The Palais Strousberg was a large city

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

built in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

for the railway magnate

Bethel Henry Strousberg Bethel Henry Strousberg (20 November 1823 – 31 May 1884) was a German Jewish industrialist and railway entrepreneur during Germany's rapid industrial expansion in the 19th century. He cemented his social standing with the construction of the ...

. It was designed by the architect August Orth and built between 1867–68 at No.70

Wilhelmstraße Wilhelmstraße, or Wilhelmstrasse (see ß; ; ) is a major thoroughfare in the central Mitte and Kreuzberg districts of Berlin, Germany. Until 1945, it was recognised as the centre of the government, first of the Kingdom of Prussia, and lat ...

. The grandiose splendour of its accommodation and novel integration of the latest building technologies into the fabric of the building, ensured that Berliners would still find the Palais impressive decades after its construction, becoming ''the'' model of refined luxury in Berlin architecture. Architektenverein zu Berlin und Vereinigung Berliner Architekten (Architectural association of Berlin and Union of Berlin architects) erausgeber ''Berlin und seine Bauten'' (''Berlin and her buildings''), II. Band, Published by Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1896, pp. 112–114 After the Strousberg family's bankruptcy in 1875, the building was rented to the embassy of Great Britain and Ireland which eventually purchased the property in 1884. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Wilhelmstraße was partitioned into the

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

sector of Berlin in 1948. The Palais, which had been severely damaged during the war, was demolished in the 1950s.

A palace for a 'Railway King'

Before the purchase of No. 70 Wilhelmstrasse, Strousberg had bought No. 80 Wilhelmstrasse which he then sold on to the

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

treasury at a profit. He bought No. 70 Wilhelmstrasse for 122,500 Taler in 1867. Designed by August Orth the palace was built for 900,000 Goldmarks, re-using materials from an older building which had served as the residence of the Prussian statesman

Friedrich Carl von Savigny Friedrich Carl von Savigny (21 February 1779 – 25 October 1861) was a German jurist and historian. Early life and education Savigny was born at Frankfurt am Main, of a family recorded in the history of Lorraine, deriving its name from the cast ...

. Orth, at the time, was the personal architect for the Strousberg family and had provided them with designs for several private building projects such as the renovations to Castle Zbirow near Pilsen which was the family's country seat. Orth also designed buildings for some of the business enterprises controlled by Strousberg, amongst which were the Berliner Viehmarkt (Berlin Cattle Market) at Brunnenstraße, Berlin, for the Cattle Market Company (Viehmarkt

Kommanditgesellschaft A (abbreviated KG, ; from + ) is the German name for a limited partnership business entity and is used in German, Belgian, Dutch, Austrian, and some other European legal systems. In Japan, it is called a '' gōshi gaisha''. Its name derives ...

) and the Görlitzer Bahnhof railway terminus and such buildings as the Kaiserbahnhof Halbe for the Berlin-Görlitzer Railway. The Palais is one of the few buildings where Orth designed a facade in a

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

rather than his usual use of

neo-renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

for secular buildings and

Neo-gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

for

ecclesiastical {{Short pages monitor">JewishEncyclopedia.com - STROUSBERG, BETHEL HENRY (BARUCH HIRSCH):
/ref> On the March 20, 1876 the palace was sold to Prince

Hugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen Friedrich Wilhelm Eugen Karl ''Hugo'', Prince of Hohenlohe-Öhringen, Duke of Ujest (title in German: ''Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen, Herzog von Ujest''; 27 May 1816 – 23 August 1897) was a German nobleman, politician, mining industrialist an ...

. However, the general and hereditary member of the

parliament did not occupy the building. An 1877 directory of Berlin's buildings listed the building rented to ''The office of the British embassy'' and the occupant as the British ambassador, Lord Odo Russell.Berliner Adressbuch 1876, Häuserverzeichnis nach Straßen Attracted by the building's prime location, the site on Wilhelmstrasse became the location for the British embassy in Berlin for many decades. The prince sold the property on December 18, 1884 to the ''Commissioners of Her Britannic Majesty's Works and Public Buildings''. The subsequent alterations were again overseen by August Orth; an open terrace and a section of the garden was replaced with a great hall which connected the two wings of the palace and permitted the accommodation of up to 600 guests for social functions. As time went by the Palais was increasingly overshadowed by the surrounding buildings. By 1907 the

Hotel Adlon The Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin is a luxury hotel in Berlin, Germany. It is on Unter den Linden, the main boulevard in the central Mitte district, at the corner with Pariser Platz, directly opposite the Brandenburg Gate. The original Hotel Adlon ...

, occupying the site of the Palais Redern (originally designed by

Karl Friedrich Schinkel Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, urban planning, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed b ...

), towered five storeys above the embassy. The hotel then bought and integrated the neighbouring Hotel Reichshof at 70a Wilhelmstrasse. The resulting smell and noise from the kitchens and loss of light led the last ambassador before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Sir Neville Meyrick Henderson, to comment that the embassy was "cramped, dirty and dark". By Henderson's time the embassy had long outgrown its premises and on the outbreak of war in 1939 a new site, large enough to accommodate all of the embassy's functions, was sought in exchange for the existing building.

Fate of the Palais

The embassy was closed at the outbreak of World War II and the German Ministry for Food occupied the building. Despite having survived a fire in revolution-torn Berlin in 1919, the building was severely damaged by Allied air raids in 1943, leaving it in ruins. A visiting British official in 1945 found nothing intact except the front gate "with the British coat of arms" — and the "remains of my old Vauxhall in the garage." The ruined building was pulled down by the

authorities in 1950 despite being listed as a historic building. Between 1949 and 1991 the British Ambassador to the German Federal Republic was based in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. There was also a British Embassy to the German Democratic Republic in a different area of Berlin. The vacant plot of land remained undeveloped until after

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

when the decision was made to return the British diplomatic mission to Berlin. The new British Embassy building opened in 1998 in the same location as the Palais and two adjoining properties, and retained the gate as a feature in the atrium, overlooking the main staircase.

Description of the building

Façade

The façade to Wilhelmstrasse made a grand impression, the portico in the centre of the façade rose 2 storeys. Four Corinthian sandstone columns carried a pediment whose tympanum featured a

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

with five figures arranged in an unknown theme. Historical photographs show a central, winged figure, which is perhaps an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

for the arts. To the right of centre sat a female figure with a

Caduceus The caduceus (☤; ; , ) is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was borne by other heralds like Iris (mythology), Iris, the messenger of Hera. The s ...

; this ancient symbol of commerce, associated with the Greek god Hermes, the messenger for the gods, conductor of the dead and protector of merchants and thieves, was cruelly apt to describe the eventual fate of the 'Railway King'. Porticos in the 1860s were an unusual motif in Berlin and were much more common in the

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

buildings in England, where Strousberg had spent his youth. Five windows flank either side of the portico to create a simple, clean and balanced façade. To the north side of the building, in place of the outermost windows to the cellar and ground floor, a double swing gate was located behind which was a passage which led into a yard for the coaches. The partially grilled windows to the basement extended under the road level. The first floor windows received stone surrounds and the high windows of the entertainment rooms on the ground floor were also provided with small bracketed canopies. A

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

extended over the entire length of the facade above the

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

. Other than the laurel wreaths below the bracketed sandstone cornice, the facade has no other sculpted ornamentation.

Ground floor

Visitors would ascend the stairs, walk through the portal in the Portico and arrive in a vestibule which extended vertically for two storeys and was lit by a skylight in a

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, al ...

ed, oval domed ceiling. At night time the space was illuminated with gas lights with movable shades. The two flights of marble stairs united at a landing over which was a half dome. From there the stairs extended to running on both sides of the upper floor. The stair's

baluster A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

s were of

biscuit porcelain Biscuit porcelain, bisque porcelain or bisque is unglazed, white porcelain treated as a final product, with a matte appearance and texture to the touch. It has been widely used in European pottery, mainly for sculptural and decorative objects th ...

. The reception room to the left of the vestibule, extended the length of all five windows of the south wing and led to the ballroom, an octagonal room with four rounded

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development and growth *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ec ...

s in the corners. A skylight illuminated the windowless room with a similar gas lamp as the vestibule, providing nighttime lighting. The panelled north wall could be folded down into the adjoining lightwell such that it spanned the well. Again with a glass roof, the additional space was used to provide accommodation for musicians or other performers. The connecting drawing room linked the ballroom via a further anteroom, the former conservatory, with the great hall. This opulent room was built after the British bought the embassy. They employed August Orth to convert the old garden terrace on the west side of the building into a sumptuous state room. Paired marble corinthian

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s and columns lined the walls and punctuated the glazing to the central courtyard and vaults rose over an entablature to support a flat ceiling decorated with rich ornamental carvings and painting. In 1877 the Berlin sculptor Otto Lessing created two stucco reliefs featuring dancing

Maenad In Greek mythology, maenads (; ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of his retinue, the '' thiasus''. Their name, which comes from μαίνομαι (''maínomai'', “to rave, to be mad; to rage, to be angr ...

s as part of the wall decoration for the great hall.Jörg Kuhn: ''Otto Lessing (1846 - 1912): Bildhauer, Kunstgewerbler, Maler; Leben und Werk eines Bildhauers des Späthistorismus, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seiner Tätigkeit als Bauplastiker'', Dissertation FU Berlin 1994, Seite 115 Once again the lighting was provided by gas lamps with mobile shades integrated into the oval skylight, which simultaneously allowed ventilation. The art gallery was another extravagance of Strousberg's for the display of his

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

collection. East of the gallery, the

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

room provided a convenient entertaining room, which led back through the walnut-panelled dining room to either the drawing room or into the library. Above the library's panelling, which was again carved from walnut, were murals and a skylight set into the ceiling. At night this room, like the others, was lit by gas light. The rest of the Palais's ground floor accommodation served as anterooms and work rooms for the ambassador. Above the small windows of the

servants' quarters Servants' quarters, also known as staff's quarters, are those parts of a building, traditionally in a private house, which contain the domestic worker, domestic offices and employee, staff accommodation. From the late 17th century until the ea ...

in the basement; the windows of the great hall, its anteroom and the portrait gallery, stood more than 3 metres tall, overlooking and visually connected the rooms with each other and the gardens in the large courtyard. The facades that faced onto this courtyard were given a unifying treatment with Corinthian columns dividing the glazing. Originally it was open to the west, where a curved terrace opened onto a garden. Its location can still be discerned in the plan of the basement. Its plan shape can still be discerned in the plan of the basement. The terrace was adjacent to the garden of the Palais Redern and effectively extended the small garden of the Palais Strousberg into the generous garden of the Palais Redern.

Basement

The store rooms, work rooms, servants quarters and ancillary rooms were located in the basement. With a floor to ceiling height approaching 3 metres it allowed the rooms that faced the street to be lit by natural light without the need for a lightwell, and so the face of the building could be kept close to the back of the footpath. The passageway to the north of the building led to a roofed courtyard which served as a coach house and also ramped down half a storey to the level of the basement. Stairs led down from the passageway to the basement on the Wilhelmstraße side of the building to enable easy access for servants and the necessary deliveries. The adjacent western wing of the building housed the stables,

tack Thermoproteati is a kingdom of archaea. Its synonym, "TACK", is an acronym for Thaumarchaeota (now Nitrososphaerota), Aigarchaeota, Crenarchaeota (now Thermoproteota), and Korarchaeota (now Thermoproteota), the first groups discovered. They ...

and fodder rooms. Along Wilhelmstraße, the coachmen's and servants quarters were lit by low windows at street level. In the basement, directly under the vestibule was the

servants' hall The servants' hall is a common room for domestic workers in a great house, typically referring to the servants' dining room. If there is no separate sitting room, the servants' hall doubles as the place servants may spend their leisure hours and s ...

. The kitchen and its associated accommodation such as the

scullery A scullery is a room in a house, traditionally used for washing up dishes and laundering clothes, or as an overflow kitchen. Tasks performed in the scullery include cleaning dishes and cooking utensils (or storing them), occasional kitchen work, ...

pantries A pantry is a room or cupboard where drink, beverages, food, (sometimes) dishes, household cleaning products, linens or provisions are stored within a home or office. Food and beverage pantries serve in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen. E ...

and wine cellar occupied the largest area in basement. A

dumbwaiter A dumbwaiter is a small freight elevator or lift intended to carry food. Dumbwaiters found within modern structures, including both commercial, public and private buildings, are often connected between multiple floors. When installed in restauran ...

carried meals up to the buffet beside the ballroom on the ground floor. In addition to the wine cellar, the boiler for the hot water heating was favourably located for both goods deliveries and the entrance to the

servant's quarters Servants' quarters, also known as staff's quarters, are those parts of a building, traditionally in a private house, which contain the domestic offices and staff accommodation. From the late 17th century until the early 20th century, they wer ...

. The wing along the southern boundary was occupied by the laundry. The washhouse ''with its washing machine'' is evidence for the advanced technical sophistication the building was designed with in 1868. The

grotto A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high tide. Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden fea ...

in the remaining corner of the southern wing was a remnant of the original garden before the great ballroom was built over the garden.

Upper floor

The upper floor contained the sleeping accommodation, lavatories, bathrooms, dressing rooms and children's rooms for the large Strousberg family. The central hot water system, a feature which only a handful of buildings in Berlin in the late 1860s possessed, was an indication of the building's modernity. Examples of the luxurious, but classically inspired interior decoration can be seen in the designs for the bathroom, where Roman Pompeii style wall paintings graced the walls (right). The more senior

domestic staff A domestic worker is a person who works within a residence and performs a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly de ...

– the

nanny A nanny is a person who provides child care. Typically, this care is given within the children's family setting. Throughout history, nannies were usually servants in large households and reported directly to the lady of the house. Today, modern ...

and

governess A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or ma ...

– were also housed on the upper floor.

Notes

References

External links

*
Bethel Henry Strousberg - Jewish encyclopedia Article

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20061006041032/http://www.britischebotschaft.de/Building/more.htm#history Website of the British embassy in Berlin*
Pläne zum Palais Strousberg im Architekturmuseum der TU Berlin
*

{{coord, 52, 30, 57, N, 13, 22, 51, E, type:landmark_scale:3000, display=title Buildings and structures in Berlin Palaces in Berlin Houses completed in 1868