The building, as magnificent as it appears, was originally built for a commoner. The major entrepreneur August Schmieder (1824 - 1897) had the renowned architect Josef Durm build him a magnificent retirement home in the style of Italian palace architecture in 1882. The lavish figural decoration with atlantic herms, niche figures and allegories on the roof ridge was created by sculptor Adolf Heer. The meaning of the allegories is conveyed by sayings by Josef Viktor von Scheffel on marble plaques.
The gardens are also accessible , with ornamental fountains, cast-iron fences and gates as well as a display wall on the west side of the garden, which is a unique example of this type of architecture in Karlsruhe. On the occasion of his marriage to Maria von Cumberland, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Prince Max von Baden acquired the palace as a residence for his family in 1899, so that it soon bore his name. After the collapse of the monarchy in 1918, the last chancellor of the German Empire left his residence and gave it to various institutions and companies for use as business premises. As a result, nothing of the original interior has been preserved. The Prinz-Max-Palais was badly damaged during the Second World War. It was then rebuilt and the interior layout changed. The Federal Constitutional Court initially resided here from 1951 to 1969, before the new buildings on Schlossplatz were completed. In 1978, the city council decided to convert it into a cultural center, which opened in 1981.
Today, the building is home to the City Museum, the Museum of Literature on the Upper Rhine, the Literary Society and the Children's and Youth Library.
Tip
The city museum houses a model of the city of Karlsruhe around 1834. This is equipped with a computer animation "The Weinbrenner City", in which 30 stations are explained in words and pictures.
