23

Teamwork

Monkey musicians and a red parrot populate the interior of the Chinese tea house. On the steps of the exotic building a golden tea party has gathered for Sunday tea.
Since the 17th century East India trading companies brought tea and silk back to Europe. A joint use of both these wares was only invented in 1908 in the USA – and that only by mere chance. The tea merchant Sullivan packed his tea samples into small silk bags; his clients simply infused the tea complete with the bags. Thus, the tea bag was born. The fine, densely woven silk proved unsuitable since it hampered the important contact of water and tea. Sullivan then had bags mad from loosely woven cotton gauze that was also used to dress wounds. Still later, he used paper.

22

Prussian Fugue

21

The clattering windmill

20

Homesickness

The golden girl feeds her equally golden parrot on a five meter high glass pillar. Thew fluted pillar was produced in Silesia. The colours of its glass tubes, blue and white, as well as the colours of Charlottenhof Palace were chosen to alleviate the longing of Queen Elisabeth Luise for her Bavarian homeland. The sculpture was set up in the Marly gardens.
Long before the garden architect Peter Joseph Lenné – whom king Friedrich Wilhelm IV. affectionately called “garden general” – took the design of this piece of nature into his hands, it was the pleasure and kitchen garden of the “Soldier King”. Under his reign these gardens were shifted from the front of the Potsdam city palace to the outskirts of the city; just like in Berlin, he obviously prefered the sight of his exercising soldiers to that of cabbage and turnips.

19

Canine yearning

18

In east, the sun will start the day,
then go along the southern way,
till it will set in west at night,
from north you’ll never see its’s light.

17

Grand Tour !

16

Odyssey in Potsdam

When Stanley Kubrick filmed his movie Barry Lyndon, he attached great importance to filming the story of this 18th century conman at the original locations. Since during the commotion of the Seven Years’ War Barry also came to the Berlin of Frederick the Great, the master wanted to film in the heart of Prussia.
His stage designer Jan Schublach searched throughout Germany to find suitable locations. The GDR government – always interested in foreign currency – finally permitted the film crew to enter East Germany. In the movie a carriage drives down the avenue “Unter den Linden”. In reality the scene was filmed with the coach driving between the “Neues Palais” and the “Communs” (outbuildings). The bumpy cobblestone pavement of the “Mopke” (parade-ground) for this scene was covered with a thick layer of sand by the props department.

15

Voltaire

King Frederick once sent an enigmatic letter to Voltaire. It read:

p                 6
——–   à   ———
Venez            100

Voltaire’s reply only contained two letters:

G a.

You have to take into account the size and position of all elements of this correspondence and to keep in mind that the exchange took place in French to arrive at the correct reading.
Frederick wrote;
“Venez sous (below) p à cent (100) sous (below) six (6).”
“Venez souper à Sanssouci.” (Come to sup at Sanssouci.)

Voltaire answered:
“G grand (large, i. e. upper case), a petit (small, i. e. lower case).”
„J‘ai grand appétit“ (I have great appetite.)

The famous philosopher Voltaire spent three years at Frederick’s court in Sanssouci. However, he never inhabited the room known as the “Voltairezimmer“ (Voltaire’s chamber).

13

The vineyard of the Lord

Below the “Communes”, the outbuildings of the Neues Palais, until recently all hell was let loose. Since 1999 it was the location of the student’s club “Nil” where not only the students of Potsdam University partied subterraneously with wine and music. Already during the time of the GDR the vaulted cellars that resemble catacombs were a popular meeting place.
The vineyard itself is not far away. It was established and cared for by the former member of the guard, Werley. He came from the Rhineland and was determined to bring the winegrowing tradition of his homeland to Potsdam. It was decided that the future winemaker should also live close to his Dionysian sphere of action – king Frederick had the Drachenhaus constructed to include his living quarters. Unfortunately, Werley fell out of grace. It remains uncertain whether the gardeners at Sanssouci refused to be advised by a soldier from the Rhineland and plotted to remove him or whether bad harvests were the reason. The pretty house remained uninhabited until 1787; since 1934 it is used as a restaurant.

12

Hanging by a (silken) thread

According to legend the Chinese empress Si Ling Chi observed around 3000 BCE how an inconspicuous caterpillar that had dropped from a tree into her tea wrapped itself into a shiny thread.
For a long time, China successfully kept the secret of silk production and maintained high prices for the luxurious fabric – in ancient Rome silk was worth it’s weight in gold. The empire in the Far East knew how to undermine every attempt to spy out the secret with distractions and false information.
Yet finally one attempt was successful – around 522 two cunning monks appeared in the court of the Byzantine emperor; they had hollowed out their walking sticks to transport mulberry tree seeds and the stolen eggs of the bombyx moth whose caterpillars produce the silk filament all the way to Europe.
Like no other European ruler king Frederick II promoted silk production. To make Prussia independent of foreign supplies he caused large plantations of mulberry trees to be planted. In 1784 about 21 000 mulberry trees grew in Potsdam and its environs. The cool climate in Brandenburg, illnesses that befell the caterpillars and the labour-intensive work process were the reasons for the collapse of the Prussian experiment.

11

Far Eastern Exoticism

Be it Chinese porcelain, lacquerware, silk and paper wall coverings or even entire buildings, the enthusiasm for Chinese objects swept all-over Europe during the baroque era.
When the “Drachenhaus“ (dragon house) was built, 16 Far Eastern gilded repoussé dragons were brought to the royal vineyard in Sanssouci. King Frederick had adapted the decorative motif of the dragon from the large pagoda in Kew Gardens; the shape of the Drachenhaus itself followed the design of the Ta Ho pagoda in Guangzhou.
Unlike his European relative, the mythical Chinese creature with its body covered in fish scales, tiger-like paws, eagle claws, deer antlers, whiskers and a lion’s mane is usually of peaceful disposition – as long as it is treated properly. The Chinese mythical beast can bring rain and create springs; when it is pictured with five claws it is the symbol of the Chinese emperor.

10

Ornate dummies

To heat the palace of Sanssouci with its cold floors to at least tolerable temperatures during winter, servants had to provide the fire places with logs. When they stoked the fire, they did not have to reach into a simple box. The pieces of wood were carefully piled in a fire wood commode; its drawers, however, were only imitations.
When the German emperors took up residence in the New Palace modernity moved in with them in the shape of a central heating. Unfortunately, the amount of fuel was enormous. Three tons of black coal, two hectolitres of coke and seven cubic metres of alder wood were burned in a single day when the outdoor temperatures fell to 0 °C.

9

Show of force in stone

267 larger-than-life statues, 196 putti, 244 angel heads on the capstones above the window.
The delicate palace of Sanssouci with its sparingly, precisely placed decoration was commissioned by the art-loving philosopher king Frederick. When the same monarch a few years later built the New Palace (Neues Palais) he did that as a statesman demonstrating his strength. This new commission did not earn him praise by his architects Heinrich Ludwig Manger and Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff. Manger referred to the New Palace and its figural decoration as “a strange lump of stone where a fun fair with puppets is held on the balustrades”; Knobelsdorff reportedly raged about the enormous number of 244 heads that “it does not resemble the residence of a Christian king of Prussia but rather looks like a Turkish serail where a multitude of cut off heads can be found”.

8

Speaking crest

Frederick the Great and his sister Wilhelmine were very close to each other. Both loved art, literature and music and exchanged numerous letters. After Wilhelmine’s death Frederick was plunged into utter despair. As a place to commemorate the beloved sister he built the temple of friendship near the New Palace; its pillars bear circular relief portraits representing well known pairs of friends from antiquity.
The helmets of the Greek friends Nisos and Eyrialos each carry a salamander as a plume. In mythology the salamander is one of the elemental beings and represents fire. It is said that salamanders are capable to live in the fire of passion without being burnt by the temptations this passion causes.

7

Cherry picking

When the Roman general and bon vivant Lucullus returned from the Black Sea port of Kerasus to Rome after his victory, the golden statue of king Mithridates was not his only present to the Roman emperor. It is said that during his triumphal procession through Rome he also presented the emperor with a fruit hitherto unknown in Europe – a small cherry tree.
The name of the fruit in many European languages is derived from the name of the port city, Kerasus; already during antiquity cherries were much sought-after delicacies gracing the table of rulers and the well-to-do. It also was the favourite fruit of Frederick the Great. Beginning in 1747 he had altogether five “Kirsch-Quartiere” (cherry quarters) planted in the park of Sanssouci. Today numerous historical breeds of cherry are growing in the cherry garden in front of the “Neue Kammern” (New Rooms).

6

Fragile booty

This vessel is not made for fresh flowers – but cut flowers were not fashionable during the reign of Frederick the Great anyway. The receptacle shaped like an amphora with its pattern derived from traditional basketwork only served decorative purposes.
This impressive example of Meißen porcelain is mounted in the Neues Palais (New palace). Countless boxes of precious porcelain were brought to Potsdam by order of the king while the porcelain manufacture in Meißen was occupied by Prussian troups during the Seven Years’ War. Frederick himself visited the manufacture several times and expertly commissioned numerous dinner services and individual pieces. Later, he became an entrepreneur in his own right when he turned the local Prussian manufacture into the Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur (Royal Porcelain Factory; KPM) Berlin. His sceptre serves as its mark until today.

5

Flagging Neptune

In Sanssouci the “grotto craze” during the Rococo led to the construction of an open building covered in shells; on its roof, the marine god Neptune himself stands on two dolphins and raises his trident. But for a long time, no water ran from the jugs of the water nymphs on both sides into into the shell-shaped bowls. The water games personally designed by Frederick the Great for Sanssouci did not work due to lack of technical capacities. Even specialists from the Netherlands were not able to overcome the difference in height of 42 metres between the river Havel and the palace.
It was only after the invention of the steam engine that modern technology was able to support Neptune. In 1842 Friedrich Wilhelm IV. built a machine house in the Oriental style to house the steam engine which from now on pumped the water uphill.

4

The proof of the pudding is in the eating ….?

The potato – brought to Europe by the conquistadores – was only slowly accepted as food. In the beginning people ate the fruit of the plants which caused them severe stomach problems; as a result, potatoes were regarded as poisonous.
Frederick the Great quickly realised the importance of the unimpressive bulb as a remedy for the rampant hunger crisis and enforced the cultivation of potatoes in the Prussian provinces by issuing a “potato order”. The farmers in Brandenburg, known for their recalcitrance, refused to follow this order and thus Frederick according to popular tradition employed a trick: He had potatoes planted on heavily guarded fields around Berlin and had the rumour spread that these were exclusively destined for regal consumption. At this point the farmers came to steal the precious potatoes – and the guards, instructed to feign sleep, let it happen. The thieves then secretly planted the suddenly acceptable potatoes in their fields thus paving the ground for their establishment as a staple food all over Prussia.

3

Divine calamities

Fourteen gilded stucco reliefs in the “New Rooms” show representations of the Metamorphoses written by the Roman poet Ovid; they bear witness to the host’s ambition to stage his regency in the traditions of classical antiquity. Not for nothing it is said that whoever wants to understand Sanssouci has to study the literature of classical Rom and Greece.
Transformations are the topic of the Metamorphoses – usually a human or a deity is transformed into a plant, an animal or a constellation. While Apollo courts Daphne to no avail – she escapes his courtship by turning into a bay tree – he himself rejects the advances of Clythia. Inconsolable she sits down on a rock, refuses to eat and drink and finally becomes a sun flower which constantly follows the path of the solar chariot. In one scene Apollo touches the flower with his left hand; in his right hand, the god of muses carries a lyre.

2

Exotic ducks

The history of the strikingly pretty ducks inhabiting the water bodies in Sanssouci is one of an adventurous escape.
During the commotion at the end of the war in 1945, amidst street fights and constant fire the frightened ancestors of the ducks escaped from the Zoological Garden in Berlin; they populated the ponds and lakes in the area: in Charlottenburg, at the Pfaueninsel further to the west and finally also at Sanssouci to the east.
The colourful Mandarin ducks with their shiny feathers originally come from East Asia; their populations in Russia, China and Japan have been reduced considerably due to environmental changes and forest exploitation. Today, the European populations are larger than those in East Asia. In China the monogamous ducks are regarded as a symbol of marital fidelity.

1

A king in hiding

The equestrian statue of the Prussian king Frederick the Great only survived due to a conspiracy. The monument to the principal of Sanssouci had endured the bombing of Berlin during World War II without damage – immured in his original position “Unter den Linden”. In 1950, however, the Magistrate of “Greater Berlin, Democratic Sector” (thus the official name for East Berlin which due to the Four Power Status always held a special position), run by the Socialist Unitarian Party (SED) targeted the statue deemed unfit for real-life socialism; they caused it to be cut into pieces and transported to Potsdam. When the sculpture was about to be melted down during the Stalinist furor, the minister of culture of the GDR and a few art lovers – upon approval by the Director of the Potsdam Palaces and Gardens – developed a cunning plan for the rescue of the monument. “The king was loaded onto a flat-bed vehicle … then, in a rainy night in Potsdam, they drove it once around the block and unloaded their treasure in another part of the park.” (Hans Bentzien, minister of culture, 1997)
Until the king was rehabilitated by the government the statue was well hidden in Sanssouci; it was then reinstalled at the Hippodrom near the summer palace Charlottenhof and finally erected again in its original position in Berlin.
A scaled down marble copy of the equestrian sculpture showing the statesman with uniform, ermine and tricorne was erected in 1865 near the New Orangery in Sanssouci and remained uncontested until today.