Palais am Festungsgraben

The Palais am Festungsgraben , originally known as the Palais Donner, is a stately building in Berlin’s Mitte subdistrict located behind, and facing, the ensemble of chestnut trees around the Neue Wache , near the eastern terminus of the boulevard Unter den Linden. The name refers to its construction next to a redundant canal, gradually filled in by 1883, which had originally been a moat surrounding the 17th century city wall. Built as a private residence, it later housed a succession of Prussian government offices, and after World War II various cultural institutions in the Soviet sector of Berlin. After administrative authority was transferred to the newly established German Democratic Republic in 1949 it hosted a succession of institutions established to further German-Russian contacts. Since German reunification it has accommodated a theater and from 2004 an art gallery .
By royal order King Friedrich II of Prussia presented the plot to his valet, Johann Gottfried Donner, on 7 November 1751. Donner had the palace constructed from 1751 to 1753 following plans by the court architect Friedrich Feldmann. Donner and his family lived on the ground floor of the palace and on the first upper storey Donner installed a large, elegant hall for public festivities as well as a private residence, which was rented to the administrator of the Prussian mint, Johann Philipp Graumann. The attic was used to store and air bulk grain, and at the back of the lot Donner laid out a garden with an underground cold storage room and a carriage house, using the remaining space to run a flourishing trade in timber.

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