POINT OF INTEREST

Deutsches Haus

Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 7, 24937 Flensburg

The German Empire “donated” the German House (das Deutsche Haus) to the people of Flensburg as a sign of “its gratitude for loyalty to Germany”. Most of them had voted to remain a part of the German Empire in the plebiscite of 1920.

In the plebiscite in 1920, the people of Flensburg decided that their city should remain in the German Empire. As an expression of thanks, the German Empire donated about one half of the approximately 2 million reichsmarks that were needed to construct the German House. The then mayor Todsen invoked the cultural centre as the place that the “deep movement of the German people at the present time cannot do without”. The German Empire viewed the house as a place for “… large patriotic celebrations and the like…” and a counterweight to a Danish cultural takeover. Today, events are held there for visitors no matter where they come from. Concerts, lectures, festivities and a community cinema are offered. The building was constructed from 1928 to 1930 on the basis of designs of the building officer Ziegler and the architect Theo Rieve in the style of the “New Objectivity” and Schleswig-Holstein heritage architecture. It rests on 650 oak piles on the land of the “small millpond” that was drained especially for it. It is located to the north of the Bahnhof.