Potsdam was first mentioned in a document of King Otto III on July 3,993 - as a gift to the Abbess of the Quedlinburg convent. The then "Poztupimi" consisted of a Slavic castle with adjacent settlements. It was located opposite the confluence of the Nuthe and the Havel rivers, in the area of today's senior citizens' home.
The second documented mention of Potsdam dates back only to 1317. Many inhabitants of Potsdam lived by fishing. The members of fishing communities who belonged to the castle were not citizens of the town. There were also some masters of net fishing, "the yarn lords", who caught fish on a grand scale. Most of the craftsmen were bakers, butchers, shoemakers, linen-weavers, and tailors. Since about 1400, weavers of wool also lived here. The castle, mentioned in documents for the first time in 1375, received a stone tower around 1400 and developed gradually into a fortress castle through incorporating older structures. Otherwise the Brandenburg margraves, who were also electors since 1356, didn't concern themselves much about the little town. Not even 1,000 people lived here in barely 100 houses, surrounded by wall and moat (no town wall). In order to obtain money, Potsdam was mortgaged more often than practically any other town in the Mark Brandenburg by the margraves and electors of the Wittelsbachs (from 1323), Luxemburger (from 1373), and the Hohenzollern (from 1415) dynasties that succeeded one another after the Ascanier line had died out in March of 1319. During the Thirty-Years War famines and epidemics snatched the inhabitants away. The Black Death took the lives of 308 Potsdamers in 1631 alone.
The elector Frederick William was the one who selected this location as his residence alongside Berlin. This was a turning point in the development of the town. In 1660, the reconstruction of the dilapidated old castle into a real palace with pleasure grounds began. The work was completed around 1680. With the "Edict of Potsdam" enacted by Frederick William in 1685, Potsdam entered the history of Europe. The Great Elector opened its lands to the Huguenots who King Louis XIV displaced from France.
In 1701, the elector Frederick III of Brandenburg, son of the Great Elector, adopted the name Frederick I and the title "King in Prussia". The Fortuna portal (Fortuna Gate) was added to the city palace to mark that occasion.
With the accession to power by the "Soldier King" Frederick William I 1713, a new era began for Potsdam. It became a garrison town. Since it was not common then to accommodate soldiers in barracks, the medieval Potsdam was torn down to billet the soldiers in the townhouses, which had been built upon the king's orders. In the area between the Brandenburg Gate, the Hunter's Gate, and the Berlin Gate, the First and the Second Town Extensions arose, along with the Dutch Quarter. In 1722, in order to end desertions and to ease the collection of taxes by enclosing the residential districts, a wall was built around the town. At this time, the Great Military Orphanage, the Church of the Holy Ghost were constructed, as well as the canal and the Court and Garrison Church (first and second building) in what is today's Breite Straße (Broad Street). It wasn't until 1722 that the city canal was constructed following the course which is still visible today.
G. W. von Knobelsdorff built Sanssouci Palace and re-designed the City Palace for the son of the Soldier King, Frederick II (also named the Great, 1740-86). Following the Seven Years' War, Frederick the Great had the largest palace in Potsdam constructed - the Neues Palais (New Palace) in Sanssouci park. Under his command, many old houses in the town were replaced by representative new buildings.
Potsdam could only gradually overcome the decline caused by the defeat of Prussia against Napoleon in 1806. From 1838 on, Potsdam was linked to Berlin by the first Prussian railway line.
During the reign of Frederick William IV (1840-61), who wished to transform Potsdam into an artistic landscape of architecture and parks, the Friedenskirche (Peace Church), the Belvedere on Pfingstberg Hill, and the Orangery in Sanssouci park were built. The construction of Babelsberg Palace began in 1834 and was completed in two stages of construction in 1849 in English neo-Gothic style. As the last palace of the Hohenzollerns, Cecilienhof was created between 1913 and 1916-17 in the Neuer Garten (New Garden) for the crown prince and his wife.
On March 21, 1933 Hitler opened the Reichstag with "Potsdam Day" in the Garnisonskirche (Garrison Church). It was here that the alliance between the National Socialists and the Prussian military was formed. During World War II, several officers of the Potsdam Infantry Regiment Number 9 were involved in the preparations for the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944. On the night of April 14, 1945 a British air raid destroyed large parts of Potsdam's center. Also, the Garrison Church and the City Palace were reduced to ruins, but the parks and the palaces within the parks remained relatively untouched. The battles with Soviet troops in the last days of April caused further heavy damage.
Following the end of WWII, negotiations between the victorious Allied powers took place in Cecilienhof Palace in the New Garden from July 17 through August 2, 1945, and the Potsdam Agreement was signed. The reconstruction of the historic city center had already begun in 1948, although the salvageable ruins of the City Palace, the Garrison Church, and the Church of the Holy Ghost were torn down. By 1965 the city canal was filled in, and the excavation of it began later. Large new residential areas were constructed in the south of the city.
Potsdam was named the capital city of the newly founded State of Brandenburg in 1990.
