Our Outing to Potsdam and Sanssouci

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Potsdam and Sanssouci are a little outside Berlin, but an easy trip by train. "Not another castle!" you say. Ok, well, I think this will be the last, and these were historically quite important.

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Photos

Cecilianhof Palace, Potsdam, built 1914-1917, in the style of an English Tudor mansion. The last palace built by the Hohenzollerns.
Cecilianhof Palace was the site of the Potsdam Conference, where discussions were held and decisions were made about post WWII Europe and Asia by Stalin (USSR), Churchill (UK) and Truman (USA). It was occupied by the Soviets during the Cold War partition of Germany.

Russian enclave: Alexandrovka farming community
This Russian colony was established in 1826 in Potsdam by Frederick William II, after the death of his friend Tsar Alexander of Russia. The first inhabitants were Russian singer soldiers.

The Palace of Sanssouci, which means "without care".
King Frederick II, also known as Frederick the Great, had this palace built as his summer residence, but ended up living there most of the time.

The grave of Frederick the Great.
People put potatoes on his grave because he introduced potatoes to Germans as a good food.
In the background are the graves of his beloved greyhound dogs.
As a philosopher, Frederick demanded a simple grave at Sanssouci and is not buried along with the other kings.

Strange perspective
My camera's landscape setting makes the palace look bent backwards. Trust me, it's not.

Do the statues tell a tale?
Frederick the Great acquiesced to a political marriage to a woman he didn't love. He and his wife lived separately and they had no children. In later years he visited her once a year on her birthday.

Frederick the Great was a military hero, but he was also very engaged in ideas on improving agriculture.
His recently rebuilt windmill.

The new palace was mainly used as a guest house. Frederick came to regard it as boastful.
Phil thought it had potential for airbnb.

The two buildings facing the new palace: The building at the left is for the kitchen workers and the building at the right is for the maids and house staff!
Frederick the Great had progressive ideas about human dignity and wanted his workers to be treated well.
These buildings are now used by the university for lecture halls.

Comments

[michelleandkev]

Frederick the Great
I don't know about you, but whenever I visit somewhere I realise how little I know of the history of the region so it was great to see all these photos etc as we certainly didn't venture there. I certainly knew about the Potsdam Conference held near the end of WW11. What a period of history to have lived through! Peace & love, M x