City Views Bonn/Germany - The American residential estate at Bonn-Plittersdorf

The American residential estate, called “Amerikanische Siedlung” is situated near the Rhine in the district of Plittersdorf. The quarter was originally destinated to host the employees of the HICOGE (High Commissioner of Germany) which moved from Frankfurt to Bonn in 1952. Later, when the HICOGE became disorganisated, it provided accomodation especially to diplomates and employees of the American Embassy in Bad Godesberg-Rüngsdorf/Mehlem. Since the government officially moved to Berlin in 1992, mainly young German families settled in the apartment buildings, but there is still a strong international presence. The residential which consisted of 500 apartments, was built in 1951, in only 9 months, according to the plans of the architects Apel, Letocha, Rohrer, Herdt and Ruf. It got it’s electricity and heating from an own combined heat and power station. There was a cinema with a stage for performances, a shopping center (The Commissary) with a post office (APO), a teen club (The Hideaway Teen Club), a library and an elementary and a high school (BAHS) with an attached recreation center. Meanwhile, nearly everthing has been demolished. The Embassy Club is still standing but in decayed state and currently used by skaters as skating-rink. The Club was closed in the fall of 1999 with the transfer of the Embassy to Berlin. Also parts of the power station are still existing but they will probably disappear very soon. Some old bilingual parking signs have been left up, as well as a now deserted security booth. Only the American Protestant Chapel in Memory of L. Stimson, American Statesman (1867-1950), on the Kennedyallee, a monument built in style of the southern states, is in very good condition and still used for meetings. The Water Works on Martin Luther King Strasse are also in a good state of preservation.

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