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Schloss Cecilienhof Hotel and Museum

Fall, 2023 update: The Schloss Cecilienhof Hotel closed several years ago (ostensibly for renovations, but with no end date in sight). However, you can still visit the former royal residence. See below for more information.

Schloss Cecilienhof

ABOVE: The Schloss Cecilienhof, once a royal residence, currently houses a museum and the Relaxa Schlosshotel Cecilienhof.

By Durant Imboden

Hotel Schloss Cecilienhof entrance with bench Schloss Cecilienhof (a.k.a. Schloß Cecilienhof) was the last royal palace of Germany's Hohenzollern Dynasty. Wilhelm von Preussen, the son of Germany's emperor and the Crown Prince of Germany, had the house built from 1914 to 1917 and named it after his wife Cecilie.

After World War I, when the royal family abdicated and surrendered most of its properties to the German state, Wilhelm negotiated the right to live in Cecilienhof with Princess Cecelie and their six children. The family stayed there until the end of World War II, when they left Potsdam as the Red Army advanced toward Berlin.

In 1945, the Allied powers chose Schloss Cecilienhof as the site of the Potsdam Conference, where Truman, Stalin, and Churchill negotiated Germany's postwar future. In the palace's museum, you can visit the conference room where the leaders of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain planned the Occupation.

From royal residence to hotel

Schloss Cecilienhof courtyard Following World War II, Schloss Cecilienhof was in the Soviet Zone and (after 1952) the German Democratic Republic. It served as an officers' club for the Red Army, a memorial site, and--from 1960 onwards--as a hotel.

Location and setting

Schlosshotel Cecilienhof window Schloss Cecilienhof is 2.5 km or about 1½ miles north of Potsdam's town center in the New Garden district, an area of lake- and riverfront parks and villas that's easy to reach by public transportation, bicycle, or car--or on foot, if you don't mind a reasonable walk.

The hotel was closed the last time we checked (see update above), but the palace or "country house" remains open to visits except during periods of restoration. To learn more about the palace and its museum, see the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation's Cecilienhof page.

Finally, to see more captioned pictures of Schloss Cecilienhof and its surroundings, go to page 2 of this article.

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Introduction

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Potsdam travel guide:

Potsdam - Introduction