Tricentenaire de Frederic II de Prusse, 1712-2012

I read a few years ago a very good biography of Frédéric II of Prussia by Giles MacDonough, I use here the spelling of his name in the French manner, the way he liked it. He was a great Francophile, he exchanged correspondence with Voltaire for 50 years and Voltaire did live in Potsdam for a while, but it was a stormy relationship, Voltaire found him to militaristic and questioned Frederic's acceptance of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, after all he was an absolute monarch. Frederic liked coffee made with champagne instead of water, hated beer and anything German, he is despite that fact a popular figure in Germany, maybe because he was such a character. He spoke French fluently and bad German all around. Loved his Italian Hounds, he is buried at SansSouci with them in the garden as per his wishes, he was a great reformer of government, instituted public schooling for all, abolished the death penalty and instituted religious tolerance in his Kingdom, many French Huguenots came to live in Prussia and several French aristocrats found position in his government. He introduced the potato to Prussia and this is why it is featured prominently in German cuisine to this day. The story goes that he cultivated potato plants in his garden, made sure the population knew about it and he had the patch where the potatoes were guarded by day by his feared Grenadiers, the soldiers went away by night so the people would come and steal some potatoes to try this exotic vegetable reserved for the table of the King.  He was also a musician composing 100 pieces of music for the flute, he was a friend of the Bach family, he appointed  Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach as Court composer and he is remembered mainly as a brilliant military strategist, his army was feared though it was not the largest in Europe. His favourite colours where white and gold or green and gold and black and gold, dominant colours in his palaces.

When he recognized the USA as a new country in 1786, he inserted into the treaty establishing diplomatic relations, that prisoners of war between the USA and Prussia would be treated with care and kindness, this was a first for his era an unheard of idea for the time. He was also involved in supporting Britain during the Seven Year War (1757-1763) which had a profound impact on Canada, troops from Hesse were sent to Canada to fight alongside the British troops against the French. It was a Swiss-German Commander in the town of Sorel near Montreal who with his wife introduced the tradition of the Christmas tree to Canada.

                                      Born in Berlin 24 January 1712, died at Postdam 17 August 1786

If you visit Potsdam this year you will see some wonderful restorations of buildings from his era. Many have been rebuilt or are under reconstruction, such as the City Palace and the Garrison Church.
This web site in German only gives a good idea of what is being worked on in Potsdam,
http://garnisonkirche-potsdam.org

His family Hohenzollern is also closely related with our own Royals in Canada, they are first cousins. Queen Victoria was the grandmother of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Official Diamond Jubilee portrait 2012.

Berlin Weekend uber alles!

Last weekend was a return visit to Berlin, I had been there last for a week in 2002. What a beautiful city, everything is either new with spectacular architecture or restored as in old 18th century palaces and museums as in the Museum Island in the centre of the city.

It is truly a city reborn and refashioned as the capital of Enlightenment of the great philosophers like Schiller, Goethe and Humbolt. The Wall is gone, so don't wax nostalgic about it and also the Nazis, after all they only amounted to 12 years in the history of a city which is 800+ years old. The New Canadian Embassy is built on top of Hitler's bunker which is now sealed off and flooded. Art and culture are everywhere, concert, symphony, opera, art galleries and not to forget fine dining with excellent German wines. The public transit alone of over (U) and under (S) ground and the many train stations is a marvel by itself and makes travelling throughout the city and the region so easy.

We visited the newly re-opened Neues Museum (1855) built to house the ever expanding collections of the Prince of Brandeburg and the Royal Family of Prussia. The whole island is now complete for the first time in 70 years and all the museums are open to the public, beautiful collections and very impressive. The Island on the Spree River was sort of private domain for the Royal Family of Prussia, the City Palace, the Cathedral and the museums are all located on this small island. The bridge is guarded by the Armoury, Zeughaus, now the Museum to German history and the Commandatur where the commander lived. All of it is either Rococo architecture or a fantasy on Greek revival temples, quite beautiful and more on a human scale. We also walked on Unter den Linden towards the famed Brandenburg Gate built in 1788, which imitates in its architecture the Propylae of the Acropolis of Athens. This symbol of Berlin was buit as a Gate to Peace and was the ceremonial entrance to the heart of the city. This is where the ambassadors would gather on the day when they were invited to meet with the King and then escorted down the avenue to the Palace. Unter den Liden created in 1647 was also used as a riding path towards the Tiergarten forest where the Princes would hunt. At one end of the avenue is the equestrian statue of the greatest of all Prussian Kings, Frederick II the Great,1712-1786, riding down on his favorite horse. A little known fact about him was that he spoke excellent French and very poor German, he use to do small talk with his soldiers but he always needed help. He also spoke a little English but not much since his uncle George II of England was the German Prince of Hanover and he also spoke French and little english or let's say badly.

There is so much to tell about this city, so many interesting things to see and do and none of it has anything to do with the period 1934-1989.
If you want to visit Europe, I suggest you go to Berlin and look up the web site www.Berlin.de