Schönhausen Palace

Schloss Schönhausen – © SPSG

Built back in the 17th century, Schloss Schönhausen has had a turbulent history.
Wilhelm Pieck, the first president of the GDR, had his official residence here. It became the GDR government's official guesthouse in 1964. The guest apartment with its dressing room, bedrooms and bathrooms has largely retained its original condition. Everything is in strong colours and ultra-modern style – as a demonstration of the GDR's progressiveness. International visitors such as Indira Gandhi, Fidel Castro and Mikhail Gorbachev slept here. The same rooms were later used for the "round table" meetings during the regime change in 1990. And soon afterwards the Allied Forces held their "Two Plus Four" discussions here to decide the terms of the German Reunification.
After a long period of renovation, it was finally opened to the public again at the end of 2009 and now offers visitors a host of contrasts and new departures – a tour of three centuries of German history.

The exhibition on the ground floor focuses in particular on Queen Elisabeth Christine. The wife of Frederick the Great used the palace in the 18th century for a long time as her summer residence. Her rooms have been restored to their original splendour: the chairs, mirrors, paintings and even wall coverings are all back where they used to be.