Kathy and Richard's Experiences in Germany: Potsdam

We decided to take a couple of days to see Potsdam. Kathy has never been to Sanssouci, which is a big oversight in our trips. So on the first full day of our trip, and we went to Sanssouci Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The park was designed by Friedrich II of Prussia, who is call Frederick the Great in English. Friedrich had an interesting life. When Frederick the Great was born in 1712, his grandfather, Frederick I, was king of Prussia. When Frederick I died, his son Frederick William I became King in Prussia, thus making young Frederick the crown prince. Sophia Dorothea of Hanover was the mother of Frederick the Great and the daughter of George I of Britain. (So George the I was Friedrich's uncle.)

Frederick had nine siblings who lived to adulthood. Of his six sisters, the eldest was Wilhelmine, who became his closest sibling. Wilhelmine married Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, and the baroque buildings and parks built during her tenure shape much of the present appearance of the town of Bayreuth, Germany. See our blogs on the Margravial Opera House. and Birthday in Bayreuth.

Friedrich and his sisters were brought up by a Huguenot (protestants who fled Catholic France) governess and tutor, and he learned French and German simultaneously.

Frederick is known for his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment, but also for his military successes. Frederick was a supporter of enlightened absolutism, stating that the ruler should be the first servant of the state.

He reformed the judicial system and made it possible for men of lower status to become judges and senior bureaucrats. Frederick encouraged immigrants of diverse backgrounds to come to Prussia, and he allowed religious freedom, including Jews and Catholics in Prussia. Although the Nazis regarded him as a military hero, historians in the 21st century tend to view Frederick as an outstanding military leader and capable monarch, committed to enlightenment culture and administrative reform.

Friedrich's flute

Music room with pianoforte and flute.

Frederick II was a virtuoso flute player and composer in a time when the flute was common in European popular music. He embraced a new, still-experimental keyboard instrument called the pianoforte, helping it spread throughout aristocratic and bourgeois circles and laying the groundwork for the great industry of German piano manufacturing in the nineteenth century, including the firms of Steinweg (Steinway), Beckstein, and Bösendorfer.

Sanssouci was built from 1745 until 1747 as a private residence for Friedrich, where he could escape the pomp and ceremony of the royal court in Berlin. Friedrich's personal tastes dominate the construction. Sanssouci has only one story, so Friedrich didn't have to climb stairs. The view would have been better from a second story, but Friedrich would not have been as close to the vineyard. The palace was intended for the use of Friedrich and his private guests only during the summer months, from the end of April to the beginning of October.

His sketch indicated the suites for guests and those for the king. The bedrooms for guests were on the west end, and the Kings rooms were on the east. The design and decoration of the palace is characterized as "Frederician Rococo", the main ornaments of which are asymmetrical shells, Bears Britches and other leaves, birds, bouquets of flowers, fruit, musical instruments, and angels. Here we see a photo of his library.

Library

The Marble Hall is the palace's reception room. Guests were led from the Entrance Hall directly into this room. This room is ostentatious than Friedrich's private rooms.

Marble Hall

Chandeliers are from rock crystal

Statue of Athena

Columns are each made from a single piece of Carrara Marble

Instead of warm parquet floors, as in his private rooms, the floor of the Marble Room is made from colored marble inlays in the shapes of vines.

stucco putti

The guest rooms had built-in beds with drapes to keep in the heat, because Sanssouci was built before electricity or central heating.

I especially liked the guest room with the monkey and squirrel.

The park is big, and there a many buildings and monuments to see. From the Sanssouci Palace, we walked along the path to the Belvedere, passing the Old Mill, the Orangerie, and the Dra