Bellevue Palace (german: Schloss Bellevue, ), located in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

's Tiergarten district, has been the

official residence An official residence is the House, residence of a head of state, head of government, governor, Clergy, religious leader, leaders of international organizations, or other senior figure. It may be the same place where they conduct their work-relate ...

of the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

since 1994. The

schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cognate ...

is situated on the banks of the

Spree Spree may refer to: Geography * Spree (river), river in Germany Film and television * ''The Spree'', a 1998 American television film directed by Tommy Lee Wallace * ''Spree'' (film), a 2020 American film starring Joe Keery * "Spree" (''Numbers' ...

river, near the

Berlin Victory Column The Victory Column (german: , from ''Sieg'' ‘victory’ + '' Säule'' ‘column’) is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Second Schleswig War, by the time it was ...

, along the northern edge of the

Großer Tiergarten The Tiergarten ( en, Animal Garden; formal German name: ( en, Greater Animal Garden)) is Berlin’s most popular inner-city park, located completely in the district of the same name. The park is in size and is among the largest urban garden ...

park. Its namethe French for "beautiful view"derives from its scenic prospect over the Spree's course.

Overview

Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia en, Augustus Ferdinand , house =House of Hohenzollern , father = Frederick William I of Prussia , mother =Sophia Dorothea of Hanover , birth_date = , birth_place =Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia , death_date = , death_place =Berlin, Kingdom of P ...

, Master of the Knights of the

Order of Saint John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

and youngest brother of King

Frederick II of Prussia Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...

. There were preexisting structures on the site, including the manor house which King Frederick's architect

Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (Hans) Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (17 February 1699 – 16 September 1753) was a painter and architect in Prussia. Knobelsdorff was born in Kuckädel, now in Krosno Odrzańskie County. A soldier in the service of Prussia, he resigned his ...

had built for himself in 1743, which was demolished, and a leather factory on the Spree river waterfront which was converted into the right side-wing. The palace was named ''Bellevue'' as its view reached the tower of

Schloss Charlottenburg Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) is a Baroque palace in Berlin, located in Charlottenburg, a district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough. The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during t ...

before the viaduct of the

Berlin Stadtbahn The Berlin Stadtbahn ("city railway") is a major railway thoroughfare in the German capital Berlin, which runs through Berlin from east to west. It connects the eastern district of Friedrichshain with Charlottenburg in the west via 11 interme ...

was built nearby in the 1880s. It was the first Neoclassical building in Germany, characterized by its

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

pilasters, with wings on either side ("Ladies' wing" and "River Spree wing"). The only room that kept its original decoration is a ballroom on the upper floor designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans, the architect of the Brandenburg Gate. The Palace is surrounded by a park of about 20

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s. In 1843, King Frederick William IV of Prussia inherited ''Bellevue'' from

Prince Augustus of Prussia Prince Frederick William Henry Augustus of Prussia (german: Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich August; 19 September 1779 – 19 July 1843) was a Prussian royal and general. Born on Friedrichsfelde Palace, he was the youngest son of Prince Augustus Ferd ...

, a son of the builder. In 1865 it became the residence of his niece Princess Alexandrine after her marriage to

Duke William of Mecklenburg-Schwerin german: Friedrich Wilhelm Nicolas , spouse = Princess Alexandrine of Prussia (1842–1906), Alexandrine of Prussia , issue = Duchess Charlotte , house =Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin , father =Paul Frederick, Gra ...

. It served the royal and imperial princes of the

Hohenzollern dynasty The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...

until the German Revolution of 1918–19. The last German Emperor

Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empir ...

used it as a guest house as well as a private school for his seven children. The

Free State of Prussia The Free State of Prussia (german: Freistaat Preußen, ) was one of the constituent states of Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it continued to be the domina ...

acquired the property from the former Emperor in 1928 and used it as a museum of ethnography during the 1930s before being renovated as a guest house for the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

government which had purchased it in 1938. However, from 1939, it was occupied by

Otto Meissner Otto Lebrecht Eduard Daniel Meissner (13 March 1880, Bischwiller, Alsace – 27 May 1953, Munich) was head of the Office of the President of Germany from 1920 to 1945 during nearly the entire period of the Weimar Republic under Friedrich Ebert a ...

, the head of the Office of the President of Germany. It was there that Soviet foreign minister

Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov. ; (;. 9 March Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._25_February.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S. 25 February">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dat ...

stayed with his retinue during his visit to Berlin in November 1940. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the Palace was severely damaged by

strategic bombing Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...

and in the 1945 Battle of Berlin, before being substantially refurbished in the 1950s. Inaugurated by President

Theodor Heuss Theodor Heuss (; 31 January 1884 – 12 December 1963) was a German liberal politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959. His cordial nature – something of a contrast to the stern character of chancellor K ...

in 1959, it served as the secondary residence of the

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

president, a ''

pied-à-terre A ''pied-à-terre'' (, plural: ''pieds-à-terre''; French for "foot on the ground") is a small living unit, e.g., apartment or condominium, often located in a large city and not used as an individual's primary residence. The term implies use o ...

'' in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

to supplement his primary residence at the

Hammerschmidt Villa Hammerschmidt Villa (german: Villa Hammerschmidt) is a villa in the German city of Bonn that served as the primary official seat and primary official residence of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1950 until 1994. President Ri ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. In 1986–87, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker had the interior of the palace completely redesigned by the architect Otto Meitinger in order to adapt the rooms to the character of the external historical appearance, whereby the sequence of rooms was also restored according to plans from the time before the destruction. Weizsäcker had the palace furnished with part of the valuable

Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

furniture collection from Wilhelmshöhe Palace in Kassel as a permanent loan and initiated the exchange of paintings with German museums in order to present guests with classical and modern German art. However, two rooms have been preserved with their furnishings in the style of post-war modernism. In 1994, after

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

, Weizsäcker made it his primary residence. pueckler14

A modern oval office building was built in 1998 in a section of the park near the palace to house the offices of the affiliated ''Bundespräsidialamt'' ("Office of the Federal President"), a federal agency.

Roman Herzog Roman Herzog (; 5 April 1934 – 10 January 2017) was a German politician, judge and legal scholar, who served as the president of Germany from 1994 to 1999. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the first president to be elec ...

, president from 1994 to 1999, remains the only officeholder who lived at ''Bellevue'' while incumbent. The Palace was reconstructed again in 2004 and 2005 to replace ailing infrastructure; during this period, President

Horst Köhler Horst Köhler (; born 22 February 1943) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the CDU (of which he is a member) and the CSU, as well as the ...

used nearby

Charlottenburg Palace Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) is a Baroque palace in Berlin, located in Charlottenburg, a district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough. The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during th ...

for representative purposes. ''Bellevue'' became the president's primary official seat again in January 2006, but since then has not included living quarters. Instead, the Federal President now lives in a government-owned villa in Dahlem, a suburban district of southwestern Berlin, which had previously been the Berlin lodging of the West-German chancellors since 1962.

Presidential Standard

Contrary to popular belief, the

presidential standard The presidential standard or presidential flag is the flag that is used in many countries as a symbol of the head of state or president. In some countries it may be for exclusive use of the president or only raised where the president is present. An ...

is flown at the Palace even on many days when the President is not in Berlin. It is lowered only when the President takes up official residence elsewhere – e.g. on the occasion of a state visit, when the standard is raised over his temporary residence abroad, or when he uses his second residence at

Villa Hammerschmidt Hammerschmidt Villa (german: Villa Hammerschmidt) is a villa in the German city of Bonn that served as the primary official seat and primary official residence of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1950 until 1994. President Ric ...

. If he is just on vacation, ''Schloss Bellevue'' remains his official residence and the standard is flown over it.

Großer Tiergarten statues

In 1945, according to testimony reported in the 1995 documentary film '' On the Desperate Edge of Now'', Berlin citizens buried statues of historical military figures from the Großer Tiergarten in the grounds of the Palace to prevent their destruction. They were not recovered until 1993."On the Desperate Edge of Now"
from '' The Living Dead'' by

Adam Curtis Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955) is an English documentary filmmaker. Curtis began his career as a conventional documentary producer for the BBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The release of ''Pandora's Box'' (1992) marked the ...

(BBC, 1995).

Gallery

File:Berlin - Schloss Bellevue2.jpg, Bellevue and its side wings File:Palacio Bellevue, Berlín, Alemania, 2016-04-21, DD 07-09 HDR.jpg, Nightime view of Bellevue Palace File:Siegessäule TopView6.JPG, The Federal Presidency's oval office building from the

Victory Column A victory column, or monumental column or triumphal column, is a monument in the form of a column, erected in memory of a victorious battle, war, or revolution. The column typically stands on a base and is crowned with a victory symbol, such as a ...

. The Palace and

Moabit Moabit () is an inner city locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2016, around 77,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former industrial and working-class neighbourhood i ...

quarter in the background. 003 Besuch S H Papst Benedikt XVI in Berlin 22 09 2011.jpg, President

Christian Wulff Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff (; born 1959) is a retired German politician and lawyer who served as President of Germany from 2010 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he previously served as minister president of the ...

receiving

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

Barack Obama and Joachim Gauck at Schloss Bellevue.jpg, Presidents

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

and

Joachim Gauck Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician and civil rights activist who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in E ...

at Bellevue, in the background a version of Graff's portrait of

Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the S ...

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and German President Joachim Gauck (Germany, 2016-05-30) 3.png, Military reception of the President of Portugal by Gauck with the

Wachbataillon The Wachbataillon (full name: ''Wachbataillon beim Bundesministerium der Verteidigung'' (WachBtl BMVg) (Guard Battalion at the Federal Ministry of Defence) is the German ''Bundeswehr's'' honour guard. The Wachbataillon number about 1,000 soldier ...

Bellevue, Berlin (P1090887).jpg, Festival for citizens in the Palace Gardens (2019) Schloss Bellevue DSC8334.jpg, The Oval Ballroom (by C. G. Langhans) on the upper floor Schloss Bellevue DSC8348.jpg, Schinkel-Room International Bertelsmann Forum 1998.jpg, Great Hall with painting by

Gotthard Graubner Gotthard Graubner (13 June 1930 – 24 May 2013) was a German painter, born in Erlbach, in Saxony, Germany. Graubner studied at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts in Germany, be ...

Schloss Bellevue DSC8353.jpg, Dinner tables in the Great Hall Schloss Bellevue DSC8405.jpg, Ceremonial office with bust of

Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first President of Germany (1919–1945), president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925. Eber ...

, first President of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

, and a painting of the '' Weimar courtyard of the muses'' by

Theobald von Oer Theobald Reinhold Freiherr von Oer (9 October 1807 – 1885 in Coswig) was a German painter, illustrator and etcher. He is notable for his portraits, genre paintings and historic paintings. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of ...

(1860) Schloss Bellevue DSC8343.jpg, Salon

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

Schloss Bellevue DSC8362.jpg, Salon

Louise Louise or Luise may refer to: * Louise (given name) Arts Songs * "Louise" (Bonnie Tyler song), 2005 * "Louise" (The Human League song), 1984 * "Louise" (Jett Rebel song), 2013 * "Louise" (Maurice Chevalier song), 1929 *"Louise", by Clan of ...

References

External links

Official Website

Panoramas and other images of the ''Schloss Bellevue'' in Berlin

Bundeswehr – Großer Zapfenstreich 1/4
the

Großer Zapfenstreich The ("Grand Tattoo", "Beating Retreat") is a military ceremony performed in Germany and Austria. It is similar to the military tattoo ceremony performed in English-speaking countries, and is the most important ceremonial act executed by the Ger ...