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.