History

Part of the Schwanenburg goes back to the former Potsdam-Wildpark imperial train station, now the Park Sanssouci stop, this was researched by Karl Liebscher from the Panketal historical association https://www.geschichtsverein-panketal.de. The half-timbered house was a reception building for the Kaiserbahnhof built in 1868. There is also a book by Barbara Eggers.

From 1905 onwards, this station was demolished because it was too small, and the new Kaiserbahnhof was built, which today stands as the DB Academy in a station that was otherwise hardly used. The old half-timbered buildings were put into storage; their whereabouts had been unclear since 1912. At the same time, an inn called „Schwanenburg“ was built in Schwanebeck on Bucher Chaussee, built by Otto Pierau. The Schwanenburg was successfully used as an inn, coffee house, but also as a tree nursery and for various dance events.

The old pine wood coffered ceiling of the Kaiserbahnhof has been preserved to this day, as has the massive entrance door.
After the Second World War, the building, which was temporarily on the particularly guarded border between East Berlin and Brandenburg, was partly inhabited by Soviet soldiers, then returned to the Pierau family and used as a restaurant and event room with various tenants. In the last 15 years before the fall of the wall in 1989, it fell into disrepair due to a lack of renovation. An heir of the Pierau family renounced the inheritance, so it became the property of the community.

After reunification, the entrepreneur Bernd Sparfeld bought it from the community and a few superficial renovations were carried out. An office building was built right next to it, and both buildings were used for selling printers. The old building was used as a warehouse on the ground floor, while offices and company apartments were on the first floor and in the attic.  

Between around 2005 and 2015, the old building, now owned by the widow and daughter Sparfeld, was no longer used.

Renovations began in 2015 and the old building has been used as an apartment building since 2019.