About 75 years have passed since Adolf von Harnack, the intellectual father of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft for
the Advancement of Knowledge suggested that a meeting place for German and foreign scientists be built near the
KWG-institutes in Dahlem. The public coffers were rather empty and the farsighted plans were in danger of failing
due to lack of funds. With calls for contributions, the KWG, more or less, begged the needed sum together. Plans had
been drawn up by the architect Carl Settler and about 700-thousand marks from foundations and state appropriations
made possible the construction of the new building. The site had been donated by the state.
At the opening of the Harnack-Haus on May 7, 1929, which was also Adolf von Harnack's 78 birthday, Germany's
foreign minister Gustav Stresemann said: "At a time when all powers are being gathered together (under one roof)
there is a greater possibility of energy being released than under a condition of bloated saturation.
Almost all the furnishings of the Harnack-Haus came in the form of donations including "a usable service for 48
persons" from the Meissen china factory, kitchen utensils. pictures, furniture, various silver ashtrays engraved with
the donor's name and, last but not least, "small bronze decorative frogs with ruby eyes" belonging to the extensive
contribution of the chemical industrialist, Carl Duisberg.
To this day, a relief of the German empire's founder decorates the BismarckHalle, the reception room of the house.
Those who laboured by using their minds could keep in good physical shape by using the fitness room containing a
(then) state of the art Schwedenleiter (rope or wall ladder?) and three tennis courts which are still in use.
Each day up to 150 persons, collegues from the surrounding institutes and guests, dined in the comfortable
Liebig-Gewälbe or in one of the meeting rooms named in honour of Germany's intellectual greats. There was hardly
another spot in Berlin where, at dinner time, one could see so many Nobel Prise winners, famous artists, industrialists,
government representatives and ambassadores in one room. The green leatherbound guest book of the
Harnack-Haus reads like a Who"s-Who of the time- in September, 1930, the Indian author and philosopher,
Rabindranath Tagore was a guest, Ferdinand Sauerbruch (famous surgeon), Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Otto Hahn,
the bankers von Bleichroeder and Mendelssohn, captains of industry such as Flick and Carl-Friedrich von Siemens
often sat together here.
The Goethe-Saal holds up to 500 people and is still used for lectures and receptions. It is said that Einstein presented
his theory of relativity for the first time in this room. As far as we know, Lisa Meitner, a physicist who later was one of
the discoverers of atomic fission, was the first and only woman to deliver a lecture at the Harnack-Haus: in June,
1931, she spoke on "The Inter-relationships Between Mass and Energy".
There was also a lecture hall (with a separate entrance still preserved) which was equipped with the most modern
projection possibilities, including those for motion pictures. It in said that Hitler and Goebbels invited a select group of
guests to view the film, The Old and the Young King. There are, however, no entries in the guest book regarding
Hitler's supposed three visits to the Harnack-Haus. 'The chronicle (guest book) does report that no incident marred
the memorial service that took place in January, 1935, for Fritz Haber, despite the fact that the Education Ministry had
forbidden civil servants and professors to participate.
Each year, between 230 and 360 visiting scientists resided in the guest apartments located an both upper floors of the
house with a view of the gardens and fields. The prices ranged from 3.85 Reichsmark (single bed/no bath) to 12
Reichsmark (2-bed apartment with service). The newspaper, BZ am Abend, regularly published the names of the
guests in the "scholars' hotel". Originally, it was intended to expand the house to the adjacent tennis courts, however,
nothing came of these plans.
During the 2nd World War, the building served, in part, as a military hospital. After the administrative rooms of the
Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft in the Berliner Schloä and several other KWG institutes had been bombed out, the
Harnack-Haus became the last refuge for the KWG before it was secretly moved to Göttingen. On July 14, 1945, the
American occupation forces confiscated the house. Two days later, yet another famous guest moved into the more or
less intact rooms; US President Harry Truman, who had come to Berlin to attend the Potsdam Conference of the
victorious powers and wished to have a look at the city then lying in ruins. Also, rumour has it that the commander of
the Allied forces, Dwight Eisenhower, spent some time here.
After the war the Harnack-Haus became the officers' club and social meeting place for Americans in Berlin.
Meetings of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft took place here at irregular intervals. In 1967 the Americans recognized
the Harnack-Haus as property of the MPG. At the same time, however, they secured themselves "the right of
exclusive use and possession" "rent free for such time as possession is necessary".
The building was renovated in the late 1980's due to damage caused by a fire.
In August, 1994, the house was returned to the MPG and is being used as a guest house and event site for scientists
and scientific groups pending renovation as a conference center for the MPG.