This area along the Havel river not only was the origin of the town, but also the historic city center until its destruction during World War II. The Old Market was the architectural center. The Stadtschloss (City Palace), Rathaus (town hall) and Nikolaikirche (Nikolai Church) established important architectural accents to which the rest of the city was connected. The church and the Old Town Hall were reconstructed after WWII, but the ruins of the City Palace were torn down in 1960.
Parliament Building
The seat of the Brandenburg state parliament (since 1991) is located on the Brauhausberg (Brewery Hill), south of Potsdam's main station.
The building was erected between 1899 and 1902 in the style of English country houses, and the Low German Renaissance as the Imperial War School for the training of elite troops. After the WWI, the Reichsarchiv (Imperial Archives) with the collections of the former war archives moved in. It was subordinated to the Reichswehr (German Army) High Command, camouflaged as a civilian office, and continued the work of war history documentation the Imperial General Staff began. Structural changes occurred in the building in 1937, as it was used as a military archive: a wing for periodicals was added, and the height of the tower was reduced. After 1945, the building served as the seat of the Bezirks- und Kreisleitung of the SED (the district and regional headquarters of the Socialist Unity Party). Newly-constructed wings and further modifications to the tower changed the structure so much that the original form can no longer be recognized. The façade of the building is under historic preservation status today.
If you exit the Potsdam main station to the west, you can go across the Babelsberger Straße, along the Lange Brücke (Long bridge), to arrive on Friendship Island.
Friendship Island
From 1718 to the beginning of the 19th century, the island made of inundated sand between the Old and the New Course was divided by a palisade which formed part of the town wall to prevent desertion. Friendship Island got its name from a restaurant which was located there some 150 years ago. It received its current form only in the 20th century. The famous perennial breeder and gardener Karl Foerster (1874-1970) and the garden architect Hermann Mattern (1902-1971) created this horticultural treasure between 1938 and 1940. The core of the park is a demonstration garden for shrubs. In 1953-54, and again in 1973, the island was re-designed, aloowing you to experience three different periods of garden architecture today. The collection of original Foerster hybrids remains a highlight. Visitors especially enjoy phlox (Polemoniaceae), larkspur, and asters. In 2001, Friendship Island was one of the showplaces for that year's National Horticulture Show. There is a large children's playground, an island café, meadows, and an exhibition pavilion. As a green oasis in a central location, Friendship Island is worth a visit in all seasons.
A Glance Upon the Origins of Potsdam
From the northern point of Friendship Island you can see the senior citizens' home on the far side of the river. At exactly this spot, along the bank of the Havel river, opposite the mouth of the Nuthe river, lies Potsdam's origin. Slavic fortifications were located on the artificial island from the 9th and 10th centuries until the late 12th century, and were surrounded by several settlements, some of which were also partially fortified. In the course of the First Town Extension, this island became part of the town in 1722. By the late 17th century, a permanent land connection to the old city center was realized by cutting through the castle's moat. In 1726-1728, Frederick William I had the Church of the Holy Ghost constructed on this site. The church was destroyed in World War II; the ruins were removed later. As a memorial of that church, the seniors' residence was built there in the 1990s and followed the ground plan of the church.
Archaeologists have evidence proving that the territory of today's Potsdam was settled by hunters and fishermen of the early Palaeolithic era some 12,000 years ago.
Remains of the Town Wall - Große Fischerstraße (Main Fisherman Street)
"Hence first there was a measured out wall / round Potsdam, and as well as surrounding its space, raised / to such a special height and strength, that in future even time shall waste its strength upon it."
Bellamintes made an error here: time did not spare Potsdam's town wall. However, behind the Park of the Holy Ghost, in the Große Fischerstraße, one can find the longest extended section of the wall. This section is some 160 metres in length and was lovingly restored in 2004-05. However, the partial slant to the wall was not altered.
The Potsdam town wall was never a defensive wall. It was built under the reign of Frederick William I in two stages from 1722. The wall was to prevent the king's soldiers, who came from many countries, from deserting. Its second function was a so-called exercise wall. Since it permitted entrance to the town only through the gates, it furthered the taxation of trade products, e.g. provisions for the garrison.
Old Town Hall
Bellamintes' words regarding the predecessor building are without any doubt also true for Potsdam's present baroque town hall, which at the behest of Frederick II was built by Jan Bouman (1706-1776) from 1753 to 1755:
"It is standing at the market, where all the people move, / and thus accordingly remains in the focus of every eye. / Apart from that it is rather large and properly built, / (as here all the people love orderliness) / So a fine tower is seen upon its roof, / which lends this entire building a lordly aspect."
The Renaissance master-builder Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) used an unrealized sketch for a palace in Vicenza as the model for the town hall.
Alternating uses defined the 250-year history of the building, which has only a few imposing rooms and numerous small offices. Originally home to the Potsdam town council, separate areas of the tower were later used for "prisoners of the police, criminal offenders and debtors." In 1840 the savings bank had its domicile in the building, and since 1909 the Potsdam Museum Association has mounted special exhibits here. After its destruction of April 1945, the Old Town Hall was reconstructed and opened again in 1966 as a culture house.
The statue of Atlas gracing the tower was originally made of gilded lead, but it toppled down in 1776 and was replaced by another statue, this time of embossed copper, which was gilded as well. The permanent exhibit on the ground floor shows the eventful history of this building in text and pictures.
Knobelsdorff House
The so-called Knobelsdorff House is connected with the Old Town Hall by a modern annex. G. W. von Knobelsdorff, the architect of Sanssouci Palace, built the house. It was designed as a residential home from the very beginning. The dwelling of Windelband, the baker, once stood upon the site of the intermediate structure.
Nikolai Church
Two architects, already famous at the time, Schinkel, Persius, as well as a king, Frederick William III, died while the Nikolai Church was constructed in the 19th century.
Today's Church of St. Nikolai had several predecessor buildings. The court master-builder Philipp Gerlach built the last of them between 1721 and 1724. It burned down in 1795 and its ruins were removed. In 1826, Karl Friedrich Schinkel received the order to construct a new church at this site. A sketch by Crown Prince Frederick William largely determined the form. Schinkel drew inspiration from Paris and London, where he had seen the Pantheon and St. Paul's Cathedral. Under the direction of the master builder Friedrich Ludwig Persius, the work on the church started in 1830. On the September 17, 1837, the church was consecrated. Due to its flat gabled roof and the portico attached in the south, it was more reminiscent of an ancient temple than a church. The plan for a dome failed due to the resistance and frugality of King Frederick William III. Only following his death in 1840, could it be taken up again. However, in October 1841 Schinkel died, and in 1845 Persius died, under whose direction the construction work on the four corner towers and the dome first began in 1843. In the period of 1846-1848 under the direction of master-builder Friedrich August Stüler, the tambour dome was placed in accordance with the original Schinkel plans. The consecration of the church in its final image, destined to mark the town's silhouette, was celebrated on March 24, 1850.
In the last days of World War II the church was heavily damaged. Its reconstruction started in 1945 in several stages. The church experienced significant modifications in its interior. For example, the columns, which support the galleries, were shifted two meters into the interior. The space gained by this was separated by glass partitions, behind which there is now an oratory and an exhibition room, counselling rooms, and offices. Only in 1981 could the church be re-consecrated.
The total height of the church up to the cross is 77 meters. The level of the main cornice of the quadratic foundation is 27 meters. The tambour has a height of 22.5 meters and is surrounded by 28 columns, with each of them 10 meters high. The dome has a diameter of 24 meters and a height of 13 meters, and it carries the lantern with a cross and is 14.5 meters high.
City Palace and Fortuna Gate
"The royal palace and what belongs to it, / deserves the first rank and stands above, ...."
So ran the lines once penned by Bellamintes describing the palace which the elector Frederick William had constructed between 1662 and 1668 to replace an old predecessor building. Research has shown that draft sketches for the palace were taken from the books of the then deceased Dutch master-builder Jacob van Campen, and that both the Elector himself, as well as his friend Prince Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen, were involved in the planning. Some years later, from 1679 to 1682, the two wings of the building were lengthened. The Fortuna Gate was built in 1701. From 1744 to 1756 Frederick II had the city palace redesigned.
The City Palace was destroyed by the air raid on April 14, 1945, and the ruins were cleared away in 1960. By 2011 the palace should be reconstructed - in the historic cubature and perhaps also with the historic façade - as the new site of the state parliament.
One of the most important events in the history of the city palace was the signing of the "Edict of Potsdam" by Elector Frederick William in October 1685, which provided a new home for the Huguenots who Louis XIV expelled from France.
The Fortuna Gate itself has already been reconstructed. It was originally a work of the Huguenot, Jean de Bodt (1670-1745). This new northern entrance to the City Palace was built to celebrate the coronation of Frederick I as the King of Prussia in 1701.
The gate is 28 meters high, the gilded statue of Fortune being 2.15 meters. Together with the Old Town Hall and the Nikolai Church, which were erected later, it made up an architectonic ensemble of cupolas at the Old Market square.
Georg Hermann wrote in 1929, "... from there, from the front court of the city palace, in the mutual play and harmony of these three cupolas, in the oscillations and resolution of lines, one has perhaps the most beautiful dream image of architecture known to me in the north [of Germany]".
The reconstruction of the Fortuna Gate between 2000 and 2002 was made possible by a donation by the popular journalist and moderator Günther Jauch.
Obelisk
The almost 20-meter-high obelisk on the Old Market was built based on a sketch by von Knobelsdorff between 1753 and 1755. It was originally decorated with medallions displaying the portraits of the electors and kings, Frederick William, Frederick I, Frederick William I, and Frederick II. After it was damaged during the war, the column was removed in 1969, but reconstructed in 1978-79 using original elements. Now eminent master-builders of Potsdam's history are depicted on the medallions: von Knobelsdorff, Gontard, Schinkel and Persius.
