In 1873, the German Ambassador declared an intention to acquire the building from Princess Lvova and the building was bought by the
German Empire for housing the
German Embassy to the
Russian Empire that same year. saw the
facade of the building being built in red granite, the
frontispiece, reminiscent of
Ancient Greek architecture, was completed with 14 columns, and decorated with
pilasters.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe served as
construction manager on the project, and
sculptor Eberhard Enke created the
Castor and Pollux sculpture, symbolising the reunion of the German nation, which adorned the
tympanum. Other prominent German
masters created paintings, sculptures and
fretwork to adorn the building. The artistic community in Saint Petersburg held negative opinions of the building, with prominent members of the community,
Alexandre Benois,
Nikolay Wrangel and
Georgy Lukomsky, criticising the
Teutonic style of the building as being hostile to the architectural style of the city, and due to it differing greatly from the
Russian neoclassical revival style. It was rumoured at the time that the embassy was linked to the German–owned
Hotel Astoria via a tunnel, and on 1–2 August 1914, after
Germany declared war on Russia, crowds stormed the building as
anti-German sentiment took hold in the city. The building sustained considerable damage, with crowds torching the
throne room of
Kaiser Wilhelm II, destroying
Greek and
Italian art work and a collection of
Sèvres porcelain. The
Dioskouroi sculpture from the roof disappeared during this time, and rumours abounded that it was dumped in the
Moika River by the crowd, however, researchers have been unable to find any fragments of the sculpture in the river. After the war, the Germans returned to the city in 1922, at the time known as Petrograd, and operated a
consulate from the building, representing the
Weimar Republic and later
Nazi Germany, until 1939. During the
Siege of Leningrad, the
Red Army operated a hospital in the premises, and after the
Great Patriotic War it housed the Institute of Semiconductor Physics. Later tenants of the building have included
Intourist,
Dresdner Bank and the Committee for the Management of City Property of the
Saint Petersburg City Administration (). Today the building houses the Administration Board of the
Ministry of Justice and the Chief Technical Commission to the
President of the Russian Federation for the
Northwestern Federal District. Restoration of the building began in 2001, and with the support of
Rossvyazokhrankultura and
Governor Valentina Matvienko, in a project estimated at 170 million
rubles, a group of restorers led by OOO «StroyTREST» are planning to recreate the
Dioskouroi sculpture for placement on the tympanum of the building. Plans have been in the works for several years to replace the sculpture, and for a time it looked as if the then-warm
relations between Russia and Germany would have created the right political atmosphere for the restoration of the building to its former glory. File:Embassy of Germany in SPB before rebuilding.jpg|Embassy of the German Empire before rebuilding File:Embassy of Germany in SPB.jpg|Embassy after completion by Behrens File:Embassy of Germany in Saint Petersburg across Saint Isaac's Square.jpg|View of Embassy across Saint Isaac's Square File:Dioskouroi statue from the Embassy of Germany in SPB.jpg|Dioskouroi sculpture before installation on the embassy building File:Isaak square3.jpg|St. Isaac's Square File:St. Petersburg, German Embassy.jpg|Former Embassy of the German Empire in Saint Petersburg == See also ==