Visiting Berlin's Royal Past at Schloss Charlottenburg

Berlin is a busy cosmopolitan city and much of its architecture spans the 20th century, but you can take a step back into Berlin’s Baroque and Rococo past when you visit the beautiful palace estate of Schloss Charlottenburg.

Built at the end of the 17th century and expanded during the 18th century, the original palace was commissioned by Sophie Charlotte, the wife of Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg, in what was then the village of Lietzow.  Frederick desired the more prestigious title of king. However, according to Germanic law at that time, no kingdoms could exist within the Holy Roman Empire, with the exception of the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Frederick persuaded Leopold I, Archduke of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor, to allow Prussia to be elevated to a kingdom and crowned himself Frederick I, King in Prussia (not King OF Prussia) in 1701.  His grandson Frederick II (Frederick the Great) would later finally obtain the title, King “of” Prussia.

 

The original palace was designed by Johann Arnold Nering in the Baroque style. It consisted of one wing with a central cupola. The façade was decorated with Corinthian pilasters. On the top was a cornice on which were statues (there are no longer any statues on the façade). At the rear in the center of the palace were two oval halls, the upper hall was a ceremonial hall and the lower hall opened to the gardens.

In 1702, architect Eosander von Goethe extended the palace in the style of the Palace of Versailles in Paris, starting with two long side wings to enclose a large courtyard and the main palace was extended on both sides. Sophie Charlotte died in 1705 and Friedrich named the palace and its estate Charlottenburg in her memory.

An Orangery was later built on the west end of the palace and the central area was extended with a large domed tower and a larger vestibule. This design is what you see today.  On top of the dome is a wind vane in the form of a gilded statue representing Fortune.

above photo source - "Charlottenburg Hohenzollern 2" by ernstol - Own work.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

The last rooms you will visit in the old palace are decorated with late 18th and early 19th century decore.

When Frederick the Great came to the throne in 1740, stables for his personal guard regiment were completed to the south of the Orangery wing and work was started on the east wing of the palace.

The interior of the ground floor was designed for Frederick's wife Elisabeth Christine, though she seldom visited because she preferred their Schonhausen Palace.  The upper floor, which included the White Hall, the Banqueting Hall, the Throne Room and the Golden Gallery was grandly decorated with a lavish interior.

In 1786, Frederick was succeeded by his nephew Friedrich Wilhelm II who transformed five rooms on the ground floor of the east wing into his summer quarters and part of the upper floor into Winter Chambers.

The palace is beautiful, but my favorite part of the tour was the collection of 18th century French paintings which is the largest of its kind outside France.  I love this period of art and try to find works to view in the museums of every European country we visit, so seeing some of most famous of the 18th Century French masterpieces in art history was a thrill!

Lovely Charlottenburg Palace was heavily damaged during WWII, but was carefully restored to its former glory. Today you can visit these fabulously restored Baroque and Rococo palace rooms.  They are stunning.