Painting outdoors in the garden of Villa Schöningen: In this two-day course, participants will develop their own compositions from initial sketches—from finding a subject to bringing the work to life. You’ll work with materials of your choice, guided by artistic and compositional support.

Materials:
Pencil, graphite, charcoal, pastels, colored pencils, or painting materials of your choice
Please bring: Sketchbook/sketchpad, drawing surface (at least A3 size), drawing pens, water container, painting rags, palette

Painting outdoors in the garden of Villa Schöningen: In this two-day course, participants will develop their own compositions from initial sketches—from finding a subject to bringing the work to life. You’ll work with materials of your choice, guided by artistic and compositional support.

Materials:
Pencil, graphite, charcoal, pastels, colored pencils, or painting materials of your choice
Please bring: Sketchbook/sketchpad, drawing surface (at least A3 size), drawing pens, water container, painting rags, palette

Villa Schlieffen is also open to curious visitors in August and can be explored as part of a free guided tour. After the Soviet army withdrew in 1994, the villa was abandoned until 2023. What remains are testimonies from times gone by. Currently, the impressive video installation “Sanctus” by Barbara Hammer from the Döpfner Collection is also on display.

Please register for a free tour at info@villa-schoeningen.de and learn about the fascinating past of this place.

Villa Schöningen invites you to a curatorial tour of the exhibition On Paradise on 21 August at 2 pm. Curator Pola van den Hövel will offer insights into the exhibition’s central questions and guide visitors through the parcours spanning the interior spaces and the garden.

At the core of the exhibition lies the question of where the idea of paradise has led us over the centuries—and how it continues to shape our understanding of nature, the body, and social order today. Drawing on historical visual traditions as well as contemporary artistic positions, paradise unfolds not as a lost place, but as a projection: a site of longing, a promise, and a space of control.

The tour invites visitors to explore these tensions together and to consider paradise not as a destination, but as a cultural construction of our present.

We are very much looking forward to celebrating the closing event of the exhibition “Zum Paradies” with you on 23 August 2026. Apart from the activation of Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky’s “Wilder Eisladen” in the garden of Villa Schöningen, there will be a reading by Sarah Lehnerer.

Nicholas Schulze – Double Bass, Rodes
Tom Sehrer – Piano

Nicolas Schulze is one of Potsdam’s most outstanding pianists, composers, and multi-instrumentalists. He works across boundaries, both in terms of musical genres and in his engagement, collaboration, and communication with other art forms.
Tom Sehrer is a jazz pianist, composer, and cultural entrepreneur. His musical foundation lies in classical music and the blues. He weaves together the dialectically intertwined emotional world, lyricism, and dynamics found in these genres—all with great enthusiasm—to create a sound in jazz that is entirely his own.

The event is curated by Pedales Jazz Project and is being held in cooperation.

City guide Kerstin Zarbock will take you on Sunday, April 26 on an impressive journey through the history of Villa Schöningen, a place of great significance in German history. Located directly on the former inner-German border, the villa was the setting for historic events, especially spy exchanges at the Glienicke Bridge.

This tour highlights the house’s role during the GDR era and its significance as a symbol of the Cold War. It is an informative and atmospheric approach to a place where world history becomes tangible.

We are pleased to invite you to the opening of our upcoming exhibition “Among the Trees” on 6 September 2026.

Presented by Passage Art at Villa Schöningen, the exhibition spans three centuries of painting, sculpture, and photography, approaching the forest not as a fixed motif but as a shared terrain continuously observed, recorded, and reimagined. Set within the historic park landscape of Potsdam, it unfolds as a dialogue between art, nature, and space. Rather than proposing a thesis, Among the Trees offers something rarer: a place for contemplation, where beauty, transformation, and the quiet presence of the forest invite us to pause and look anew.

To celebrate Open Monument Day on 13 September, we are offering a guided tour of the history of Villa Schöningen. During the tour, you will learn more about its long history, from the Prussian era through the post-war period to its role during the Cold War. Besides, there will be a historical tour of Villa Schlieffen. This tour will focus on the history of Villa Schlieffen from 1945 to 1994, when the Soviet Army was stationed in the so-called Military Town No. 7, also known as the ‘Forbidden City’.

Sara Vidal Cabré is a singer, composer and multidisciplinary performer who trained at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona. Her neo-soul project, Mío Ma, has amassed 150,000 streams and 4,000 monthly listeners. She has composed original music for theatre and film, including commissioned works for the National Theatre of Catalonia (Tàrsius, 2025) and the theatre production HERE, which toured internationally. Sara has performed at the Fusion Festival (DE), the Noisy Festival (UK) and the Palau de la Generalitat (ES).

Jarrah Dhyan is a Berlin-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work spans jazz, soul and electronic music. His contemporary jazz project, Skyline Sun, has amassed over 300,000 streams, performing at major festivals such as Roskilde (DK), Nišville (RS), the Ankara Jazz Festival (TR) and Fusion Festival (DE), as well as at Club Gretchen (DE). Jarrah is an experienced curator and event producer who has organised over 50 live events and hosted numerous international artists in Berlin. He trained at the Australian Institute of Music and maintains active connections to the Australian jazz and contemporary music scenes.

Since 2020, Jarrah and Sara have worked together on several collaborative projects, including Souljam Berlin and Chow Chow Disco. They have produced and released original music together, creating a distinctive sound that blends contemporary jazz, neo-soul and electronic influences. In January 2026, they toured Australia with the support of Initiative Musik and the Goethe-Institut.

The event is curated by Pedales Jazz Project and is being held in cooperation.

Villa Schöningen is pleased to invite you once again this year to musical and literary performances by the Hans Otto Theatre, as part of the “Hans Otto Visits the City’s Gardens and Homes” series.

The historic villa and its extensive gardens provide a unique setting for the series. The open atmosphere, shaped by art and history, ensures that encounters with other people and the character of the place become an integral part of the cultural experience. Members of the Hans Otto Theater ensemble present a diverse programme here in the immediate vicinity of the Heiliger See.

This is a collaboration between the Hans Otto Theater and the Berliner Vorstadt e.V. association.

On September 19 Villa Schlieffen will be open to interested visitors and can be viewed as part of a free guided tour.

After the withdrawal of the Soviet army in 1994, the villa remained unused until 2023. Traces of this period are still visible in the rooms today and bear witness to its eventful history.

Complementing the architectural and historical exploration, Barbara Hammer’s video installation Sanctus from the Döpfner Collection is currently on display, adding an impressive contemporary perspective to the location.

A Figure Drawing class with a live model will take place on September 24, 2026, at Villa Schöningen, amidst the exhibition “Among the Trees”.

Led by artist Katrin Seifert, the class is open to anyone interested in art, regardless of their level of experience. The exhibition provides an extraordinary and inspiring backdrop for focused and creative drawing.

Participants should bring their own drawing materials (sketchpad, pencils, and a firm surface, ideally A3 size).

The number of participants is limited.

Hailing from Berlin, the exceptional singer Natascha Roth has enjoyed a multifaceted career as a jazz singer, composer and university lecturer in jazz and pop vocals for many years. Having performed on international stages, she sings with stylistic confidence and unique expressiveness. Her music transcends musical and geographical boundaries. Having spent many years living in southern Africa, other European countries and New York City, Natascha now lives and performs in Berlin.

The event is curated by Pedales Jazz Project and presented in cooperation.

City guide Kerstin Zarbock will take you on Sunday, April 26 on an impressive journey through the history of Villa Schöningen, a place of great significance in German history. Located directly on the former inner-German border, the villa was the setting for historic events, especially spy exchanges at the Glienicke Bridge.

This tour highlights the house’s role during the GDR era and its significance as a symbol of the Cold War. It is an informative and atmospheric approach to a place where world history becomes tangible.