Bellevue Palace ( German : Schloss Bellevue , pronounced [ʃlɔs bɛlˈvyː] ), located in Berlin 's Tiergarten district, has been the official residence of the president of Germany since 1994. The schloss is situated on the banks of the Spree river, near the Berlin Victory Column , along the northern edge of the Großer Tiergarten park. Its name – the French for "beautiful view" – derives from its scenic prospect over the Spree's course.
31-548: Designed by architect Michael Philipp Boumann (1747–1803), Schloss Bellevue was erected in 1786 as a residence for Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia , Master of the Knights of the Order of Saint John and youngest brother of King Frederick II of Prussia . There were preexisting structures on the site, including the manor house which King Frederick's architect Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff had built for himself in 1743, which
62-518: A financing scandal affecting the CDU. Amid a German debate over the ethics of research in biotechnology and in particular the use of embryos for genetic inquiry and diagnosis, Herzog argued in 2001 that an absolute ban on research on embryonic stem cells – which have the ability to develop into the body's different tissues – would be excessive, stating: "I am not prepared to explain to a child sick with cystic fibrosis , facing death and fighting for breath,
93-843: A juristic and developmental-historical viewpoint"), he was awarded the title of professor in 1964, and taught at the University of Munich until 1966. He then taught constitutional law and political science as a full professor at the Free University of Berlin . It was during this period that he coedited a commentary of the Basic Law. In 1969, he accepted a chair of public law at the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer , serving as university president in 1971–72. Herzog's political career began in 1973, as
124-820: A levy on nonapproved demonstrations and his proposal for the police to be equipped with rubber-bullet guns. Herzog was long active in the Protestant Church in Germany . Until 1980, he was head of the Chamber for Public Responsibility of this church, and, beginning in 1982, he was a member of the synod . In 1983 Herzog was elected a judge at the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ( Bundesverfassungsgericht ) in Karlsruhe , replacing Ernst Benda . From 1987 until 1994, he also served as
155-805: A representative of the state ( Land ) of Rhineland-Palatinate in the Federal government in Bonn . He served as State Minister for Culture and Sports in the Baden-Württemberg State Government led by Minister-President Lothar Späth from 1978. In 1980 he was elected to the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg and took over the State Ministry of the Interior. As the regional interior minister, he attracted attention when he imposed
186-569: A widely commended speech, he paid tribute to the Polish fighters and people and asked Poles for "forgiveness for what has been done to you by the Germans". In the speech, he strongly emphasized the enormity of anguish the Polish people suffered through Nazi Germany but he also made an indirect reference to the sufferings that the Germans experienced in World War II. In 1995, Herzog was one of
217-507: Is a ballroom on the upper floor designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans , the architect of the Brandenburg Gate . The palace is surrounded by a park of about 20 hectares. In 1843, King Frederick William IV of Prussia inherited Bellevue from Prince Augustus of Prussia , a son of the builder. In 1865 it became the residence of his niece Princess Alexandrine after her marriage to Duke William of Mecklenburg-Schwerin . It served
248-795: Is just on vacation, Schloss Bellevue remains his official residence and the standard is flown over it. In 1945, according to testimony reported in the 1995 documentary film On 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. 52°31′03″N 13°21′12″E / 52.51750°N 13.35333°E / 52.51750; 13.35333 Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia ( German : August Ferdinand ; 23 May 1730 – 2 May 1813)
279-724: The Battle of Breslau and the Battle of Leuthen . But in 1758, bad health forced him to leave the army. In 1762, he purchased Friedrichsfelde Palace near Berlin. Ferdinand is also remembered for having the Schloss Bellevue in the Berliner Tiergarten built in 1786, today seat of the Presidents of Germany. On 12 September 1763 Ferdinand was elected as Master of the Knights of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg of
310-718: The Nazi government which had purchased it in 1938. However, from 1939, it was occupied by Otto Meissner , the head of the Office of the President of Germany. It was there that Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov stayed with his retinue during his visit to Berlin in November 1940. During World War II , the Palace was severely damaged by strategic bombing and in the 1945 Battle of Berlin , before being substantially refurbished in
341-639: The 1950s. Inaugurated by President Theodor Heuss in 1959, it served as the secondary residence of the West German president, a pied-à-terre in West Berlin to supplement his primary residence at the Hammerschmidt Villa in Bonn. In 1986–87, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker had the interior of the palace completely redesigned by the architect Otto Meitinger in order to adapt
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#1732798647973372-562: The Berlin lodging of the West-German chancellors since 1962. Contrary to popular belief, the presidential 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 his temporary residence abroad, or when he uses his second residence at Villa Hammerschmidt . If he
403-577: The German past, ethnic conflict and the role of women. By early 1994, however, leaders of the Free Democrats , the junior members of Kohl's coalition government , expressed support for Johannes Rau , the candidate whom the opposition Social Democrats nominated. German media also speculated that other potential candidates included Kurt Masur and Walther Leisler Kiep . The former Foreign Minister, Hans Dietrich Genscher refused to run. Herzog
434-586: The Order of Saint John , a post he held until 1812. Augustus died in Berlin on 2 May 1813, as the last surviving grandchild of George I of Great Britain . Elisabeth Louise would die seven years later, on 10 February 1820. He married his niece, Margravine Elisabeth Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt , on 27 September 1755. She was a daughter of his older sister Sophia Dorothea and her husband Margrave Frederick William of Brandenburg-Schwedt . Despite this family tie, she
465-573: The ethical grounds that hinder the science which could save him". In response to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder 's " Agenda 2010 " presented in 2003, the then-opposition leader and CDU chair Angela Merkel assigned the task of drafting alternative proposals for social welfare reform to a commission led by Herzog. The party later approved the Herzog Commission's package of reform proposals, whose recommendations included decoupling health and nursing care premiums from people's earnings and levying
496-652: The few foreign dignitaries taking part in the observances on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp who chose to attend a Jewish service at the site of the camp rather than the official opening ceremony in Kraków sponsored by the Polish Government. In January 1996, Herzog declared 27 January, the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp , as Germany's official day of remembrance for
527-528: The president of the Court, this time replacing Wolfgang Zeidler . In September 1994, he was succeeded in that office by Jutta Limbach . Already in 1993, Chancellor Helmut Kohl had selected Herzog as candidate for the 1994 presidential election , after his previous choice, the Saxon State Minister of Justice, Steffen Heitmann , had to withdraw because of an uproar about statements he made on
558-701: The redesignated capital city. He retained his position until 30 June 1999 and did not seek reelection. At the end of his five-year term as head of state, he was succeeded by Johannes Rau . From December 1999 to October 2000, Herzog chaired the European Convention which drafted the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union . In January–March 2000, with former central bank President Hans Tietmeyer and former federal judge Paul Kirchhof , Herzog led an independent commission to investigate
589-568: 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 valuable Empire style furniture collection from Wilhelmshöhe 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
620-528: The royal and imperial princes of the Hohenzollern dynasty until the German 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. The Free 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
651-433: The speech, he rebuked leaders for legislative gridlock and decried a sense of national "dejection," a "feeling of paralysis" and even an "unbelievable mental depression." Compared with what he called the more innovative economies of Asia and America, he said that Germany was "threatened with falling behind." In November 1998, Herzog's office formally moved to Berlin, becoming the first federal agency to shift from Bonn to
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#1732798647973682-521: The style of post-war modernism. In 1994, after German 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 affiliated Bundespräsidialamt ("Office of the Federal President"), a federal agency . Roman Herzog , president from 1994 to 1999, remains the only officeholder who lived at Bellevue while incumbent. The palace
713-712: The victims of Hitler's regime. in late 1997, in a major step for Germany officially recognizing the murder and suffering of the Roma and Sinti under the Nazis, he said that the persecution of the Roma and Sinti was the same as the terror against the Jews. In April 1997, Herzog caused a nationwide controversy when, in a speech given at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, he portrayed Germany as dangerously delaying social and economic changes. In
744-460: Was a Prussian prince and general, as well as Herrenmeister ("Master of the Knights") of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Order of Saint John . He belonged to the House of Hohenzollern , and was the youngest son of Frederick William I of Prussia by his wife, Queen Sophia Dorothea . He was the youngest child of King Frederick William I of Prussia and his wife Sophia Dorothea of Hanover . He
775-655: Was also a younger brother of King Frederick the Great (Frederick II of Prussia), Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden , and Wilhelmine Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth . Already at the age of 5, he joined the Infantry regiment „Kronprinz“. In 1740, his brother named him commander of Infantry regiment Nr 34. In 1756, he became Major General and accompanied his brother the King on his campaigns in Saxony, Bohemia, and Silesia. He fought in
806-599: Was an archivist. He studied law in Munich and passed his state law examination. He completed his doctoral studies in 1958 with a dissertation on Basic Law and the European Convention on Human Rights . He worked as an assistant at the University of Munich until 1964, where he also passed his second juristic state exam. For his paper Die Wesensmerkmale der Staatsorganisation in rechtlicher und entwicklungsgeschichtlicher Sicht ("Characteristics of state organization from
837-610: Was demolished, and a leather factory on the Spree river waterfront which was converted into the right side-wing. The palace was named Bellevue as its view reached the tower of Schloss Charlottenburg before the viaduct of the Berlin Stadtbahn was built nearby in the 1880s. It was the first Neoclassical building in Germany, characterized by its Corinthian pilasters, with wings on either side ("Ladies' wing" and "River Spree wing"). The only room that kept its original decoration
868-637: Was elected President of Germany by the Federal Assembly ( Bundesversammlung ) on 23 May 1994. In the decisive third round of voting, he won the support of the Free Democrats. Their decision was taken as a sign that the coalition remained firm. Herzog took office as Federal President on 1 July 1994. He participated in the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising during the Nazi occupation of Poland in 1994. In
899-503: Was only eight years younger than him, due to the significant age difference between him and his sister. They had seven children: Roman Herzog Roman Herzog ( German: [ˈʁoːman ˈhɛʁtsoːk] ; 5 April 1934 – 10 January 2017) was a German politician, judge and legal scholar, who served as the president of Germany from 1994 to 1999. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he
930-571: Was reconstructed again in 2004 and 2005 to replace ailing infrastructure; during this period, President Horst Köhler used nearby Charlottenburg 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 in Dahlem , a suburban district of southwestern Berlin, which had previously been
961-454: Was the first president to be elected after the reunification of Germany . He previously served as a judge of the Federal Constitutional Court , and he was the President of the court 1987–1994. Before his appointment as a judge he was a professor of law. He received the 1997 Charlemagne Prize . Roman Herzog was born in Landshut , Bavaria, Germany, in 1934 to a Protestant family. His father