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The Italian Embassy in the Ambassadors' Quarter is a building from the Nazi era. As an ally of Germany at the time, the embassy building was planned and realized in a particularly splendid manner.
In their plans, the Italians were able to draw on a building that plays a special role in Berlin's architectural history. It was built on the centrally located Tiergartenstraße in the former diplomatic quarter in 1939 as one of the three embassies of Spain, Japan and Italy. Together with the Japanese embassy, which has since been reconstructed, it was one of the largest and most elaborate construction projects in the new building program of the time due to the political importance that National Socialist Germany attached to these countries.
In the 1930s, Albert Speer planned this new diplomatic quarter on the edge of the Tiergarten in the Reich capital, where the three Axis powers were allowed to build their embassy palaces in order to emphasize their countries' prominent position as friends of Germany.
80 forced laborers had to demolish six city villas at Tiergartenstraße 21 a-23 before work on the fortress-like two-winged complex could begin on October 10, 1938. Between 1938 and 1942, a building in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo was built according to the plans of the German architect Friedrich Hetzelt.
The Italians' pragmatic and relaxed approach to the evidence of their difficult history is based on the view that "coming to terms with the past cannot be translated into Italian" (Pierangelo Schiera, then head of the Italian Cultural Institute). Accordingly, dealing with one's own history should be characterized by acceptance and not repression.
The Berlin house appears to have three storeys from the outside, but the roof cornice conceals a fourth storey. The old pink plastered street façade lies above a base of Roman travertine. The sumptuous furnishings of the 200 interior rooms in particular were intended to emphasize the importance of Italy.
No expense was spared on the finest materials such as marble and Italian oak panelling. A series of representative halls with elaborate decorative fountains and almost courtly splendor occupy almost the entire Piano Nobile. The eight-metre-high blue ballroom in the middle of the building is particularly monumental. The lintels and friezes of a palazzo from 1495 were even installed as a sign of special esteem.
The lavishly furnished building only lasted a short time: a few months after its completion in 1942, the embassy was badly damaged by bombs. It was never officially inaugurated. After the Second World War, only the part of the building that had remained largely intact served as an embassy for a few years and then as a consulate general. The remaining areas fell into disrepair for decades.
After German reunification, Italy decided to restore the building. The Roman architect Vittorio de Feo won a competition in 1995. His concept was to restore the building "respectfully and as true to the original as possible". The war damage was not to be completely repaired, nor simply covered up or concealed.
After de Feo's death in 2002, the Berlin architect Stefan Dietrich continued the work as originally planned. The administrative, residential and representative functions are distributed according to the three-part structure of the building - two wings and a main building.
A large three-storey hall is located above the main entrance in the main building. Further representative rooms can be found in the east wing, which also housed the residence of the ambassador and the rooms of the Italian Cultural Institute Berlin. The western chancery wing now houses the consular department and other administrative rooms. The bunker found in the basement of the building has been converted into an event room.
The architects' concept seems to have worked. The message is clear enough to resonate with the viewer. The last remnants of restraint towards fascist design language are eliminated by the color: It takes away the heaviness of the architecture and leaves it austere.
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Addresses, telephone numbers and websites of embassies and diplomatic missions in Berlin. more
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