Prinz-Albrecht-Palais

The Prinz-Albrecht-Palais was a large stately mansion or a smaller palace in Berlin Friedrichstadt. It was located on Wilhelmstraße 102, opposite the western end of Kochstraße.

History

The building was erected in 1737–39 on behalf of King Friedrich Wilhelm I for Baron de Vernezobre Laurieux. The three-storey building with a courtyard open to the street and two economic wings on the left and right of the entrance. After the departure of the Vernezobre it was first used as a summer residence of the Berliner Abbess of Quedlinburg, Princess Anna Amalie. After her death in 1787 it served in 1796 as a quarantine station for the then spectacular smallpox vaccination of the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm.

Then it fell into disrepair and was acquired in 1830 by Prince Albert of Prussia and remodeled by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. From 1860 to 1862 there was a further transformation by the architect Adolf Lohse. After the death of Prince Albert of Prussia, the building was inherited by his son Prince Albrecht. In the service of Prince Albrecht was the valet August Sabac el Cher. The building remained the property of the House of Hohenzollern even after the German Revolution of 1918–1919.

Beginning 1934 the Building was used by the Sicherheitsdienst, the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party ruled by Reinhard Heydrich. The Building was destroyed in an air attack in 1944 and never rebuilt.

Today the area is used for the museum Topography of Terror.

References