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Potsdam
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- Also see: Potsdam, New York (in the USA).
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and is part of the Metropolitan area of Berlin/Brandenburg. It is situated on the River Havel, some 25 kilometres southwest of the center of Berlin.
Potsdam has several claims to national and international notability. In Germany, it has the status Windsor has in England. It was the residence of the Prussian kings until 1918.
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Encyclopedia
- Also see: Potsdam, New York (in the USA).
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and is part of the Metropolitan area of Berlin/Brandenburg. It is situated on the River Havel, some 25 kilometres southwest of the center of Berlin.
Potsdam has several claims to national and international notability. In Germany, it has the status Windsor has in England. It was the residence of the Prussian kings until 1918. Around the city there are a series of interconnected lakes and unique cultural landscapes, in particular the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, the largest World Heritage Site in Germany. The Potsdam Conference, the major post-war conference between the victorious Allies, was held at another palace in the area, the Cecilienhof.
Babelsberg, in Potsdam, is one of the leading centres of European film production. The Filmstudio Babelsberg is historically significant as the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. The Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg frequently records soundtracks for domestic and foreign-based film productions.
Potsdam developed into a centre of science in Germany from the 19th century. Today, there are three public colleges and more than 30 research institutes in the city.
Geography
The area was formed from a series of large moraines left after the last ice age. Today, the city is three-quarters green space, with just a quarter as urban area. There are about 20 lakes and rivers in Potsdam, for example the Havel, the Griebnitzsee, Templiner See, Tiefer See, Jungfernsee, Teltowkanal, Heiliger See and the Sacrower See. The highest point is the high Kleiner Ravensberg.
Potsdam is divided into seven historic city districts and nine new Ortsteile (village parts), which joined the city in 2003. The appearance of the city districts is quite different. The districts in the north and in the centre consist mainly of historical buildings, the south of the city is dominated by larger areas of newer buildings.
History
Potsdam was probably founded in the 7th century as a Slavic village called Poztupimi, centred on a castle. A possible translation of the name might be beneath the oaks. It was first mentioned in writing in 993AD, and by 1317 it was mentioned as a small town, by now German. It gained its town charter in 1345. In 1573 it was still a small market town of 2,000 inhabitants. After the Thirty Years' War (1618 - 1648), Potsdam had lost nearly half of its population.
Potsdam's fortunes changed dramatically when it was chosen in 1660 as the hunting residence of Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg, the core of the powerful state that later became the Kingdom of Prussia. It also housed a Prussian barracks.
After the Edict of Potsdam in 1685, Potsdam became a centre of European immigration. Its religious freedom attracted people from France (Huguenots), Russia, the Netherlands, and Bohemia. The edict accelerated population growth and economic recovery.
Later, the city became a full residence of the Prussian royal family. The majestic buildings of the royal residences were built mainly during the reign of Frederick the Great. One of these is the Sanssouci Palace (French: "without cares", by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, 1744), famed for its formal gardens and Rococo interiors. Other royal residences
include the Neues Palais and the Orangery.
In the 19th century the the city of Potsdam was the capital of the province of Potsdam. The province encompassed the former districts of Ucker Mark, the Mark of Priegnitz, and the greater part of the Middle Mark. It was situated between Pomerania and West Prussia on the north, and the province of Saxony on the south and west (Berlin, with a small surrounding district, was an enclave within the province of Potsdam, and had its own distinct government). Towards the north-west the province was bounded by the Elbe and the Havel, and on the north-east by the Oder. About 500,000 inhabitance lived in the province which covered an area of about 8000 square miles, divided into thirteen circles:
| Lower Barnim | West Havelland | Upper Barnim | East Priegnitz | | Teltow-Storkow | West Priegnitz | Zauch-Belzig | Ruppin | | Templin | Prenzlow | East Havelland | New Angermunde | | Juterbock-Lucken-walde |
The towns in the province were small, the principal ones being, Brandenburg, Potsdam, Prenzlow, Spandau, and Ruppin.
Berlin was the official capital of Prussia and later of the German Empire, but the court remained in Potsdam, where many government officials settled. In 1914, the Emperor Wilhelm II signed the Declaration of War in the Neues Palais. The city lost its status as a second capital in 1918, when Wilhelm II abdicated at the end of World War I.
At the start of the Third Reich in 1933 there was a ceremonial handshake between President Paul von Hindenburg and the new Chancellor Adolf Hitler on 21 March 1933 in Potsdam's Garnisonkirche (Garrison Church). This symbolised a coalition of the military (Reichswehr) and Nazism. Potsdam was severely damaged in bombing raids during World War II.
The Cecilienhof palace was the scene of the Potsdam Conference from 17 July to 2 August 1945, at which the victorious Allied leaders (Harry S. Truman; Winston Churchill and his successor, Clement Attlee; and Joseph Stalin) met to decide the future of Germany and postwar Europe in general. The conference ended with the Potsdam Agreement and the Potsdam Declaration.
The government of East Germany (formally known as the German Democratic Republic (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR)) tried to remove symbols of Prussian militarism. Many historic buildings, some of them badly damaged in the war, were demolished.
Potsdam, southwest of Berlin, lay just outside West Berlin after the construction of the Berlin Wall. The walling off of West Berlin not only isolated Potsdam from West Berlin, but also doubled commuting times to East Berlin. The Glienicke Bridge across the Havel connected the city to West Berlin and was the scene of some Cold War exchanges of spies.
After German reunification, Potsdam became the capital of the newly re-established state of Brandenburg. There are many ideas and efforts to reconstruct the original appearance of the city, most remarkably the Potsdam City Palace and the Garrison Church.
Politics
Administration
Potsdam has had a mayor (Bürgermeister) and city council since the fifteenth century. From 1809 the city council was elected, with a mayor (Oberbürgermeister) at its head. During the Third Reich the mayor was selected by the NSDAP and the city council was dissolved; it was reconstituted in token form after the Second World War, but free elections did not take place until after reunification.
Today, the city council is the city's central administrative authority. Local elections took place on 26 October 2003 and again in 2008. Between 1990 and 1999, the Chairman of the City Council was known as the "Town President" but today the post is the "Chairman of the City Council". The mayor is elected directly by the population. In the mayoral election on 22 September 2002, no candidate gained an overall majority, and a run-off election was held between Jann Jakobs (SPD) and Hans-Jürgen Scharfenberg (PDS), with Jann Jakobs gaining the narrowest of victories, with 50.1%.
The Landtag of Brandenburg, the parliament of the federal state of Brandenburg is in Potsdam. It is planned to move into the Potsdam City Palace in 2011, after its reconstruction.
Sister towns
Potsdam has city partnerships with the following cities:
Education and research
Potsdam is a university town. The University of Potsdam was founded in 1991 as a university of the State of Brandenburg. Its predecessor was the Akademie für Staats- und Rechtswissenschaften der DDR "Walter Ulbricht", a college of education founded in 1948 which was one of the GDR's most important colleges. There are about 21,000 students today in the University.
In 1991 the Fachhochschule was founded as the second college; it now has 2,400 students.
In addition there is a College of Film and Television (Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen "Konrad Wolf" HFF), founded in 1954 in Babelsberg, the foremost centre of the German film industry since its birth, with 600 students today.
There are also several research foundations, including a Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research, Max Planck Institutes for (Albert-Einstein-Institute), , and , the and the , which employs 140 people in researching climate change.
As well as universities, Potsdam is home to reputable secondary schools. Montessori Gesamtschule Potsdam, in western Potsdam, attracts 400 students from the Brandenburg and Berlin region.
Sights in Potsdam
Potsdam was historically a centre of European immigration. Its religious tolerance attracted people from France, Russia, the Netherlands, and Bohemia. This is still visible in the culture and architecture of the city.
The most popular attraction in Potsdam is Park Sanssouci, 2 km west of the city centre. In 1744 King Frederick the Great ordered the construction of a residence here, where he could live sans souci ("without worries", in the French spoken at the court). The park hosts many magnificent buildings:
- The Sanssouci Palace (Schloss Sanssouci), a relatively modest palace of the Prussian royal and German imperial family
- The Orangery Palace (Orangerieschloss), former palace for foreign royal guests
- The New Palace (Neues Palais), built between 1763 and 1769 to celebrate the end of the Seven Years' War, in which Prussia ousted Austria from its centuries-long role as the dominant power in German affairs. It is a much larger and grander palace than Sanssouci, having over 200 rooms and 400 statues as decoration. It served as a guest house for numerous royal visitors.
- The Charlottenhof Palace (Schloss Charlottenhof), a Neoclassical palace by Karl Friedrich Schinkel built in 1826
- The Roman Baths (Römische Bäder), built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Ludwig Persius in 1829-1840. It is a complex of buildings including a tea pavilion, a Renaissance-style villa, and a Roman bathhouse (from which the whole complex takes its name).
- The Chinese Tea House (Chinesisches Teehaus), an eighteenth-century pavilion built in a Chinese style, the fashion of the time.
The Old Market Square (Alter Markt) is Potsdam's historical centre. For three centuries this was the site of the City Palace (Stadtschloß), a royal palace built in 1662. Under Frederick the Great, the palace became the winter residence of the Prussian kings. The palace was severely damaged by bombing in 1945 and demolished in 1961 by the Communist authorities. In 2002 the Gate of Fortune (Fortunaportal) was rebuilt in its original historic position, which marks the first step in the reconstruction of the palace. The Old Market Square is dominated today by the dome of the Nicolas Church (Nikolaikirche), built in 1837 in the classical style. It was the last work of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who designed the building but did not live to see its completion. It was finished by his disciples Friedrich August Stüler and Ludwig Persius. The eastern side of the Market Square is dominated by the Old City Hall (Altes Rathaus), built in 1755 by the Dutch architect Jan Bouman (1706-1776). It has a characteristic circular tower, crowned with a gilded Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders.
North of the Old Market Square is the oval French Church (Französische Kirche), erected in the 1750s by Boumann for the Huguenot community, and the Brandenburg Gate (built in 1770, not to be confused with the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin).
Another landmark of Potsdam is the two-street Dutch Quarter (Holländisches Viertel), an ensemble of buildings that is unique in Europe, with about 150 houses built of red bricks in the Dutch style. It was built between 1734 and 1742 under the direction of Jan Bouman to be used by Dutch craftsmen who had been invited to settle here by King Frederick Wilhelm I. Today this area is one of Potsdam's most visited neighbourhoods.
North of the city centre is the Russian colony of Alexandrowka, a small enclave of Russian architecture (including an Orthodox chapel) built in 1825 for a group of Russian immigrants. Since 1999 the colony has been a UNESCO world heritage site.
East of the Alexandrowka colony is a large park, the New Garden (Neuer Garten), which was laid out from 1786 in the English style. The site contains two palaces; one of them, the Palace Cecilienhof, was where the Potsdam Conference was held in July and August, 1945. The Marble Palace was built in 1789 in the style of Classicism.
Another interesting area of Potsdam is Babelsberg, a quarter east of the centre, housing the UFA film studios (Babelsberg Studios), and an extensive park with some interesting buildings, including the Babelsberg Palace (Schloß Babelsberg, a neo-Gothic palace designed by Schinkel). The Einstein Tower was built between 1920 and 1924 by architect Erich Mendelsohn on the top of the Telegraphenberg.
There are many parks in Potsdam, most of them included in UNESCO World Heritage sites. Some of them are:
Image:Potsdam BelvedereKlausberg1.jpg|The Belvedere near Park Sanssouci
Image:Hunting_Lodge_Glienicke_2.jpg|View from Park Babelsberg to Berlin.
Image:Chinesisches Teehaus Potsdam Sanssouci.jpg|The Chinese House
Image:Brandenburger Straße.jpg|Old town
Potsdam also includes a memorial centre in the former KGB prison in Leistikowstrasse.
Sport
Literature
- Paul Sigel, Silke Dähmlow, Frank Seehausen und Lucas Elmenhorst, Architekturführer Potsdam Architectural Guide, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-496-01325-7.
External links
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