This palace in the north of Berlin was built between 1685 and 1690 for General Joachim von Grumbkow and replaced an earlier building owned by the Counts zu Dohna. Elector Frederick III (later also Frederick I, King in Prussia) acquired the estate shortly afterwards and had it extended by Johann Friedrich Eosander von Göthe up to 1709. The garden facade and a few stucco ceilings still convey a picture of that Baroque era. From 1740 to 1797 the palace was the summer residence of the Prussian Queen Elisabeth Christine, the wife of Frederick the Great. In 1763-64 she had the palace converted and expanded into a jewel of the Rococo by Johan Michael Boumann the Elder. In addition to the magnificent ballroom and the elegant stairs, valuable tapestries and a gallery made of cedar wood are preserved in the Queen’s residential chambers.
In 1949 the palace became the residence of the first president of the German Democratic Republic, Wilhelm Pieck. The office and elegant modern President’s Garden date from this period. After the palace had been the seat of the State Council of East Germany from 1960 to 1964, it was finally used until 1990 to accommodate guests of the East German government. The surviving State Guest Apartment is furnished in the style of the 1960s, while the Fireside Room displays the new furnishings from 1978. Guests who stayed in these rooms included such famous people as Indira Gandhi and Mikhail Gorbachev.