Potsdam

Potsdam, chief town of the Prussian province of Brandenburg, and second residence town of the royal family of Prussia, is situated on an island beside the lake-like river Havel, 18 miles by rail SW. of Berlin. It is a handsome city, with broad streets, public gardens, adorned with statues of Prussian soldiers, and fine squares. The royal palace (1667–1701), in the park of which are statues of Frederick-William I., Alexander I. of Russia, and Generals Blücher, Gneisenau, Kleist, and Tanenzien; the town-house, a copy of that at Amsterdam; and the military orphanage are the finest of the public buildings. The garrison church, with a steeple 290 feet high, contains the tombs of Frederick-William I. and Frederick II.; and the Friedenskirche the tombs of Frederick-William IV. and the Emperor Frederick III. The Brandenburg Gate is a copy of Trajan's Arch at Rome. In the immediate neighbourhood of the town are more than half-a-dozen royal palaces, as Sans-Souci (1745–47), the favourite residence of Frederick the Great, surrounded by a splendid park and gardens, containing Rauch's monument to Queen Louisa and other structures; the palace of Friedrichskron, formerly the New Palace (1763–70), with nearly 200 rooms, many of which contain costly works of art; Charlottenhof, built by Frederick-William IV. in 1826; the Marble Palace, the summer residence of the Emperor William II.; and Babelsberg, the private property of the same prince. Potsdam has an observatory, and a cadet and other military schools. Its manufactories produce sugar, chemicals, harness, silk, waxcloth, beer, &c. Flower-gardening, especially of violets, is a busy industry. Alexander von Humboldt was a native. Pop., including the garrison (1890), 53,727. Potsdam owes its creation as a town to the Great Elector, Frederick-William, and to Frederick II. Prior to that period it was a fishing-village, built on the site of an ancient Slav settlement. See German works by Kopisch (1854), A. R. (1883), and Sello (1888).