Haus Carstanjen
Encyclopedia
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
near Bad Godesberg
Bad Godesberg
Bad Godesberg is a municipal district of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 till 1990 , the majority of foreign embassies to Germany were located in Bad Godesberg...
.
History
The original building dates back to 1716. In 1881 Wilhelm Adolf von Carstanjen (1825–1900, ennobled 1881) acquired the building which he rebuilt into its present classical castle form. After 1950 it was occupied by the German FederalWest Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
Government. From 1950 until 1957 it housed the Bundesministerium für Angelegenheiten des Marshallplanes (the Federal Ministry for the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
), from 1957 until its dissolution in 1969 the Bundesschatzministerium (Treasury) and, until 1999, the Bundesministerium der Finanzen (Federal Ministry of Finance).
In the 1970s the Carstanjen family sold the grounds to the Federal government, including what is now the Rheinauen Park, and more buildings were built. At this time the grounds took on the nickname 'Schiller Park', after the former federal finance minister and house Mr. Karl Schiller
Karl Schiller
Karl August Fritz Schiller was a German scientist and politician of the Social Democratic Party . From 1966 to 1972, he was Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and from 1971 to 1972 Federal Minister of Finance...
.
Starting in 1996, after German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
, many government ministries moved to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and the offices at Haus Carstanjen were assigned to United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
agencies
United Nations Secretariat
The United Nations Secretariat is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and it is headed by the United Nations Secretary-General, assisted by a staff of international civil servants worldwide. It provides studies, information, and facilities needed by United Nations bodies for...
. The federal government renovated the complex at a cost of seven million euros. From the summer of 2006 many of the UN organisations relocated to a new campus in the renovated Langer Eugen tower, leaving the UNFCCC secretariat resident in Haus Carstanjen.
Building details
The original castle consists of an angular, Neo-Gothic three-story building, with two circular turretTurret
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification...
s, roofed conically in grey slate, mullioned windows
Mullion
A mullion is a vertical structural element which divides adjacent window units. The primary purpose of the mullion is as a structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Its secondary purpose may be as a rigid support to the glazing of the window...
, and colonnaded galleries.
A new extension, dating from 1967, consists of two low detached blocks and a seven story block, and a detached restaurant. The modern office buildings are of reinforced concrete frame construction, extensively glazed with steel sun blinds, connected by glazed steel walkways.
Wilhelm Adolf Carstanjen
Wilhelm Adolf von Carstanjen was born on 24 October 1825 in DuisburgDuisburg
- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...
, to a wealthy tobacco dealer, trader and shipper. In 1849 he moved to Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
where he set up a cane sugar refinery with other family members. His business merged with that of the vom Rath family in 1855, and then Carl Joest & Sons, and he took a seat on the board of the resulting "Rhine Sugar Production Company", a position cemented by his marriage to Adele Adolf Carstanjen vom Rath. He supported Kaiser Wilhelm I during the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
, and received into the Prussian nobility in 1881.
In 1881 he bought farmland by the Rhine near Plittersdorf and rebuilt the farm into a residential castle, which he named Haus Carstanjan. However, at that time he moved with his family to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and the Haus was only occasionally used. He commissioned a classical mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
between 1894 to 1896 on the grounds of the Plittersdorf estate, where he was interred after his death on 24 June 1900.
Carstanjen was a skilled collector and filled his residences in Cologne, Bad Godesberg, Plittersdorf and Berlin with Old Masters by Frans Hals
Frans Hals
Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
, Rembrandt van Rijn, Albert Cuyp, and with antique furniture, wall tapestries, arms and armour, which his agents sourced from across Germany and auctions in Paris and London. On his death some of his art collection found its way to museums in Berlin and Cologne.
Adolf and Adele had three children, the youngest son, Robert, published a family chronicle in 1934.
Carstanjen mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
. It takes the form of a large rotunda
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
, in the style of ancient Greece, with a domed roof over several floors of rich internal and external decoration.
Sources
- Andreas Denk, Ingeborg Flagge: Architekturführer Bonn. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-496-01150-5, S. 114.