Potsdam is notable for more than a few things. Right next to Berlin, formerly in the eastern block. There is a series of lakes, and therefore picturesque, and was a popular place for palaces, in particular the Prussian kings and notably Frederic the Great who built this as his summer palace. Named Sanssouci. This was in the Age of Elightenment, quite Roccoco, and it was modeled in the style of Versailles. It is much smaller but the similarities are notable. Like Versailles, there was a place where our friend Friedrich could pretend he was a peasant—-a mill. Grass is always greener.
They were interested in creating some type of illusions—on a distant hill are Greek ruins—-well, not really, they are fake ruins. In the distance from the statuary is an obelisk, something popular at the time with Egyptian hieroglyphs, except. They didn’t discover the translations of Egyptian hieroglyphics in the 18th century so the symbols are now translated as babble.
Today, there have been a few improvements to sustainably maintain the gardens, like drip irrigation, natural weed control methods (every other month they use steam), biomass and solar panels. This is Karen’s domain. The layout is picturesque.
There was an outdoor bathtub—who knows, maybe Friedrich liked to bathe in his statue garden?
Friedrich so loved San Souci that he was buried here, a rather simple grave, along with his 7 dogs. Where his wife was buried, who is to know. On his grave are potatoes, as he was the one who introduced potatoes to Germany. A true visionary.
The other castle we briefly visited was Cecilienhof, built over 150 years later by Crown Prince Wilhelm of the Hohenzellern family, in the style of an English manor house for his wife Cecile. This place is notable for some version of world peace: where the Potsdam Conference was held between Stalin, Churchill and Truman.
And there are more ! Not enough time.
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