Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II, the Old Palace was rebuilt from 1963 to 1964 as part of the Forum Fridericianum.

[1] On the site of the Old Palace stood previously a town house built between 1688 and 1692 by Ernst Bernhard von Weyler, the chief of the Brandenburg artillery.

However, his plan would have provided for the demolition of the adjoining library of Frederick the Great in order to make room for a huge new building for Prince William with two towers.

Being disappointed with the plans of Schinkel, he accepted the more modest concept of the architect Carl Ferdinand Langhans in neoclassical style.

As the construction of the palace was completed in 1837, the then Prince William began using the building as his residence where he and his wife brought up their children.