Old German Consulate building (Tel Aviv)

Old German Consulate building
Old German Consulate building
General information
Address	Eilat street 59, Tel Aviv
Town or city	Tel Aviv
Country	Israel
Coordinates	32°03′34″N 34°46′01″E / 32.05946°N 34.76684°E
Completed	1916
Owner	State of Israel

The Old German Consulate building is a historic building, built as the Consulate of the German Empire in the Templar neighborhood of "Walhalla" in Jaffa, nowadays part of Tel Aviv.^[1] Its construction began in 1913, next to Nablus Road (today, Eilat street 59 in Tel Aviv).

The professionals who designed the building and its surroundings were the architect Karl Appel (from Germany) and the local Templer Johann Martin Wennagel, and the garden designer was Johannes Laemmle. The construction was done in cooperation with the head of the German Templer colonies in Palestine. The ending of the construction was delayed due to World War I, which broke out in the middle of 1914. As such, the building was inaugurated only in 1916, by the German consul Walter Rößler (Rössler; 1871–1929).

The Consulate building and the well-tended garden around it served as a social center for the members of the German Templer colonies in Palestine. With the occupation of Jaffa by the British in World War I, the building was temporarily used as the central canteen and as an occasional residence for British soldiers.

Afterwards, it resumed its function as the Consulate of Germany. According to local Jewish reports, non-Jewish members of local German community used to proudly wave the flags of Nazi Germany with the swastika starting from 1937 until the outbreak of World War II, on the building and the adjacent Wagner factory.

The German consulate was closed in the early 1940s and non-Jewish German residents were deported to Australia, as they were subjects of an enemy country.^[2]

After the establishment of the State of Israel, the building became a property of the Israeli government.

References

^ Goldman, Dan (August 2003). "The Architecture of the Templers in their Colonies in Eretz-Israel, 1868-1848" (PDF).
^ Wawrzyn, Heidemarie (1 August 2013). Nazis in the Holy Land 1933-1948. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-030652-1. In September 1939, the British Mandate government turned the German farming settlements of Sarona, Wilhelma, Bethlehem-Galilee, and Waldheim into large internment camps, while women and children from the German colonies in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Haifa were temporarily permitted to remain in their homes under British and Jewish police surveillance. The four farming settlements were surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers, guarded by Jewish and Arab auxiliary police (Hilfspolizisten) under a British commandant with a small staff. German women, children, and elderly men lived in these camps... [In 1941] The British authorities decided to deport more than 600 persons from the younger German families to Australia... They were imprisoned as enemy citizens in detention camps at Tatura in Australia's Victoria state, where they remained until 1946–47... In April 1948, the Haganah raided the three internment camps of Waldheim, Bethlehem in the Galilee, and Wilhelma... On April 22, 1948, the evacuated Germans arrived in Cyprus... Six or seven internees, headed by Gottlob Loebert remained in Palestine to sell the Templers' stock and furniture, and see to the transport of the large luggage items of the deported internees. This group was ultimately taken to Cyprus as well. After seven to ten months of internment in Cyprus, the majority of them (Templers) were allowed to leave for Australia. Only a small number returned to Germany... Approximately fifty German settlers, mainly Templers and a few deaconesses of the Kaiserswerth diaconal Order, requested not to take part in the evacuation, and were allowed to go to Jerusalem, where they moved into their former homes in the German Colony or into the German Hospice, where the Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo, under Mother Superior Emiliana, looked after them... From December 1948 to autumn 1950, the remaining Germans left Israel for good. The majority of them joined their families and relatives in Australia. Only a few returned to Germany.

[1] Goldman, Dan (August 2003). "The Architecture of the Templers in their Colonies in Eretz-Israel, 1868-1848" (PDF).

[2] Wawrzyn, Heidemarie (1 August 2013). Nazis in the Holy Land 1933-1948. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-030652-1. In September 1939, the British Mandate government turned the German farming settlements of Sarona, Wilhelma, Bethlehem-Galilee, and Waldheim into large internment camps, while women and children from the German colonies in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Haifa were temporarily permitted to remain in their homes under British and Jewish police surveillance. The four farming settlements were surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers, guarded by Jewish and Arab auxiliary police (Hilfspolizisten) under a British commandant with a small staff. German women, children, and elderly men lived in these camps... [In 1941] The British authorities decided to deport more than 600 persons from the younger German families to Australia... They were imprisoned as enemy citizens in detention camps at Tatura in Australia's Victoria state, where they remained until 1946–47... In April 1948, the Haganah raided the three internment camps of Waldheim, Bethlehem in the Galilee, and Wilhelma... On April 22, 1948, the evacuated Germans arrived in Cyprus... Six or seven internees, headed by Gottlob Loebert remained in Palestine to sell the Templers' stock and furniture, and see to the transport of the large luggage items of the deported internees. This group was ultimately taken to Cyprus as well. After seven to ten months of internment in Cyprus, the majority of them (Templers) were allowed to leave for Australia. Only a small number returned to Germany... Approximately fifty German settlers, mainly Templers and a few deaconesses of the Kaiserswerth diaconal Order, requested not to take part in the evacuation, and were allowed to go to Jerusalem, where they moved into their former homes in the German Colony or into the German Hospice, where the Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo, under Mother Superior Emiliana, looked after them... From December 1948 to autumn 1950, the remaining Germans left Israel for good. The majority of them joined their families and relatives in Australia. Only a few returned to Germany.

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