The residential villa areas in Wannsee 1870 – 1945. Pleasure

The residential villa areas in Wannsee 1870 – 1945.
Pleasure ground of the upper middle class and the location of the
Wannsee Conference.
Special exhibit May 2000 – January 2006
The Kaiser- and the Schwedenpavillon
Wilhelm Conrad intended to make the Alsen
Colony more attractice by setting up exclusive
restaurants. Thus, he catered for the needs of
many colonists and Wannsee tourists of whom
up to 20,000 came to Wannsee on public holidays.
When he visited the 1872-73 World Exposition in
Vienna, he discovered the Pavilion of Nations
which was also known as the ‘Kaiserpavillon‘
(‘Emperor’s Pavilion‘). It was named this way
because the Austrian and the German Emperor
and the Russian Tsar used to have breakfast
together in the pavilion.
The Kaiser pavilion, around 1880
Conrad purchased the building and had it moved
to the Wannsee, to the place where the beer
garden of the restaurant ‘Loretta‘ is located today.
Patrons could enjoy the magnificent view across
the Großer and the Kleiner Wannsee from the
terraces of the Emperor’s Pavilion. In 1910, the
Emperor’s Pavilion was replaced by a new, bigger
building.
Lying in ruins due to war damage in 1945, the
Berliners used it as a covered market for the EastWest trade until the remains of the building were
pulled down in 1961 after the building of the Wall.
The Kaiser pavilion, postcard 1942
Like the Emperor’s Pavilion, the Schwedenpavillon (Swedish Pavilion) was an exhibition
building, constructed by the kingdom of Sweden,
that W. Conrad had moved from the 1872-73
World Exposition in Vienna to the Wannsee.
Around 1900, the popular wooden restaurant on
Große Seestraße was replaced by a bigger
building. The awards ceremony of the first motor
race Paris – Berlin was celebrated in the Swedish
Pavilion on 30th June 1901 with Bengal fire,
rockets, and flares. Giant letters in the colourful
flames of the French colours blue, white, and red
burned ‘Three cheers for our guests!‘ into the sky.
And meanwhile, the band played the ‘Marseillaise‘
and subsequently ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über
alles‘.
Terrace of the Kaiser pavilion overlooking the lake,
postcard 1913
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Until the thirties, the Swedish Pavilion was a
first-class restaurant which was also frequented by
Max Liebermann. Here, his 80th birthday was
celebrated with a big party. On 30th June 1927, the
Academy of Fine Arts held a reception with 120
participants in the exclusive restaurant in honour
of Max Liebermann who had been presented with
the freedom of the city of Berlin.
In 1940, the Foreign Ministry acquired the
Swedish Pavilion. Disguised as ‘Radio Research
Institute‘, special antennas were installed and the
biggest and most important radio monitoring
facility in Germany was set up. From 1941
onwards, the ‘Special Service Seehaus‘, which
was strictly screened off from the general public, to
whom it was forbidden to listen to foreign radio
stations on pain of death, recorded programmes in
36 languages and required around 500
employees, officers and translators. They were
constantly mistrusted by the Nazis and were
internally called the ‘Sabotage-Club‘, because the
foreign war reports exposed the reports of the
Ministry of Propaganda as lies – much to the
annoyance of the Minister of Propaganda
Goebbels, who was also lodged in the Swedish
Pavilion with his staff ‘Interradio‘. Therefore, the
Ministry tried to strictly screen off the facility and
keep the information recorded there secret and the
Security Police constantly kept a watch on its
employees. Especially at the end of the war, the
monitoring installation became of crucial
strategical importance for enemy reconnaissance.
In mid-April 1945, the employees of the ‘Special
Service Seehaus‘ and Goebbels‘ staff left Berlin.
The Schweden pavilion, postcard 1921
The Schweden pavilion, postcard 1925
After the war, the Swedish Pavilion became a
restaurant again, and in 1950, the idea of setting
up a Sauerbruch Hospital in the building, where
the ailing old Sauerbruch was to hold a sort of
honorary position, was discussed. The
Arbeitersamariterbund (Workers‘ Samaritan
Federation) took over the real estate in 1956 and
converted it into a home for the chronically ill.
Since 1997, the house has been unoccupied.
Report of a “Monitor” of the Seehaus Wannsee, Berlin, January 25, 1945 (next page):
© House of the Wannsee Conference, Berlin 2006
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