The publication covers the architectural-historical component of the exhibition `Special for Civil Servants'. A sketch is given of the architectural-historical and urbanistic aspects of the ministry buildings. Separate attention is paid to the beginnings of housing in and around the Binnenhof (1795 - 1850). The Binnenhof seemed the appropriate place to establish the new central government. With the return of Prince William of Orange in 1813 (King William I) and with the founding of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the new Constitution of 1815, The Hague definitively became the center of government. Most departments were housed in the buildings that had also housed the agencies of the Batavian Republic. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs initially found a place in the `house on the Bassecour' on the Buitenhof. The architect A. Noordendorp made a design for an extension to the wing of this building in 1828. The extension was to match the existing buildings around the Binnenhof.