Harnack House

Located in the intellectual colony of Dahlem, seat of the Free University Berlin, it was founded by the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft (KWG) on the initiative of its first president, the theologian Adolf von Harnack, and of its then chairman, Friedrich Glum.

The project was supported politically by the Weimar Republic Chancellor Wilhelm Marx and Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, and an influential Centre Party deputy Georg Schreiber.

Many notable German scientists resided or worked there, including Nobel Prize winners Fritz Haber, Otto Hahn and Albert Einstein.

The House was not significantly damaged in the fall of Berlin in 1945 at the end of the Second World War, and after a short period in Soviet hands it became an officers' mess for the occupying U.S. Army, though because of its historical prestige it was also used for cultural and diplomatic events.

It now offers excellent facilities for conferences, with meeting rooms and restaurants, and also accommodation for visitors to the various Max Planck Institutes in Berlin; the architecture and furniture remain in the original style.