Information
Charlottenburg Palace – with the Old Palace and the New Wing – is the largest and most significant extant palace complex in Berlin. It was among the favorite retreats of seven generations of Hohenzollern rulers, who repeatedly redesigned individual rooms with luxurious interior décor. Following severe damage in World War II, the palace was largely rebuilt and refurnished. Today it shows apartments and artworks of the electors of Brandenburg, kings of Prussia and emperors of Germany, from around 1700 until 1918 combined with historic information on the rise and reign of the House of Hohenzollern.
The Old Palace offers impressive early eighteenth-century suites. The Porcelain Cabinet with ceiling paintings by Jan Anthonie de Coxie, the Palace Chapel and the bedchamber of King Frederick I are among the highlights of the Baroque state apartments in the Old Palace that had been built around 1700. The private apartment of Queen Sophy Charlotte, including her Bedroom and her Boudoir, belongs to the most authentic parts of the Old Palace. Next to exquisite furniture and some ceiling paintings from around 1700, it contains about forty-five Dutch and Flemish seventeenth- and early-eighteenth century paintings by artists like Anthon Schoonjans, Jan Frans van Douven, Frans Muntsaert, Jan Lievens, Allaert van Everdingen, Jan van Bronchorst and Gedeon Romandon, stemming from the Queen’s original arrangement of paintings.
The apartments of King Frederick II in the New Wing were furnished in the 1740s and 1760s and include an outstanding collection of Frederician Roccoco furniture as well as early eighteenth-century French paintings by e.g. Antoine Watteau, including the famous Embarkation for Cythera and Gersaint’s Shop Sign and a few Dutch and Flemish paintings, like As the Old Sang, so the Young Pipe by Jacob Jordaens.
Dr. Alexandra Nina Bauer, Curator of German, Dutch and Flemish Paintings (May 2020)
Charlottenburg Palace is administered by the Foundation of Prussian Palaces and Gardens.
Collection catalogues
Charlottenburg Palace
Rudolf Scharmann
Berlin/Munchen 2011