Ordenspalais
The Ordenspalais was a building on the corner of Wilhelmplatz and Wilhelmstraße in Berlin. Construction began in 1737 as the home of Karl Ludwig, Count of Waldburg-Capustigall, who died in 1738. By order of King Frederick William I, the palace was finished by the Johanniterorden (Order of Saint John) according to plans by Carl Friedrich Richter, who also designed the nearby Palais Schulenburg.
From 1738 it was the main residence of the Order’s Master (Herrenmeister) and housed the Berlin legation. It was later renamed for Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, who was Herrenmeister from 1763 to 1811.
In 1811 Prussia took over after the Order was dissolved during the Napoleonic Wars, and the building housed various government offices before Prince Charles of Prussia made it his residence in 1829. He had the palace remodeled in Neoclassical style by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, with an annex by Friedrich August Stüler. In 1853 the building, then Wilhelmplatz 8/9, saw the restoration of the Johanniterorden and Charles’s installation again as Herrenmeister.
After his death in 1883, the palace remained with his descendants. Following World War I and the end of the Prussian monarchy, a long legal dispute arose between the Hohenzollerns and the Free State of Prussia. The palace stood empty until the government used it for the Reichsregierung’s press department and the Foreign Office, where daily press conferences were held. In March 1933 it became the headquarters of Goebbels’s Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, and the building was enlarged again, with the annex extended until 1940.
The Ordenspalais was destroyed in the final months of World War II. The annex survived and, from 1947, housed the East German National Front. Since 1999 the main offices of the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs have been there.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 06:54 (CET).