It was originally opened in 1443, and was home to the rulers of Brandenburg then Prussia and finally German Kaisers. After the First World War it was converted into a museum, and its innards were gutted during the Second World War. It was destroyed in 1950 to make way for the new East German parliament building, the Palast der Republik.
In the 1990s, the Palast was found to be unsafe due to asbestos, and is scheduled to be destroyed. A group hopes to reconstruct the City Palace on its site, though funding is not available.