Great Military Orphanage - Großes Waisenhaus zu Potsdam

Located in the heart of Potsdam on Breite Straße, the former "Great Military Orphanage" is the city's largest preserved Baroque architectural ensemble. The building complex, situated between Breite, Dortu-, Sporn-, and Lindenstraße, was founded in 1724 by Frederick William I as an educational and training institution for soldiers' children and military orphans. Its purpose was to provide boys and girls aged 6 to 16 with instruction in Christianity, reading, writing, and arithmetic, followed by vocational training. This tradition, though adapted to modern times, continues in the foundation’s work today.

The buildings as they appear today result from a late Baroque transformation between 1771 and 1778. The royal architect and master builder Carl Philipp Ch. von Gontard designed a magnificent palace-like structure, with its most remarkable feature being the stair tower on Lindenstraße. Until 1945, this part of the building, with its Monopteros (temple tower) and gilded statue of Caritas, was a defining element of Potsdam’s cityscape. In December 2004, the temple tower was fully reconstructed, and Caritas once again adorns its peak. This restoration has enriched the city's skyline with a historical landmark and added another divine figure to Potsdam’s "heavenly pantheon," alongside Fortuna and Atlas.

Following its reestablishment in 1992, the "Great Orphanage Foundation of Potsdam" regained ownership of its historic buildings and carried out extensive renovations between 1999 and 2003 in close coordination with the city’s heritage conservation office. As a result, the grand staircase, with its triple-domed interior, encircling stairways hidden behind wall panels, and elegant galleries, has been restored to its former splendor.

A documentary about the "Great Orphanage Foundation of Potsdam" is available on YouTube (in German). Potsdam journalist Kristina Tschesch presents the rich and eventful history of the former military orphanage and the foundation’s current initiatives in an engaging and informative way:

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