forPrince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, Master of the Knights of theOrder of Saint John and youngest brother of KingFrederick II of Prussia. There were preexisting structures on the site, including the manor house which King Frederick's architectGeorg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff had built for himself in 1743, which was demolished, and a leather factory on the Spree river waterfront which was converted into the right side-wing. The palace was namedBellevue as its view reached the tower ofSchloss Charlottenburg before the viaduct of theBerlin Stadtbahn was built nearby in the 1880s. It was the firstNeoclassical building in Germany, characterized by itsCorinthian pilasters, with wings on either side ("Ladies' wing" and "River Spree wing"). The only room that kept its original decoration is a ballroom on the upper floor designed byCarl Gotthard Langhans, the architect of theBrandenburg Gate. The palace is surrounded by a park of about 20 hectares.
In 1843, KingFrederick William IV of Prussia inheritedBellevue fromPrince Augustus of Prussia, a son of the builder. In 1865 it became the residence of his niecePrincess Alexandrine after her marriage toDuke William of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. It served the royal and imperial princes of theHohenzollern dynasty until theGerman Revolution of 1918–19. The last German emperor,Wilhelm II, used it as a guest house as well as a private school for his seven children.
TheFree State of Prussia acquired the property from the former emperor in 1928 and used it as a museum of ethnography during the 1930s before being renovated as a guest house for theNazi government which had purchased it in 1938. However, from 1939, it was occupied byOtto Meissner, the head of the Office of the President of Germany. It was there that Soviet foreign ministerVyacheslav Molotov stayed with his retinue during his visit to Berlin in November 1940.[1] DuringWorld War II, the palace was severely damaged bystrategic bombing and in the 1945Battle of Berlin, before being substantially refurbished in the 1950s. Inaugurated by PresidentTheodor Heuss in 1959, it served as the secondary residence of theWest German president, apied-à-terre inWest Berlin to supplement his primary residence at theHammerschmidt Villa in Bonn.
In 1986–87, Federal PresidentRichard von Weizsäcker had the interior of the palace completely redesigned by the architect Otto Meitinger in order to adapt the rooms to the character of the external historical appearance, whereby the sequence of rooms was also restored according to plans from the time before the destruction. Weizsäcker had the palace furnished with part of the valuableEmpire style furniture collection fromWilhelmshöhe Palace in Kassel as a permanent loan and initiated the exchange of paintings with German museums in order to present guests with classical and modern German art. However, two rooms have been preserved with their furnishings in the style of post-war modernism. In 1994, afterGerman reunification, Weizsäcker made it his primary residence.
A modern oval office building was built in 1998 in a section of the park near the palace to house the offices of the affiliatedBundespräsidialamt ("Office of the Federal President"), afederal agency.
Roman Herzog, president from 1994 to 1999, remains the only officeholder who lived atBellevue while incumbent. The palace was reconstructed again in 2004 and 2005 to replace ailing infrastructure; during this period, PresidentHorst Köhler used nearbyCharlottenburg Palace for representative purposes.Bellevue became the president's primary official seat again in January 2006, but since then has not included living quarters. Instead, the federal president now lives in a government-owned villa inDahlem, a suburban district of southwestern Berlin, which had previously been the Berlin lodging of theWest-German chancellors since 1962.
Contrary to popular belief, thepresidential standard is flown at the palace even on many days when the president is not in Berlin. It is lowered only when the president takes up official residence elsewhere – e.g. on the occasion of a state visit, when the standard is raised over a temporary residence abroad, or over the second residence atVilla Hammerschmidt. When away on vacation,Schloss Bellevue remains the official residence over which the standard is flown.
In 1945, according to testimony reported in the 1995 documentary filmOn the Desperate Edge of Now, Berlin citizens buried statues of historical military figures from the Großer Tiergarten in the grounds of the palace to prevent their destruction. They were not recovered until 1993.[2]
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52°31′03″N13°21′12″E / 52.51750°N 13.35333°E /52.51750; 13.35333
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