First published: 18/06/05.

Klaus Freisinger 3.5

Potsdam

Potsdam (Inscribed)

Potsdam by Hubert

This is Germany's largest cultural landscape (and probably one of the biggest in Europe), the result of centuries of construction and refinement by the Prussian kings and German emperors in and around Potsdam, today the capital of Brandenburg, and the westernmost edge of Berlin. There are so many parks, gardens, palaces, and buildings of every sort that it's hard to keep count, and the role Potsdam played in the history of Germany and of Europe, as well as of the Enlightenment, is considerable. The city is practically a suburb of Berlin and very easy to reach from there. The parks are really great for walking and admiring the many statues, fountains, etc. On my first visit to Potsdam in 2004, I skipped the long lines at Sanssouci Palace and only made a walk through the park. The situation was slightly better the second time ten years later (you get tickets for a specific time slot) and I thought it was a reasonably enjoyable visit (not a big palace, but very fancy). I also visited Cecilienhof Palace, built in the style of an English country house (remarkably enough, it was only finished during WW I, a year before the Hohenzollern dynasty's fall from power) and famous for being the setting of the Potsdam Conference in 1945 - there are some very interesting exhibitions on this subject. From the outside, I saw several other parts of this WH site - the Neues Palais, the Orangerie, the Russian Colony of Alexandrowka, the Marmorpalais, and Schloss Glienicke (already located in Berlin, just across the Glienicke Bridge, made famous for the spy exchanges during the Cold War). I first explored Potsdam in one of the many double-decker buses, but then just walked through the parks - a very pleasant activity in fine weather.

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