Potsdam Schloss Sanssouci history

By Kyle Small -

Thanks to my good friend, Tina Dickinson, we now have the history of the park in Potsdam.

"Prussia's most famous king, Frederich II - Frederick the Great - spent more time at his summer residence, Schloss Sanssouci, than in the capital of Berlin. Its name means "without a care" in French, the language Frederick cultivated in his own private circle and within the court... The construction caused him a lot of trouble and expense and sparked furious rows with his master builder, Georg Wenzelslaus von Knobelsdorff. His creation nevertheless became one of Germany's greatest tourist attractions... Executed according to Frederick's impeccable French-influenced taste, the palace, built between 1745 and 1747, is extravagantly rococco, with scarcely a patch of wall left unadorned."

It also describes several other palaces that appear to be on the same grounds:

The Neues Palais is at the end of an avenue that runs through Sanssouci Park - built after the Seven Years' War to prove that he still had money to spend after the war.The Schloss Charlottenhof is apparantly on its own grounds in the southern end of the park. It was built by Frederick the Great, but he died before it was done, so it sat idle 50 years until Friederich Wilhelm IV finished it.

-Fodor's Germany 2005

Comments

  1. Anonymous9:18 AM

    Hey Buddy, I'm not really commenting, but rather saying hello. I've been trying to catchup on your entries today - I forgot where I put your blog site - Nancy helped. Very cool stuff - but I better get back to work. I'll read more carefully later. Keep up the entries! -- Tim Carlson

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