Schloss Biesdorf is a late-classicist villa on the eastern edge of Berlin that now works as the public gallery of the district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf. The building is easy to spot from the street: a pale, Italian-looking house with an octagonal corner tower and a copper roof, set in a landscaped park of about 15 hectares.
Freiherr von Rüxleben had the villa built in 1867/68, to designs by the architect Heino Schmieden. In 1887 Werner Siemens bought the estate, and his family had the park redesigned and the house altered. The city of Berlin bought it in 1927. In April 1945 the villa burned out, and for decades only the ground floor remained in use. The full reconstruction, with the upper floor and tower rebuilt, was finished in 2016. It has been listed as a monument since 1979.
Since 2018 the district's culture department runs the house. Its programme mixes exhibitions of contemporary art with works from the Kunstarchiv Beeskow, the large archive of art commissioned in the GDR, alongside talks, film screenings, tours and the Labor M programme. Many events deal with East German history and how it is remembered.
Visiting
- Hours: daily 10am–6pm, Friday 12–9pm, closed Tuesday. Check the website for holiday closures.
- Events: a lecture series with the local Volkshochschule, screenings and guided tours. Coming up: a lecture on the villa's original colours on 18 November 2026.
- Café: in the house.
- How long: an hour for the exhibitions; more with a walk in the park.
Getting there
S5 to Biesdorf, then about ten minutes on foot. U5 Elsterwerdaer Platz is a similar distance. There is parking on site.
Nearby
Spreepark Art Space, in the former GDR amusement park in Plänterwald, is the other venue on the site that deals with East Berlin's past through art.