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The residential villa areas in Wannsee 1870 – 1945. Pleasure ground of the upper middle class and the location of the Wannsee Conference. Special exhibit May 2000 – January 2006 The Kaiser- and the Schwedenpavillon Wilhelm Conrad intended to make the Alsen Colony more attractice by setting up exclusive restaurants. Thus, he catered for the needs of many colonists and Wannsee tourists of whom up to 20,000 came to Wannsee on public holidays. When he visited the 1872-73 World Exposition in Vienna, he discovered the Pavilion of Nations which was also known as the ‘Kaiserpavillon‘ (‘Emperor’s Pavilion‘). It was named this way because the Austrian and the German Emperor and the Russian Tsar used to have breakfast together in the pavilion. Conrad purchased the building and had it moved to the Wannsee, to the place where the beer garden of the restaurant ‘Loretta‘ is located today. Patrons could enjoy the magnificent view across the Großer and the Kleiner Wannsee from the terraces of the Emperor’s Pavilion. In 1910, the Emperor’s Pavilion was replaced by a new, bigger building. Lying in ruins due to war damage in 1945, the Berliners used it as a covered market for the East-West trade until the remains of the building were pulled down in 1961 after the building of the Wall. Like the Emperor’s Pavilion, the Schweden-pavillon (Swedish Pavilion) was an exhibition building, constructed by the kingdom of Sweden, that W. Conrad had moved from the 1872-73 World Exposition in Vienna to the Wannsee. Around 1900, the popular wooden restaurant on Große Seestraße was replaced by a bigger building. The awards ceremony of the first motor race Paris – Berlin was celebrated in the Swedish Pavilion on 30th June 1901 with Bengal fire, rockets, and flares. Giant letters in the colourful flames of the French colours blue, white, and red burned ‘Three cheers for our guests!‘ into the sky. And meanwhile, the band played the ‘Marseillaise‘ and subsequently ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über alles‘.

The Kaiser pavilion, around 1880

The Kaiser pavilion, postcard 1942

Terrace of the Kaiser pavilion overlooking the lake, postcard 1913

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Until the thirties, the Swedish Pavilion was a first-class restaurant which was also frequented by Max Liebermann. Here, his 80th birthday was celebrated with a big party. On 30th June 1927, the Academy of Fine Arts held a reception with 120 participants in the exclusive restaurant in honour of Max Liebermann who had been presented with the freedom of the city of Berlin. In 1940, the Foreign Ministry acquired the Swedish Pavilion. Disguised as ‘Radio Research Institute‘, special antennas were installed and the biggest and most important radio monitoring facility in Germany was set up. From 1941 onwards, the ‘Special Service Seehaus‘, which was strictly screened off from the general public, to whom it was forbidden to listen to foreign radio stations on pain of death, recorded programmes in 36 languages and required around 500 employees, officers and translators. They were constantly mistrusted by the Nazis and were internally called the ‘Sabotage-Club‘, because the foreign war reports exposed the reports of the Ministry of Propaganda as lies – much to the annoyance of the Minister of Propaganda Goebbels, who was also lodged in the Swedish Pavilion with his staff ‘Interradio‘. Therefore, the Ministry tried to strictly screen off the facility and keep the information recorded there secret and the Security Police constantly kept a watch on its employees. Especially at the end of the war, the monitoring installation became of crucial strategical importance for enemy reconnaissance. In mid-April 1945, the employees of the ‘Special Service Seehaus‘ and Goebbels‘ staff left Berlin. After the war, the Swedish Pavilion became a restaurant again, and in 1950, the idea of setting up a Sauerbruch Hospital in the building, where the ailing old Sauerbruch was to hold a sort of honorary position, was discussed. The Arbeitersamariterbund (Workers‘ Samaritan Federation) took over the real estate in 1956 and converted it into a home for the chronically ill. Since 1997, the house has been unoccupied.

The Schweden pavilion, postcard 1921

The Schweden pavilion, postcard 1925

Report of a “Monitor” of the Seehaus Wannsee, Berlin, January 25, 1945 (next page):

© House of the Wannsee Conference, Berlin 2006

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