Hotel Petersberg is a hotel and official guest house of the
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
, termed the "Bundesgästehaus" (the official title being ''Gästehaus der Verfassungsorgane der Bundesrepublik Deutschland''). It is located on the
Petersberg Petersberg may refer to:
* The Hotel Petersberg near Bonn, the site of the
** Petersberg Agreement, 1949, regarding the international status of West Germany.
** Petersberg tasks, 1992 and 1997, regarding European security cooperation. Also known a ...
, a prominent mountain of the
Siebengebirge
The (), occasionally Sieben Mountains or Seven Mountains, are a hill range of the German Central Uplands on the east bank of the Middle Rhine, southeast of Bonn.
Description
The area, located in the municipalities of Bad Honnef and König ...
near
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-Ru ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. With a height of , it overlooks the cities of
Königswinter
Königswinter ( ksh, Köningkswinte; Low Franconian: ) is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Königswinter is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Bad Godesberg, at t ...
, on the right bank of the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
river, and Bonn on the opposite side.
History
In 1834 the area was sold to the merchant Joseph Ludwig Mertens. His wife Sibylle Mertens-Schaafhausen built a summer residence on the Petersberg, and became known as the ''Rheingräfin'' ("countess of the Rhine").
At the end of the 19th century the Nelles brothers from
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
had bought the area and started to add buildings. In 1892 they opened up the eponymous hotel that could easily be reached via the newly built ''
Petersbergbahn
The Petersberg Railway, or ''Petersbergbahn'', was a rack railway line in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. The line ran from Königswinter to the summit of the Petersberg mountain, and was built to serve the Hotel Petersberg there. The ...
'', a
rack railway
A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with th ...
that continued in intermittent operation until 1958. In 1912
Ferdinand Mülhens
Ferdinand Mülhens (December 23, 1844 - January 15, 1928) was a land owner and entrepreneur in Königswinter, Germany. Mülhens was born in Cologne.
In the 19th century he managed the perfume factory founded by his grandfather Wilhelm Mülhens at ...
'
rack and pinion railway
A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with th ...
, owner of the
4711
4711 is a traditional German Eau de Cologne by Mäurer & Wirtz. Because it has been produced in Cologne since at least 1799, it is allowed to use the geographical indication ''Original Eau de Cologne''. The brand has been expanded to various oth ...
company, bought the property. Under the direction of the architect Heinrich Müller-Erkelenz the hotel was converted during the next two years into a spa. Terraces to overlook the Rhine and a new access route were built in the 1930s.
Seat of Allied High Commission
After
World War II
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 opposing ...
the Hotel Petersberg became the seat of the
Allied High Commission
The Allied High Commission (also known as the High Commission for Occupied Germany, HICOG; in German ''Alliierte Hohe Kommission'', ''AHK'') was established by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France after the 1948 breakdown of the Alli ...
for Germany. The
Occupation Statute
The Occupation Statute of Germany (german: Besatzungsstatut) of April 10, 1949 specified the roles and responsibilities of the newly created government of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the Allied High Commission. It was draw ...
was issued here on September 21, 1949. Several weeks later, November 22, 1949, the
Petersberg Agreement
The Petersberg Agreement is an international treaty that extended the rights of the government of West Germany vis-a-vis the occupying forces of the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. It is viewed as the first major step of West Germa ...
was signed between Chancellor
Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Demo ...
and the Western Allies. The Allied High Commission resided on the Petersberg until 1955, when West Germany gained its sovereignty.
The Federal Guest House
The German Federal government needed to host foreign guests and by 1955 started to rent out the Hotel Petersberg (then managed by the Hotel
Breidenbacher Hof of
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
). When the lease expired in 1969, the Hotel Petersberg quickly ran into economic difficulties and was closed shortly thereafter. The buildings were then maintained only as far as preventing them from falling into ruin. In 1978, the government bought the Petersberg with its buildings from the Mülhens family for 18.5 million
DM to develop a representative guest house for its visitors. A five-year reconstruction was completed in 1990 following the plans of Horst Linde. Most heads of states that visited the Federal Republic, while Bonn was its capital, have stayed on the Petersberg. A helicopter pad provides easy access. The fact that the mountain has only one access road facilitates security matters. Renovations took place 2017-18.
After the German government moved to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, the Petersberg continued in use as an official guest and conference house and has been dubbed the "German
Camp David." In December 2001 the Petersberg was the place of the first
Bonn Agreement. Also its follow-up conference took place here on December 2, 2002.
The Hotel is open to the public and managed by the Steigenberger Hotel Group that was rebranded as
Deutsche Hospitality in 2016.
Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher (; ; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver who competed in Formula One for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari, and Mercedes. Schumacher has a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Lewis ...
married his wife Corinna on the Petersberg in 1995.
Daniela Katzenberger and
Lucas Cordalis got married at the hotel in 2016.
List of conferences on the Petersberg
*1949:
Petersberg Agreement
The Petersberg Agreement is an international treaty that extended the rights of the government of West Germany vis-a-vis the occupying forces of the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. It is viewed as the first major step of West Germa ...
*1992:
Petersberg Tasks
The Petersberg Declaration was adopted by ministers of the Western European Union on 19 June 1992 at Hotel Petersberg, near Bonn in Germany. It defined military tasks of a humanitarian, disarming, peacekeeping and peacemaking nature that the WEU w ...
, meetings concerning the
European Security and Defence Policy
The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is the European Union's (EU) course of action in the fields of defence and crisis management, and a main component of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
The CSDP involves the deplo ...
*1992: Western European Union Council of Ministers: the ''Petersberg Declaration''
*1999: EU summit meeting
*1999, May 6: Conference about the crisis in
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
*2000: 15th EU conference of foreign ministers
*2001, December: ''The Agreement on Provisional Arrangements in Afghanistan Pending the Re-Establishment of Permanent Government Institutions'' (the so-called
Bonn Agreement) was signed at the
Bonn Conference by representatives of anti-Taliban forces and several other Afghan political parties and groups
*2002, December: Follow-up conference to the Bonn Agreement
*2005, November 5: "Partnership with Africa" conference
*2010, May: "
Petersberg Climate Dialogue"
*2011, December: Afghanistan Conference
*2019, July: Petersburg Dialogue
Distinguished guests on the Petersberg
* 1938:
Neville Chamberlain,
British Premier, during the
Sudetenland crisis
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
. He was the first official foreign dignitary on the Petersberg
* 1954:
Haile Selassie I
Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia ('' ...
,
Emperor of Ethiopia
* 1955:
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, (
Shah
Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...
of
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, with his wife
Soraya
Soraya ( fa, ثریا) is a feminine Persian name. It is derived from the Arabic name for the Pleiades star cluster, ''Thurayya'' ( ar, ثريّة). The name is also popular in Europe due to its association with Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari, th ...
)
* 1960: King
Rama IX
Bhumibol Adulyadej ( th, ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช; ; ; (Sanskrit: ''bhūmi·bala atulya·teja'' - "might of the land, unparalleled brilliance"); 5 December 192713 October 2016), conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great ...
of Thailand
* 1965: Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
* 1967:
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with his wife
Farah Diba
Farah Pahlavi ( fa, فرح پهلوی, née Farah Diba ( fa, فرح دیبا, label=none); born 14 October 1938) is the widow of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and was successively Queen and Empress (''Shahbanu'') of Iran from ...
* 1973:
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...
, General Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (following his special wish, the Hotel was reopened for several days for his visit. During this time he wrecked a
Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC
The Mercedes-Benz R107 and C107 are sports cars which were produced by Mercedes-Benz from 1971 until 1989, being the second longest single series ever produced by the automaker after the G-Class. They were sold under the SL (R107) and SLC (C107 ...
, the Federal Republic's gift to him, on his first drive down the mountain)
derStandard.at
/ref>
;After the German reunification in 1990
* 1990: Nicéphore Soglo
Nicéphore Dieudonné Soglo (born November 29, 1934) is a Beninese politician who was Prime Minister of Benin from 1990 to 1991 and President from 1991 to 1996. He was Mayor of Cotonou from 2003 to 2015. Soglo was married to Rosine Vieyra Soglo, ...
(Premier of Benin
Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...
)
* 1990: Mikhail Gorbachev, with his wife Raisa
* 1990: Nelson Mandela
* 1991: Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
* 1992: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
* 1993: Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
* 1993: Emperor Akihito
is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. He presided over the Heisei era, ''Heisei'' being an expression of achieving peace worldwide.
B ...
of Japan
* 1994: U.S. president Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
and his wife Hillary
* 1994: Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
Margrethe II (; Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is Queen of Denmark. Having reigned as Denmark's monarch for over 50 years, she is Europe's longest-serving current head of state and the world's only incumbent femal ...
* 1998: King Hussein of Jordan
Hussein bin Talal ( ar, الحسين بن طلال, ''Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāl''; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of ...
* 2004: Mohamed Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011.
Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in ...
, President of Egypt
* 2005: Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union
See also
* Schloss Bensberg
References
External links
Information about the Petersberg
(German)
Promotional film
(German and English)
(English)
Information by Steigenberger Hotel Group
(German)
{{coord, 50, 41, 10, N, 7, 12, 27, E, region:DE-NW_type:mountain, display=title
Foreign relations of Germany
Buildings and structures in Rhein-Sieg-Kreis
Petersberg Petersberg may refer to:
* The Hotel Petersberg near Bonn, the site of the
** Petersberg Agreement, 1949, regarding the international status of West Germany.
** Petersberg tasks, 1992 and 1997, regarding European security cooperation. Also known a ...
Königswinter
1892 establishments in Germany
Petersberg Petersberg may refer to:
* The Hotel Petersberg near Bonn, the site of the
** Petersberg Agreement, 1949, regarding the international status of West Germany.
** Petersberg tasks, 1992 and 1997, regarding European security cooperation. Also known a ...
Petersberg Petersberg may refer to:
* The Hotel Petersberg near Bonn, the site of the
** Petersberg Agreement, 1949, regarding the international status of West Germany.
** Petersberg tasks, 1992 and 1997, regarding European security cooperation. Also known a ...
State guesthouses