Villa Roderbourg was originally built by the architect Richard Halfter for the rentier family Knopf in 1914. Since the Knopfs already owned a similar mansion in Grune-wald, they apparently had it built for the sole purpose of reselling it for profit, a common practice in the fast growing realty market of the upscale neighborhood Grunewald these days. Hence, only a few years later, the ownership of the house went to the founder of the renowned battery producing company VARTA AG. Its chairman, Dr. h.c. Carl H. Roderbourg, owned the mansion until his decease in 1940 and, together with his American wife Claude Lennox Miller, raised his daughter Helga-Lee, the later Princess of Schaumburg-Lippe, here.

The mansion today is protected as an historical landmark. It exhibits an interesting architectural interaction with the neighboring Villa Goldschmidt which is landmark protected as well. The similar architectural attitude is already shown by the congenial fencing: facile bar grate fences with unostentatious gated drive-ins. The horizontal positioning of the Villa Goldschmidt is confronted by a classic two-story building with a tall basement and a curb roof that is not nearly as dominant. A comparable architectural concept is further revealed by the main cladding which is sparingly decorated by antiquity elements. Traditional in its character but unusual by its sheer dimensions is the rounded jutty which is formed as an arched lintel and spans over almost the entire house front. The upper floor is characterized by a close sequence of round arched windows. Along the lines of the width of the jutty the five round arched windows in the middle are framed by ionizing pilasters and then are bound together by the shallow pediment which creates a striking finale of the wide middle zone of the house façade.

As outlined in the database of the Berlin historic preservation agency, the footprint of the base floor which used to house the lounge, the hall and the saloon and which is now occupied by the Meissen ® store is characterized by its great and very unique dimensions and layout. Saloon and hall occupy the entire depth of the building. Particularly the jutty, which was built as a large conservatory with big rectangular windows impresses with its colossal width and by the fact that it is not only accessible from the main saloon but also from the lounges on the sides.