Canada House (german: Kanada Haus) is a diplomatic and office building in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. It is the location of the Embassy of Canada to Germany, which is the
diplomatic mission of Canada to Germany.
History
Unlike other western nations, Canada never had an embassy in Berlin when it was the capital from 1871 to 1945 (although there was a
consulate
A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth coun ...
). Canada's first embassy to
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
was in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
, and Canada conducted diplomatic relations with
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
through its embassy in Warsaw.
The site of Canada House,
Leipziger Platz
Leipziger Platz is an octagonal square in the center of Berlin. It is located along Leipziger Straße just east of and adjacent to the Potsdamer Platz.
History
Layout and original architecture
The square with the shape of an octagon, initi ...
, was once one of Europe's most elegant squares before it was damaged during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and later destroyed in preparation for construction of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
.
[
The design for the new embassy was the subject of a national competition, for which the international jury selected the scheme proposed by Montreal-based Saucier Perrotte. However, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time, ]Lloyd Axworthy
Lloyd Norman Axworthy (born December 21, 1939) is a Canadian politician, elder statesman and academic. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Following his retirement from parliament ...
, overruled the jury decision to appoint a multi-firm team headed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg and including additional architectural firms in the ridings of both Axworthy and the then-prime minister, Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
. The overruling of the jury decision was severely criticized by many in the Canadian design community, media and architectural press, and it was widely considered to be government interference motivated by political factors.
The new ten-storey chancery was inaugurated in April 2005 by Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Louise Clarkson (; ; born February 10, 1939) is a British Hong Kong, Hong Kong-born Canadian journalist who served from 1999 to 2005 as Governor General of Canada, the List of Governors General of Canada#Governors General of Canada, 1 ...
, then Governor General of Canada
The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...
.
Architecture
It was designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects with Gagnon Letellier Cyr architects and Smith Carter Architects + Engineers. The design has been praised by the German press for its "openness", particularly the walkway which allows pedestrians to short-cut through the property on their way to the nearby Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corne ...
U-Bahn
Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...
station. However, this is primarily the result of German regulations.[
Other features of the building include a ]green roof
A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...
featuring a scale model of the Mackenzie River Delta, a multimedia centre with wireless internet access and interactive kiosks, and an auditorium and conference centre. Materials include Tyndall limestone
Tyndall Stone is a registered trademark name by Gillis Quarries Ltd. Tyndall Stone is a dolomitic limestone that is quarried from the Selkirk Member of the Ordovician Red River Formation in the vicinity of Garson and Tyndall, Manitoba, Can ...
from Manitoba on the exterior, with Douglas fir
The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...
from British Columbia, black granite
In the construction industry, black rocks that share the hardness and strength of granitic rocks are known as black granite. In geological terms, black granite might be gabbro, diabase, basalt, diorite, norite, or anorthosite
Anorthosite () is ...
and maple
''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...
from Quebec, and Eramosa marble
The Eramosa Member is a Silurian stratigraphic unit of the Lockport Formation exposed along the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario and western New York State. In the late nineteenth century it was an important source of building stone in Hamilton ...
from Ontario inside. The largest room, the "Timber Hall" is a twenty-sided multi-purpose room with a skylight
A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes.
History
Open ...
.
Building use
The chancery building is leased and has a mix of embassy offices in a secure zone, and private sector tenants in a public zone. About 100 Canadian diplomatic staff and locally employed personnel work at the embassy.
The media room is called the Marshall McLuhan Salon, named after Canadian media philosopher Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...
. which includes a multimedia information centre and an auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...
.[ The centre hosts a permanent exhibition dedicated to McLuhan, based on its collection of film and audio items by and about him.] Apart from media events, The centre also hosts lectures, presentations and screenings. It was used to host an exhibition called ''NDN Survival Trilogy'', by Thirza Cuthand, during the Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...
(Berlinale) in 2022.
Other diplomatic offices
Canada maintains consulates in Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
, and Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
.
Additionally, the Ministère des Relations internationales du Québec maintains a representative office next to the Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate (german: Brandenburger Tor ) is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after restoring the Orangist power by suppressing the Dutch popular unrest. One ...
.
See also
* Canada–Germany relations
Canada and the Federal Republic of Germany have positive relations, as they are close allies and fellow NATO and G7 members.
History Before 1776
The earliest contact between Germany and Canada occurred in New France, the area of North America ...
* List of Canadian ambassadors to Germany
This article includes a list of Canadian ambassadors to the Federal Republic of Germany.
History
Canada had no diplomatic mission to Germany before the Second World War, though it had immigration agents in the country as early as 1872, when Wi ...
References
External links
*
{{Diplomatic missions in Germany
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
Buildings and structures completed in 2005
Canada–Germany relations