The building, which lies to the south of the Schloßplatz, was constructed from 1962 to 1964 by the architects Roland Korn and Hans-Erich Bogatzky. It incorporates in its asymmetrical facade the "Karl-Liebknecht-Portal" (Portal IV), a fraction of the facade of the former Berlin Palace ("Stadtschloss") comprising the balcony from which Karl Liebknecht proclaimed a "Free Socialist Republic of Germany" on 9 November 1918, on the eve of the end of World War I, two hours after Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the "Republic of Germany" from a window of the Reichstag building.