Kolonnade am Neuen Palais

I started going to Berlin around 1997, it was a time when the whole city was under a major transformation effort. Berliners had lived in a strange suspended atmosphere since August 1961 when the Berlin wall went up and very effectively divided the City in two, isolating the Western part within the greater East German State. The Old East side of the City was left untouched by the Communist as a monument to war and the new Socialist model city was built on the Eastern side of the Spree River. On the Western side there was renovation and reconstruction but it was a siege mentality, no one knew how long it would go on. Well, the wall fell in November 1989 and life in Berlin and Germany changed for ever.

With Reunification in 1990 the re-established Capital of Berlin and it's City Government decided that a new philosophy was required to give Berlin a boost. Politicians decided that Berlin should return to its roots and this could be achieve by putting the emphasis on the Spirit of the Age of Enlightenment.
Promoting Germany's great philosophers, musicians, poets, artists and academics, it was said that the Nazi Dictatorship which lasted 12 years could not and should not be the only thing that defined Berlin or Germany.

Potsdam as a suburb of Berlin just a few minutes away by public transport was also greatly disfigured by the second world war and then fell into a somewhat sleepy state for many decades of negligence by the Communist authorities. Potsdam was the Residence of the Kings of Prussia and then the German Emperors. It is said it was a garrison town, yes in a way it was, however having the Court living in the City made for a centre of art and culture. The King would travel to the City Palace in Berlin for important State functions otherwise would simply live and work from the Potsdam City Palace or in one of the many other palaces in Potsdam, like the Neues Palais (New Palace) located in the great Royal Park where the famous Sans Souci Palace of Frederic II the Great is also located.

Neues Palais c.1763, Royal Park Potsdam

Berlin in the 1990's was a beehive of activity, still is, everything on the Eastern side of the City where most of the marvellous Baroque Architecture was located was in need of re-building. The infamous wall had to be removed completely to the point that it is difficult nowadays to say where it was. The Reichstag was re-built by the famous English Architect Norman Foster in 2000 to serve as the new Parliament of the re-united Germany.

The old Reichstag now the German Bundestag

At the same time all the museums on the museum Island on the Spree in the heart of the Capital were re-built or restored as well the high Italian Renaissance style Lutheran Cathedral and the Roman Pantheon like Catholic Cathedral St-Hedwige. Many other buildings throughout the city and monuments like the famous Brandenburg Gate were also restored in it's XVIII century style.
This of course included the necessary and expensive work of infrastructure and railways to be modernized. Postdamer Platz and Liepziger Platz where the Canadian Embassy is now located were totally rebuilt given that this was where Hitler had his Chancellery and then the Wall crossed the area, it was nothing but empty expanses for decades after 1945.

 Leipziger Platz, Berlin, newly rebuilt

So I decided while visiting Berlin in 1999 to visit Potsdam. Easy enough to do since it is a suburb, though a separate city and the seat of the Parliament of the Land of Brandenburg.

Potsdam being the Residence of the Hohenzollern dynasty has many palaces, parks and magnificent villas in the Italianate style. Though on my first visit what I really wanted to see was the palace of Frederick II, Sans Souci where he entertained his friends like Voltaire, musicians like J.S. Bach and others.
I remember walking from the train station across the Havel river and up the street to the Royal Park. Potsdam is an old city so it is very walkable and the distances are not great. So I first visited Sans Souci which is a gem of the baroque age. Built on the specification of Frederick II it was his hermitage, a place where no one came unless specifically invited, his grenadier guards would keep others at bay. A small palace more like a large mansion decorated in the colours and taste of Frederick, his wife was never invited to come here, she lived in the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin.

Frederick was re-buried as was his wish in the garden of his palace beside his Italian hounds in 1991.

I then walked in the park the 2 Km distance to the Neues Palais built by Frederick after the Seven Year War. The vast park is dotted with Chinoiserie like the Tea House and Palaces like the Orangerie and the Marble Palace, there is also the Antique Temple which at the time was a museum for the coin collection of Frederick but became a mausoleum to the Hohenzollern family around 1850. The Neues Palais was built for Official functions and for Frederick's family to live in when they came to Potsdam or attended Court. This way no one came to Sans Souci and could be barred from approaching again by his faithful Grenadier. 

What surprised me at the Neues Palais was how small the rooms used by Frederick or his brothers were. They are very utilitarian, a bedroom is also your dressing room and a room to have a meal in.
A second room is for your aide de camp to sleep and work in and for receiving visitors. All the other great State rooms where for Official functions and opened only on such occasion so to save on heating and lighting cost. Frederick was a Calvinist after all. Sans Souci on the other hand was to live in so he had many more rooms and privacy. Though guests were made to sleep in town at a Tavern or some house put at their disposal.

When I visited Potsdam much of the renovations we see today like the restored Canals and rebuilt Palaces and other monuments was just getting under way. Much was in the planning phase such as the re-building of the City Palace in front of the St-Nicholas Church.

In front of the Neues Palais is a large courtyard for military reviews and parades on the other side of which is a Colonnade in late baroque style c.1767. It was in a terrible ruined state, victim of the weather, neglect and bombing during the Second World War. Originally this colonnade and buildings was used  to house the servants and staff of the Palace. Today it is one of the four campuses of the University of Potsdam.

The renovations have just been completed at a cost of 2.5 million Euros. I was impressed with this restoration work given the dilapidated state of this colonnade after 60 years of neglect and damage by war. It is basically plaster, stone and masonry work and needs to be regularly maintained to keep its pristine appearance. Here in Canada we do not maintain anything, usually we simply demolish and put in a parking lot or some terrible modern structure. Recently I read that the City of Ottawa had given the green light to the demolition of no.7 Clarence street in the old By Ward market. The building is simple and small, it is made of leftover stones which were used for the construction of the Rideau Canal. There was so much cut stone left over that the Government simply sold it to whoever wanted it for a low sum of money. This is why in the entire Ottawa Valley every building has a grey stone facade on Main street and many public buildings of the period c. 1830 are of stone.

The National Capital Commission and its architects said that the building had come to the end of its life and should be demolished. They proposed instead a what was described as a ''sensitively designed  modern building for the 21th century''. It's a glass box with steel here and there, it simply does not fit with any of the other buildings in the market area. The City Committee refused the design saying it was not acceptable for the historic district. I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen to present the point of view that if in Europe buildings can be saved and restored why can we not do the same thing. The letter was very popular and well received, the NCC wanted to know who I was and looked my profile up on Linked In.

No. 7 Clarence will be demolished unfortunately because of the mediocrity which permeates all levels of government and the NCC nowadays. Lack of vision and no imagination, preferring to do whatever the developers want. Hopefully the design proposed by the NCC will not be as offensive as the first draft.

Colonnade opposite the New Palace in Potsdam c. 1920. It was built in 1767.

In 1997 prior to any restoration work, the damage of time can be seen clearly.

 There are 65 sculptures on the colonnade and many were either missing or damaged. They had to be replaced and artisans sculpted new ones identical to the old ones.

 one of the corner pavillon of the colonnade being restored in 2012

Central arch of the colonnade prior to restoration looking across at the New Palace

Potsdam, Capital of Brandenburg, Germany

In 1998, I lived then in Warsaw, I took to train to Berlin and visited the Capital then in full reconstruction after re-unification. I then decided to visit Postdam, nowadays a suburb of Berlin which can be reached easily in 20 minutes by public transport. What I found was a city that look a little abandoned and sad, here and there constructions by the GDR government, ugly, out of place had taken place in the late 1960's, the old baroque buildings having been bombed in late April 1945 by the Allies had been bulldozed. Lots of empty lots, the city centre made no urban sense. This was Potsdam, the fame garrison city of the Kings of Prussia, their Royal Capital.

The Royal Palace of Potsdam in 1944, prior to its destruction.

You could guess that prior to the Second World War something beautiful existed there, it is a small city, easy to walk. On empty lots, once existed baroque buildings, full of that extravagance in architecture the style is known for. Lots of beautiful parks and Italianate villas, romantic ruins in the style of antique temples of Rome or Athens. I went to Sans Souci, the small villa palace of Frederic II, where Voltaire had visited and had many conversations with Frederic on Enlightenment, it was in good shape though the park needed some weeding. There by the Palace in front of his bedroom was buried the King with his dogs, as he wished. The German Chancellor in 1990 had the remains of Frederic re-buried on the spot he had chosen. He loved his whippets and each has a little tomb stone with their name engraved, I always found this simplicity touching.

I then returned to Potsdam, two years later, much had changed. Charles, the Prince of Wales had gotten involved with his foundation in a grand building plan for the old historical city centre. No small feat, this meant re-aligning streets on the old grid, un-doing much of the city centre plan put forward by the previous Communist administration, re-creating city and streetscapes to fit harmoniously.

The Royal Palace in Potsdam in May 1945.

There was also the question of re-building the old Royal City Palace and other palaces and the Garrison Church which became infamous because of a visit Hitler had paid to it in a political gesture to tie his ideas to those of 18th Century Prussia, thus seeking justification for what was about to happen.

The future of the central old market place in Potsdam, to the right the Royal Palace rebuilt, next to it the Barberini Palace and next to it the old City Hall renovated, a vision of 2015.

Much has been done to clean and revitalize Potsdam since 2002, the city is pleasant, quiet and offers beautiful vistas. Since most of Potsdam was developed between 1750 and 1765 by famous German architects of the period, you have a city on a human scale, you can walk to the different points in the city in a few minutes. This year marks the 300 anniversary of the birth of Frederic the Great and Potsdam is in full reconstruction mode. The little clip from YouTube shows the on-going re-building of the Potsdam City Palace which once completed will be the new seat of the Parliament of Brandenburg. The old ornate baroque interior will not be reproduced because of cost, but a paired down version will give an idea of what it was like. This is only one of the many buildings being re-built in the coming years. Cost of reconstruction of this one building is estimated at 120 million Euros.