Constructed in 1975, the building housed the federal party headquarters of the SPD until 1999.

Under its chairman Kurt Schumacher, the SPD built its headquarters as a lightweight construction in 1950. It went down in SPD history as the "Baracke". In 1974, it was dismantled and parts reassembled near Travemünde as a convalescent home for the Workers' Welfare Organisation. The new building was designed by the architects Novotny Mähner Assoziierte.

Party chairman Willy Brandt inaugurated the new SPD headquarters in Bonn in 1975. It is named after its second post-war chairman. The Erich Ollenhauer House was identifiable from a distance by the bright orange cube bearing the SPD logo.

Willy Brandt was chairman of the SPD until 1987. His successors in the Erich Ollenhauer House were Hans-Jochen Vogel, Björn Engholm, Rudolf Scharping, Oskar Lafontaine and Gerhard Schröder.

In 1999, the SPD transferred its headquarters to the Willy Brandt House in Berlin.


Speech of Willy Brandt at the inauguration of the Erich Ollenhauer House, 3 October 1975