The Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) at Köpenick Palace has the wonderful advantage of feeling much more like a palace than a museum, because it is (or was).

Built between 1677 and 1689 in Baroque style, the palace first became a museum in 1963. After the division of Germany, the National Museums in Berlin used the building as exhibition space for the sections of the Museum of Decorative Arts’ collection, which had remained in East Berlin.

Köpenick Palace suggests a new museum concept, titled “Room Art”, in which furniture and decorative art from the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo periods are presented in combination with one another. The term “Room Art” embraces all parts of the interior, which in the past served as wall and room decorations in bourgeois and courtly dwelling rooms: tapestries, enamel works, paneling, leather hangings, a cabinet with Baroque cupboards from the Kunstkammer, centerpieces, porcelain and silver.

Over 500 exhibits are on display. Each one corresponds to the original function of objects in the 16th, 17th and 18th century, arranged by their cultural representation in the public, private and courtly domains. A total of 29 ceiling artworks, in stucco and paint, have undergone careful restoration and are now on display.

The Baroque truss is an exceptional technical monument. The basement, including the remains of the north-eastern tower of the preceding building, houses an exhibition on the history of settlement and architectural development on the palace island. Also worth checking out are the various multimedia facilities, reading room, and Palace cafe on the banks of the Spree River.