Borsig-Villa Reiherwerder, Baroque revival country house on Reiherwerder peninsula, Tegel, Berlin, Germany
Borsig-Villa Reiherwerder is a two-storey country house on the Reiherwerder peninsula in Lake Tegel, built 1911–1913 by Alfred Salinger and Eugen Schmohl for Ernst Borsig, who wanted it to resemble Sanssouci. Its pale yellow facade has arched ground-floor windows, a balcony over the central entrance and a red tiled roof with a domed centre and arched dormers. A broad stone stair leads up between low hedges; a neo-baroque garden faces the water to the north.
Ernst Borsig had the villa built from 1911 to 1913 to designs by Alfred Salinger and Eugen Schmohl, asking for a house resembling Potsdam's Sanssouci; the family lived here until autumn 1937, when the estate was sold to the German Reich. Until 1945 it housed the Reichsfinanzakademie. After the war the Forces Françaises à Berlin used it as the residence of their commander-in-chief.
The villa is the guesthouse of the Federal Foreign Office, while the surrounding Reiherwerder buildings house the Academy of Foreign Service, which moved from Bonn-Ippendorf at the turn of 2005/2006 and trains all members of the middle, higher and senior foreign service. In the dining room a long white-clothed table is set beneath a chandelier of curved translucent white panels, with three flags on poles at the left, one blue with yellow stars.
The whole Reiherwerder peninsula, including the villa and its neo-baroque garden, is closed to the public; the site belongs to the Federal Foreign Office's Academy of Foreign Service. The villa itself is the foreign minister's guesthouse, so there is no visitor access. The grounds lie on the north-west shore of Lake Tegel in Reinickendorf.
Ernst Borsig insisted the new villa resemble Potsdam's Sanssouci; it was built 1911–1913 by Alfred Salinger and Eugen Schmohl. From 1945 the French forces in Berlin used it as the residence of their commander-in-chief, and in 1958 the Pavillon du Lac officers' casino was added just north of it.
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