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Alexandrovka the Russian colony in Potsdam, Germany

(Extra material from our trip to Germany.)

The Prussian army was fighting Napoleon’s French armies in 1812. Prussia was conquered. The Prussians lined up with Russians in 1813. There was a bit of an embarrassing problem, though, since about 1,000 Russian troops as prisoners in Potsdam.

Whoops.

Of those men, 62 stayed.

Back at the palace, King Frederick William III loved him some music. From those 62 he formed a Russian choir from his “guests.” The choir would stay in Potsdam, with Tsar Alexander I’s blessing, as a sign of the renewed friendship between the two countries.

The Tsar died in 1825. To the west, the Prussian king decided to pay tribute to the Tsar and choir by building a village for the 12 remaining members. A Prussian landscaper and a Russian architect got the job of building it all. Modeled after the Russian village of Glosovo near St. Petersburg, each house was built in Russian style. They were furnished and each had a garden and they the men all received a cow as well. The Prussians really wanted them to stay.

A Russian Orthodox church dedicated to St. Alexander Nevsky (Tsar Alexander’s patron saint) was built nearby.

The last of the original inhabitants died in 1861. Today, most of the houses have private owners and most of them have been restored. One is now a restaurant, another is a museum. One still belongs in the family of one of the Russian soldier-singers who decided to stay in Potsdam 190 years ago.

Problem was, those first residents weren’t making a lot of cash and weren’t really farmers. So there were lean years. Only two of them had learned a profession, others rented out their places and quite of few of them died in huge debt.

There is said to be a great deal of agricultural history in this little community, as well. At one time 500-year-old fruit trees were said to be in place. (I find this to be a romantic notion, but hard to believe. Most of the fruits they grow in the area are from trees that just don’t live that long and the apple tree life span would be a long shot.) Hundreds of apple varieties were grown in the area. Today they harvest about 20 varieties. Huge numbers of cherries, pear and plum varieties were also grown here.

adventures / Friday / Germany / history / memories / photo — Comments Off
19
Jun 15

A few Berlin postcards

(Extra material from our trip to Germany.)

This wall relief is on display at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin:

It is from the temple-palace at Tell Halaf and was made from basalt and limestone.

Tell Halaf is a dig site in northeastern Syria, near the Turkish frontier and was the first find of a Neolithic culture, dating to the 6th millennium BC. The name Tell Halaf is a modern name. Tell means “hill” and Halaf meaning “made of former city.” The original name is unknown.

Max von Oppenheim excavated the site at the turn into the 20th century. Some of his finds were destroyed while on display during World War II. The surviving pieces went into storage until the beginning of the 21st century. Now more than 30 sculptures are on display.

This is a panorama. We got to climb to the top of the rotunda of the Berlin Cathedral, prominently featuring the iconic Fernsehturm:

Click the image to embiggen!

adventures / Germany / history / memories / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
16
Jun 15

Hier wohnte

You see those words all over the parts of Berlin we tromped around in, and it is sobering.

You get the sense in that great old city that this has been a psychologically hard place to live. I know from books and film footage how bad things were in the city during the war. I’ve read about the divided city and remember the Wall falling. I’ve been to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. and seen historical footage.

It isn’t history or grainy footage or an abstraction when you’re there.

“The past intrudes into our society,” said Wolfgang Thierse, president of the Bundestag.

Now I’ve seen the bullet holes in the buildings. I toured the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, documenting the East Germans who conceived incredible ways to get across to West Berlin. I read there about the frustrations of oppressed East Germans who didn’t get the support from the West they’d hoped for during the uprising in 1953. We met people in Berlin who grew up in East Germany, of course. One guy told us about how his mother, who was an East German tour guide, was disciplined for once calling it the Wall. (East Germans said “the anti-fascist protection barrier” was for keeping out spies.)

The city is living with a lot. Pick any emotion. That burden must be heavy.

And then you see these:

Those are stolpersteine, “stumbling blocks.” The monuments, created Gunter Demnig, commemorate a victim of Nazi oppression. They remember individuals – those who died, survived or emigrated – who were condemned to prisons, euthanasia facilities, sterilization clinics, concentration camps and extermination camps.

Jews, Christians, gypsies, homosexuals, blacks, communists, the disabled, they’re all represented by stolpersteine. More than 48,000 have been laid in 18 countries. You see them all over Berlin. (And in some cities they are still, apparently, somewhat contentious.)

Hier wohnte means here lived. Ermordet means murdered.

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4
Jun 15

Zoological Garden Berlin

One historical tidbit for the day. This is the Protestant Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, built in the 1890s. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. The present building, a church with an attached foyer and a separate belfry with a chapel, was built between 1959 and 1963.

The damaged spire of the old church remains as a memorial hall, which opened in 1987.

The Memorial Church today is a famous landmark of western Berlin, and is nicknamed by Berliners “der Hohle Zahn”, meaning “The Hollow Tooth”.

We went to the zoo, which came highly recommended. The Berlin Zoo, all 86 acres of it, has 1,500 different species, the most of any zoo in the world. All told, there are 20,500 animals inside. It gets more business than any other zoo in Europe. Here are some of our new friends:

There’s a petting zoo. We bought a few delicious food pellets and The Yankee picked out an animal …

I’m not sure what she thought would happen, but she was a bit surprised by it:

Later, after dinner. (She’d washed her hands.)

Love that picture.

Tomorrow we head back to the U.S.

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3
Jun 15

Potsdam

We took a train trip some 20 miles from Berlin to Potsdam today. Lovely city, it was a royal vacation place. We learned of all sorts of Prussian romance, family angst and intrigue. Here are a few of the sites.

First, a few panoramas!

This is Cecilienhof, where the famed Potsdam Conference of Truman, Churchill/Atlee and Stalin met to hammer out how the Allies would administer the post-World War II world. Cecilienhof was built from 1914 to 1917. Soviet soldiers repaired the streets connecting Babelsberg to Cecilienhof before the conference. They built a bridge and did all of the landscaping, including that Soviet red star that Churchill and Atlee and Truman had to pass by each day. Inside, 36 rooms and the great hall were renovated and furnished with furniture from other Potsdam palaces. Click to embiggen:

Here’s another pano of sorts. This is Marmorpalais, or Marble Palace, is a Neoclassical palace that remained in the Hohenzollern family until the early 20th century. It was as a military museum under communist rule. After restoration in 2006 it is now open to the public. Click to embiggen:

This is the Babelsberg Palace. Built in the English Gothic revival style, it was built in two phases over the period 1835–1849. For more than 50 years it was the summer residence of Prince William, later Emperor William I.

Down a well-manicured, quiet little lane, are some bungalows you can rent. I choose this one:

This is a rear view of the Protestant Church of Peace in the palace grounds of Sanssouci Park:

Inside the church is an original Venetian mosaic from the early 13th century. The crown prince Frederick William purchased it at auction. The mosaic shows the enthroned Christ with the Book of Life, the right hand upheld in blessing. At each side stand Mary and John the Baptist. Next to them stand the apostle Peter and Saint Cyprian, martyred by beheading in 258 and patron saint of Saint Cipriana. The Latin inscript reads, according to Martin Luther’s translation: “Lord, I have love for the site of your house and the place where your glory resides.”

This is a copy of the 1839 marble statue created by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. You can see this statue in Copenhagen, Salt Lake City, Legoland and beyond.

Yesterday we saw the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Here’s the Brandenburg Gate in Potsdam. It was built in 1770 and 1771 for Frederick II as a symbol of Prussia’s victory in the Seven Years’ War. (Hence the Roman triumphal influence.)

The story goes that Frederick II couldn’t settle on one architect, so he chose two. Each side, then, has a different aesthetic. The man that designed this side was a student of the architect who did the other side:

The Brandenburg Gate has been freestanding since 1900. Also at the gate, at your feet, is this representation of the Prussian eagle:

Frederick the Great wanted to grow plums, figs and grapes here, so he had a terraced garden installed here. The view was so nice, he decided, that he’d build himself a summer residence above his gardens. Just behind where I’m standing to take this photograph you’ll find Frederick II’s tomb.

Germans compare it to Versailles, though it is notably smaller. Built between 1745 and 1747, hence the Rococo, there were 10 original rooms. Things have been expanded over the years. The king wanted to be a man without a care, sans souci, he said. Hence the name, Sanssouci.

Saw this in downtown Potsdam. It was easily the sign of the day: