The Potsdam City Palace () is a building in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, located on the Old Market Square, next to the St. Nicholas' Church (''Nikolaikirche''). It was the second

official residence An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of th ...

(the winter residence) of the margraves and electors of Brandenburg, later kings in Prussia,

kings of Prussia The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the monarch, hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the State of the Teut ...

and German emperors. Heavily damaged in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and later dismantled by the East German communist regime, the partial reconstruction, with historic facades and a modern interior, was completed in late 2013. The building has since served to house the parliament of the federal state of Brandenburg.

History

The

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

palace was constructed on the site of an earlier fortification from 1662 to 1669 under

Prince-Elector The prince-electors ( pl. , , ) were the members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Usually, half of the electors were archbishops. From the 13th century onwards, a small group of prince- ...

Friedrich Wilhelm, and was rebuilt from 1744 to 1752 by

Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (Hans) Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (17 February 1699 – 16 September 1753) was a painter and architect in Prussia. Knobelsdorff was born in Kuckädel, now in Krosno Odrzańskie County. A soldier in the service of Prussia, he resigned his ...

under Friedrich II, who performed additional interior decoration. It stood as one of the most important examples of

Frederician Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

. During an Allied bombing attack on 14 April 1945 the City Palace was bombed and burned out, although 83 per cent of the building structure survived. However, the ruling communist party (official name:

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Mar ...

, SED) demolished the ruin in 1960 for ideological reasons. The formerly cohesive Old Market lost its face. The only portion of the palace left standing was the stables, which today houses the Potsdam Museum of Film. In 1991 construction of a modern theatre, which had been initially planned under the GDR, began on the site of the City Palace. However, the project stalled. Although some steel framework was erected, it was subsequently torn down.

Reconstruction

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ruling Party of Democratic Socialism (the former East German communist SED) twice rejected initiatives to reconstruct the Palace. However, in 1996 strong encouragement was provided by the "Potsdam Project" run by the Summer Academy for Young Architects of the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

's London Institute of Architecture."Brief history of the new Landtag building: The long road from city palace to Landtag palace", Landtag Brandenburg, 2014. http://www.landtag.brandenburg.de/media_fast/5701/Schriftenreihe_1_2014_englisch.pdf The Project recommended reinstatement of the historical footprint of the Palace via a partial reconstruction. A Berlin lawyer and real estate entrepreneur, Michael Schöne, who bought and renovated old buildings, was troubled by the wasteland of the site, believing that Potsdam would never work until its core was restored. In 1996 he initiated the first attempt at reconstruction, with the launch of a fund. The vision was that the new palace would be home to galleries, museums and cafes or upstairs apartments and offices. However, opposition from various Potsdam cliques defeated the project and the collected monies were returned to the donors. However, shortly afterwards the PDS politician Birgit Müller, then chairman of the City Council, agreed to support the reconstruction of the main portal of the Palace, the Fortuna Gate. It was a small window in time, as the PDS would soon officially oppose reconstruction. The SPD under Matthias Platzeck also supported Schöne. In 1996 the City Castle Association was established, with Schöne as chairman. Large donations by the television presenter Günther Jauch and the Federal Association of the German Cement Industry, led by Jürgen Lose, made the rebuilding of the Fortuna Gate possible. It was completed in October 2002. The structure was seen as the bait to encourage rebuilding of the Palace itself, which was still opposed to by the political Left. In a dramatic night vote, in 2000 the Potsdam City Council voted for reconstruction, but this had real no support at the state level, and at the time there was a recession. When the economy improved, in May 2005 there was agreement that the parliament would relocate from its GDR building to a new parliament building in the external forms of the historic palace. Despite this, the reconstruction still had strong opponents. Rainer Speer of the SPD, then finance minister, repeatedly tried to stop the project. In 2007 a referendum was held to decide three building options for the remainder of the site. The Left Party was stunned when almost 50 percent of voters turned out (far more than for elections for the European parliament), and voted decisively for reconstruction of the Palace. "It's not what we wanted", the Left Party's parliamentary leader Hans-Jürgen Scharfenberg stated following the vote, "But we'll respect people's decisions". An architectural competition was launched. The initial plan was for only the principal northern facade to be an historical reconstruction, with the wings and interior modern, and the City Palace Association feared "cost optimised architecture" would dispense with many of the historical elements. Two days before the final meeting of the jury competition, the Prime Minister received a call from software mogul Hasso Plattner offering a donation of €20 million to enable the entire historic facade to be reconstructed – at the time, the largest donation ever gifted in Germany by an individual. Plattner later provided a further large donation to enable the roof to be clad in the original copper. The Palace was completed in late 2013. The interior, which is modern, houses the

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

of the federal state of

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

. On one of the walls of the Palace there is an inscription "Ceci n'est pas un château" ("This is not a palace"), an allusion to

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...

's painting ''

The Treachery of Images ''The Treachery of Images'' () is a 1929 painting by Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. It is also known as ''This Is Not a Pipe'', ''Ceci n'est pas une pipe'' and ''The Wind and the Song''. It is on display at the Los Angeles County Muse ...

'' – "Ceci n'est pas une pipe".

Gallery

File:Stadtschloss Potsdam Gemälde.jpg, The Potsdam City Palace in 1773 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 170-236, Potsdam, Stadtschloss.jpg, The Potsdam City Palace with the St. Nicholas Church in the background, 1928 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 170-237, Potsdam, Stadtschloss vom Turm der Nikolaikirche.jpg, The Palace prior to destruction seen from the St. Nicholas Church File:Marmorsaal, Stadtschloss, Potsdam.jpg, Marble Hall (''Marmorsaal''), 1912 File:Tea Room , Stadtschloss, Potsdam.jpg, Tea Room, Stadtschloss, Potsdam, 1930 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 170-382, Potsdam, Ruinen.jpg, In ruins after World War II File:Filmmuseum Potsdam mit dem Löwen der Bank von England.jpg, The remaining stables in 2005 File:Potsdam Alter Markt Stadtschloss.jpg, View over the empty Old Market in 2007 with the reconstructed Fortuna Gate File:Potsdam Stadtschloss Baustelle 2010.JPG, Construction site in 2010 File:LandtagSchuschkeSeptember2012.JPG, Construction site in 2012 File:Stadtschloss Potsdam.jpg, The reconstructed palace in 2016 File:2018-08-10 DE Potsdam, Havel, Potsdamer Stadtschloss, Charlottenhof 05609390 (49952695592).jpg, City Palace with St. Nicholas Church

References

Bibliography

External links