Advertisement
Published: July 12th 2009
Edit Blog Post
The Hohenzollerns sure had it good. Till they didn't.
All those Friedrichs, Wilhelms, and of course Friedrich Wilhelms, along with their wives and children, left their mark on Berlin and environs, most notably Potsdam. This weekend sort of became, for me, a theme tour of the Hohenzollerns' palaces and pleasure gardens. But intertwined with all that sumptuous Prussian-ness it was hard not to notice the impact of more recent history on these remnants of Germany's imperial past.
I began the Hohenzollern Tour on Saturday in the west Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg, so named for Schloss Charlottenburg. It was originally built as a summer palace for Queen Sophie-Charlotte, wife of Friedrich III (later King Friedrich I - confused yet?), and was apparently meant as Berlin's version of Versailles. Well....um... At the very least, it is the largest surviving Hohenzollern palace and the sprawling gardens, with tucked away treasures like the Belvedere Tea House, proved a relaxing retreat from the city. It was a gentle start to a day that ended with a not-so-gentle visit to Kaiser Wilhelm I's church in Breitscheidplatz, near Bahnhof Zoo.
The Kaiser's church was built in 1891-95 but it was mostly destroyed by Allied bombing
in 1943. Rather than rebuild the church completely, it was decided to restore it as a remainder of the devastation of war. So the structure was deliberately "fixed" to look unfinished - a broken spire, gapping holes in the walls, large cracks in the interior mosaics. A new chapel, designed in an utterly modern style in stark contrast with the neo-Romansque original, completes the transformation of the site. (See my entry "Mind the Gap" for more on rebuilding in Berlin.)
***
Today I ventured out to Potsdam, formerly the summer playground of the Hohenzollerns and now the capital of the state of Brandenburg. It also happened to fall within East German borders after Germany was divided.
I knew, theoretically, that its opulent Prussian past might have been muddied by nearly forty-years of socialist city-planning (probably not too surprisingly GDR officials were a bit suspicious of the whole monarchy thing), but somehow I was surprised at just how much evidence of the communist era still exists in this big tourist draw. The advantage I get from walking around a new city (which I did a lot of in Potsdam) is seeing the nooks and crannies that some tourists
miss. Many of the day-trippers from Berlin speed on to the Old Town and to the royal parks, Sanssouci and the Neuer Garten, missing the mix of twentieth-century socialist and nineteenth-century baroque architecture between Potsdam train-station and most of the major tourist spots. But I like those kinds of contrasts.
Still, of course, I did go to the big name destinations. How could I miss a park named "Without Worries" (sans souci, in French)? It contains multiple palaces - the Sanssouci Palace and the Neues Palace, both built for Fredrick the Great, are the focal points - and several buildings for leisurely activities (it's so hard being royal, isn't it?) - the Orangery and the Chinese House, for example.
But the Potsdam palace of most historical interest to me was the least ornate. Over in Neuer Garten, one finds the famous Schloss Cecilienhof, the last Hohenzollern palace, bizarrely built in a mock-Tudor style - this was where the world was reordered after World War II. Here, in summer 1945, around a big round table, Stalin, Truman, and Churchill met to discuss what to do with Germany, building on the conversations that had begun in Yalta earlier in the
year. As is my wont, I was making a pilgrimage to Cecilienhof. Now I can tell my students I was right there, where the Potsdam Conference was held. Where the seeds of the Cold War were planted. And they will laugh at me! "Oh, Mr. Kessler, you get so excited!"
Somehow, it was fitting that I should end my Hohenzollern tour with Cecilienhof. It was the end of the line. Literally.
P.S. Between Sanssouci and the Neuer Garten, I discovered a bizarre example of imperial whimsy: the Russian colony of Alexandrowka. It consists of thirteen wooden houses laid out in the form of a cross, a tiny Russian Orthodox church looking down from a hill just to the north. The "colony" was built in 1826 on the order of Friedrich Wilhelm III to honor the death of Tsar Alexander I, and it housed a troupe of Russian musicians. Apparently, two of the homes are still occupied by descendents of these men! I was pleased, also, to find a teahouse in the middle of it all, serving a good, smokey Georgian tea. It gave me energy to face post-World War II political machinations...
P.P.S. Warning, there a lot
of photos with this entry. You may have to click for a second page.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.402s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 17; qc: 69; dbt: 0.1293s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Pranjal
non-member comment
Potsdamnnn
Nice palaces, i had no idea there were so many palaces around there. I love the photos, keep posting!