Germany - Brandenburg - Potsdam

Views of places in Potsdam, Germany; Schloss Cecilienhof, St. Nicolas' Church, Sanssouci Palace, Babelsberg Palace, Brandenburg Gate, and Russian Orthodox Church.

Sent by Denise, a postcrosser from Werder, Germany.

Potsdam (German pronunciation: [ˈpɔtsdam]), is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg. It directly borders the German capital Berlin and is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, 24 kilometres (15 miles) southwest of Berlin's city center.

Potsdam has several claims to national and international notability. In Germany, it had a similar status that Windsor has in the United Kingdom: it was the residence of the Prussian kings and the German Kaiser, until 1918. Around the city there are a series of interconnected lakes and unique cultural landmarks, in particular the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, the largest World Heritage Site in Germany. The Potsdam Conference, the major post-World War II conference between the victorious Allies, was held at another palace in the area, the Cecilienhof.

Babelsberg, in the south-eastern part of Potsdam, was a major film production studio before the war and has enjoyed increased success as a major center of European film production since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Filmstudio Babelsberg is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world.

Potsdam developed into a centre of science in Germany from the 19th century. Today, there are three public colleges, the University of Potsdam and more than 30 research institutes in the city. (read further)

Germany - A Partial Map of Brandenburg

A partial map of a region called Brandenburg.

Sent by Heike, a postcrosser from Germany.

This is from Wikipedia : Brandenburg, Lower Sorbian: Bramborska; Upper Sorbian: Braniborska) is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam. Brandenburg surrounds but does not include the national capital and city-state of Berlin.

Originating in the medieval Northern March, the Margraviate of Brandenburg grew to become the core of the kingdom, later Free State of Prussia. The eastern third of historic Brandenburg (Ostbrandenburg/Neumark) was ceded to Poland in 1945.

Germany - Brandenburg Gate

Brandenburger Tor or Brandenburg Gate.

Sent by Kathrein, a postcrosser from Berlin, Germany.

This is from Wikipedia : The Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) is a former city gate and one of the main symbols of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city center at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building. The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was fully restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin (Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation). Today, it is regarded as one of Europe's most famous landmarks.

Germany - Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin

Neues Palais or New Palace in Potsdam, part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sent by Denise, a postcrosser from Werder in Germany.

The ensemble of the chateaux and parks of Potsdam is an exceptional artistic achievement whose eclectic and evolutionary features reinforce its uniqueness: from Knobelsdorff to Schinkel and from Eyserbeck to Lenné, a series of architectural and landscaping masterpieces were built within a single space, illustrating opposing and reputedly irreconcilable styles without detracting from the harmony of a general composition, designed progressively over time.

Potsdam, mentioned first in the 10th century, acquired some importance when the Great Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William (1620-88) established his residence there. Potsdam housed a small garrison from 1640 onwards; the site's military function was strengthened by the young Prussian monarchy.

Under Frederick II the Great (1712-86) Potsdam was radically changed. The new king wished to establish next to the garrison town and settlement colony of the 'Sergeant King' a 'Prussian Versailles', which was to be his main residence. In 1744 Frederick II ordered a vineyard to be planted on six terraces on the southern side of a hill, Bald Mountain. Sanssouci, a name which reflects the king's desire for intimacy and simplicity, translates the theme of a rustic villa into the marble, mirrors and gold of a Rococo-style palace.

Postdam-Sanssouci is the crystallization of a great number of influences from Italy, England, Flanders, Paris and Dresden. A synthesis of art trends in European cities and courts in the 18th century, the castle and the park offer new models that greatly influenced the development of the monumental arts and the organization of space east of the Oder. The one-storey palace included a rotunda with a projected axis and, on either side, a suite of five rooms. The east suite was the royal apartment; the west suite, guest rooms. The architect Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, for whom the king was both friend and patron, owed to Frederick II his training in Rome, Venice, Florence, Dresden and Paris. The iconographic programme evokes a winegrower's house; the southern facade was punctuated with 36 bacchantes by the sculptor Christian Glume. They are arranged as caryatids which support the cornice under the roofs of the wings and the cupola of the axial rotunda.

The 290 ha park was laid out around several buildings. Symmetrically flanking the castle to the east and west there were, first, the picture gallery and the old orangery, which was redesigned as a guest house in 1771-74. During this first stage a number of constructions were built, the most remarkable of which are Neptune Grotto, the last work by Knobelsdorff, which was begun during his lifetime but completed after his death, and the Chinese Tea House, built under the supervision of the architect Bering.

After the Seven Years War (1756-63) Frederick the Great ordered the construction of the New Palace, a huge Rococo-style construction with over 200 rooms, including the famous Shell Room. Other buildings were constructed in the park, including the Antique Temple, the Friendship Temple, Belvedere and the Dragon Pavilion. Frederick William IV (1795-1861) devoted himself to enlarging the park of Sanssouci; as Crown Prince he bought a domain to the south. He commissioned Karl-Friedrich Schinkel to build the small neoclassical Chateau of Charlottenhof and Peter Josef Lenné to design a romantic park. Lenné also designed the Sicilian Garden and the Nordic Garden, north of the Hauptallee. New constructions continued to be built until 1860. The orangery transposes the elevation of the Villa Medicis in Rome and the Friedenskirche that of the San Clemente Basilica.

The World Heritage site covers two other ensembles that include parks, chateaux and buildings, in the middle of which stands the Marble Palace, the king's summer residence built by C. von Gontard and fitted out by K. G. Langhaus. At the northern end of the park, the Chateau of Cecilienhof, a pastiche of an English cottage, was chosen in August 1945 as the site of the signing of the Potsdam Agreements. (Source)

Germany - Potsdam Drachenhaus

Potsdam Drachenhaus or Dragon House in Potsdam in Germany.

Sent by Michaela, a postcrosser from Potsdam in Germany.

This is from Wikipedia : The Prussian King Frederick the Great ordered that the Dragon House (German Drachenhaus) be built on the southern slope of the Klausberg, which borders the northern edge of Sanssouci Park in Potsdam. It was created between 1770 and 1772 in the prevailing Chinoiserie taste of the time, designed to imitate a Chinese pagoda. Carl von Gontard was commissioned to build it.

The Dragon House is named after the sixteen dragons on the corners of its concave roofs. Six years after the construction of the Chinese House in Sanssouci Park, Frederick's enthusiasm for Chinoiserie park structures was expressed once again with this creation.

Frederick the Great was stimulated to build in a Far Eastern style by Sir William Chambers's Designs of Chinese Buildings" (1757) and from his Plans, elevations, section and perspective views of the gardens and buildings at Kew" (1763). These architectural reference books were given to Frederick by the author, who had created for Augusta, Princess of Wales a large garden at Kew (near London), in which there still stands Chambers's many-tiered tapering pagoda, completed in 1762.

The Dragon House at Sanssouci was built on an octagonal plan, with four floors not only to be decorative, but also as living quarters for the wine-growers who worked on the neighbouring Weinberg. However, they did not move into the pagoda. To save the pagoda from its dilapidated state, it had to be restored in 1787. Ever since then it has been constantly inhabited by the overseer of the Belvedere on the Klausberg. Over the years, because of its inhabitation, an additional room, a laundry and three stables have extended the two rooms—a kitchen and an entrance hall—of the structure. The Dragon House has been used since 1934 in a gastronomical capacity.