Altes Palais
The Altes Palais, also known as Kaiser Wilhelm Palace, stands on Berlin’s Unter den Linden boulevard. It began as a royal residence for Prussian royalty. Carl Ferdinand Langhans designed the neoclassical building for Prince William of Prussia during the nineteenth century. Prince William later became Emperor William I. Its restrained facade uses symmetry, pilasters, and classical detail, unlike the ornate baroque buildings nearby. Four Doric columns support the building’s open central balcony. Window axes organize the facade, while triangular pediments frame the main-floor windows. The palace suffered heavy damage during World War II. Reconstruction in the early 1960s restored the exterior and adapted the interior for academic use. The law faculty of Humboldt University occupies the former royal residence. The site first held a late-seventeenth-century town house before becoming a baroque palace. The palace became a family home for William and his wife. Its history connects Prussian court life, wartime destruction, and Berlin’s postwar reconstruction. Its neoclassical order remains visible beside the richer baroque architecture of Forum Fridericianum.
- City
- Berlin
- Content updated
Image: Eduard Mertens (1860–1919)Public domain 
Image: Eduard Mertens (1860–1919)Public domain 
Image: Eduard Mertens (1860–1919)Public domain 
Image: Eduard Mertens (1860–1919)Public domain 
Image: Eduard Mertens (1860–1919)Public domain
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Berlin. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.