Press Release
Drawing on the layered history of the PalaisPopulaire, the exhibition It’s Just a Matter of Time explores the intersection of temporalities. Built in 1730 as two separate houses along Berlin’s fortress moat, the structures were united by Prussian architect Friedrich Wilhelm Diterichs with a central extension, creating a single palace. In 1788, it became a royal residence under the Prussian crown. Years after the fall of the monarchy in 1918, it was first used as the Schinkel Museum in 1931, then for temporary exhibitions. In 1933, following the Nazi rise to power, over 20,000 books were burned at the nearby Opernplatz in a brutal act of cultural erasure. With Berlin’s postwar division, the Palais became part of the German Democratic Republic. Situated near the Palace of the Republic—the GDR’s parliamentary seat from 1976 to 1990—it was at the center of the shifting ideologies of the Cold War. During this time it housed the Operncafé. After years of vacancy, the Palais reopened in 2018 as a contemporary art venue.
