Gedung Merdeka: The Bandung Building of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference
Gedung Merdeka is the Bandung building where the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference was opened and held, and it is one of the most important meeting places in Indonesia’s diplomatic history. Today the gedung merdeka bandung is a museum. A visitor who walks through its halls can see photographs, objects and the original conference hall, which together mark the meeting of April 1955 and the newly independent states that gathered there.
Gedung Merdeka Bandung: Origins as a Social Club
The first clubhouse on this site was put up in the 1890s for the Sociëteit Concordia, a social club for the European community of Bandung, mainly Dutch planters, officials and businessmen. The club was the place where the town’s colonial elite dined, danced and held their meetings. Its members were largely planters, officials and businesspeople, and the building reflected their position in the city.
The building was later remodelled in the 1920s, when the main hall was given an art deco interior. The remodel was carried out by two architects who taught at the technical college in Bandung, Van Galen Last and C.P. Wolff Schoemaker, and the enlarged hall could hold up to about 1,200 guests. The art deco character of the interior still shapes the visitor’s impression of the hall today.
Why Bandung Was Chosen for the Conference
In 1954 the Indonesian government chose Bandung as the host city for an international meeting of Asian and African nations. The choice put a highland city of colonial buildings, many of them built for European residents, at the centre of a meeting about the end of colonial rule.
The club building was selected as the conference venue. It was renovated to meet the needs of a large international gathering. On 7 April 1955 the building received its new name, Gedung Merdeka, which means the independence building. The name links the venue to the independence of the nations that met there.
The 1955 Asia-Africa Conference
President Sukarno opened the conference in the building, and the meeting ran from 18 to 24 April 1955. Delegations from 29 countries across Asia and Africa gathered in the hall to discuss peace, cooperation, decolonisation and the independence of states that had been under colonial rule. The opening speech, titled Let a new Asia and new Africa be born, set the tone of the meeting and the ambition of the states gathered in the hall.
The conference’s main outcome was the final communiqué, which contained the ten principles known as the Bandung Principles. They covered respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, equality between nations of every size, non-interference in internal affairs, non-aggression and the peaceful settlement of disputes. The principles gave the newly independent states shared ground, and they later informed the thinking of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Indonesia had proclaimed its independence in 1945 and had won recognition from the Netherlands in 1949, so the host country came to the meeting with its own recent experience of colonial rule. That experience shaped the tone of the speeches and the direction of the agenda.
The conference was not a meeting of one bloc. Participants held very different views, and the discussions included sharp disagreements about colonial rule, the Cold War and the role of the great powers. The building was the place where these differences were debated in public, and the agreed text was the compromise that came out of them.
The Building After the Conference
The building did not stand empty after the conference. From 1960 to 1971 it was used by the provisional People’s Consultative Assembly, the MPRS, as its meeting house. In 1971 the assembly’s activities were moved to Jakarta, and the building then passed into a new role as a place of commemoration. That change prepared the way for its later use as a museum.
In 1980, during the commemorations for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the conference, the building was formally opened as the Asia-Africa Conference Museum. The original conference hall was kept as it was used in 1955, and the displays were arranged around it. The museum’s collection grew from the photographs, papers and objects that had been connected with the meeting.
What to See Inside the Museum
The museum’s displays focus on the conference, the delegations that attended and the context of the decolonisation movement that shaped it. Photographs of the opening, the delegates and the hall give a clear idea of the event. Look for the displays that show the conference room set out for the sessions, with a figure of the president and the leaders of the day, because they help visitors picture the seating and the atmosphere of the week.
The building’s interior is part of the exhibit. Take time to look at the art deco details, the ceilings and the proportions of the hall, since they tell the story of the club’s social life and its later transformation. A guided tour gives more context, and it helps to ask the guide about the people in the photographs, because many of the delegates were prominent figures in their own countries.
Visitors can read the captions beside the key papers and archival photographs and see the main hall for themselves. Photographs are usually allowed in the public areas, but check at the entrance before you take pictures, particularly in the conference room itself.
Visiting Gedung Merdeka
A visit takes an hour or two, and it is best combined with a walk through the city centre. Visitors with a particular interest in the conference often find it useful to read a short summary of the delegations and the agenda before they arrive, so that the displays make sense as they walk through the rooms. The building stands on Jalan Asia Afrika in Bandung’s historic core, close to the other colonial buildings that give the city its character. Allow time for the museum’s displays and for a slow walk around the outside, where the facade and the surrounding street show the colonial scale of the district.
Opening days are limited. The museum is generally closed on Mondays and on public holidays,. Visitors should check the current opening arrangements before they travel, and groups should confirm whether a booking is needed. Weekends can be crowded, particularly around the middle of the day, so a weekday morning gives a calmer visit.
The area is best explored on foot. The surrounding buildings can be seen in a single walk. Wear comfortable shoes, carry water, and plan the visit around the rain, since afternoon showers are common in the highlands.
Bandung’s Other Sites Nearby
Bandung holds several other historic sites in the same part of the city. The Gedung Sate government building is a short trip away and makes a good companion visit, because it shows the architecture of the same colonial period in a different setting. Braga Street, lined with colonial shopfronts and the old arcades, is a short walk from the conference building and is the natural place to finish a loop of the city centre.
The city’s wider history can be explored through the Bandung city guide, which places the conference building within the highland city’s growth and its colonial past. The Bandung art deco guide explains the other buildings of the period, and the Alun-Alun Bandung guide covers the square at the heart of the city, which many visitors reach after the conference building.
Why the Conference Still Matters
The 1955 conference gave newly independent states a meeting ground beyond the Cold War blocs. Its principles of peaceful coexistence and non-interference remain part of the way Indonesia describes its foreign policy, and the building is the physical place where that moment was staged. A visit gives a clear view of the diplomacy of the period, the hopes of the delegates and the limits they faced.
The city itself had its own part in the independence story. Bandung lived through the burning of part of the city in 1946, during the struggle for independence, which is covered in the Bandung Sea of Fire guide. The 1955 meeting therefore took place in a city that had already been drawn into the making of the republic, and the building stands as a reminder of that longer story.
For many visitors the most useful question is what the conference changed. The answer is not one thing. It gave the delegates a common language for their claims, it brought Asian and African states onto the international stage in their own right, and it set the stage for later movements of cooperation between the two continents. The hall is a good place to think through those questions slowly.
Frequently Asked Questions About Gedung Merdeka
What is Gedung Merdeka? It is the Bandung building where the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference was held, and it is now a museum that keeps the conference hall as it was.
When was the conference? It ran from 18 to 24 April 1955, with President Sukarno opening the meeting in the building.
What was agreed? The final communiqué set out the ten Bandung Principles, which set out shared ground among the newly independent states.
Can I visit? Yes, the building is open as a museum on its public days. Check the opening arrangements before you go, because the museum is closed on Mondays and public holidays.
Related guides: museum konferensi asia afrika, Dahlia Flowers in Lembang, Bandung Colonial Heritage: Buildings, Streets and Sites.