Palais Schwerin

Palais Schwerin stands in Berlin’s Mitte district, directly opposite the Nikolaiviertel. This listed baroque city palace rises behind a plastered façade. The three-storey frontage centres on a risalit with two balconies, masking an asymmetrical entrance.

Likely built after Berlin’s great city fire of 1690, the palace entered Otto von Schwerin’s hands in 1698. He commissioned Huguenot architect Jean de Bodt to remodel it between 1702 and 1704. A cartouche above the entrance bears the Order of the Black Eagle. After 1705, Russian, Prussian, police and cultural offices successively occupied the rooms. An expansion in 1937 kept the façade and added two side buildings.

The complex later housed the GDR State Art Commission and Ministry of Culture. Since 1990, German coins have been minted there. The Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk now occupies the building. A grand staircase from the construction period still survives inside.

City: Berlin
Content updated: 2026-06-22

Image: Konstantindegeer CC BY 3.0
Image: Unbekannter KünstlerPublic domain
Image: Unknown authorUnknown authorPublic domain
Image: Angela M. Arnold (=44penguins)CC BY-SA 3.0

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