Cornelia Brelowski: Grounds of serenity

TEXT & PHOTOS: CORNELIA BRELOWSKI

It is time to mention a place that never once has failed to lift my spirits – no matter the circumstance, time of year or even the weather. Mind you, I know what I am talking about, because last time I jumped on the train to Potsdam, it was drizzling – and the parks were still beautiful.

I am of course referring to Sanssouci, part of the former royal seat of Potsdam. Designed as a grand park sprinkled with sculptures, romantic buildings and several castles just outside of Berlin, Sanssouci – French for carefree – was Frederic the Great’s pet project. It presents not only his one-storied castle of the same name, set high above a vineyard, which served colourful visitors such as Voltaire, but also representational buildings such as Neues Palais (or Fanfaronade, in Frederic’s own words). The latter was serving stately visitors, often deemed far less important to the king than, say, French philosophers.

In fact, the son of the grand ‘soldier king’ was a deeply traumatised person, who as a young man had to witness his dearest friend Hans Hermann von Katte being executed by orders of his own father. Such was the punishment for the plans of the two to together flee the tyrannical rule of Frederic I, which was promptly regarded as treason. Despite growing into quite the political strategist himself, Frederic the Great (Old Fritz to the devoted Berliner) stayed true to music and philosophy throughout his life – passions which he addressed with his Sanssouci, a place to honour both the arts and natural beauty. The royal seat of Potsdam of course has more parks to it – all of which the famous landscape artist Peter Joseph Lenné revived after the havoc caused by the Napoleonic Wars. For now, I will stick to Sanssouci, and indeed a possibly lesser known access point to it, which allows you to enter the park from the opposite side of the inner city entrance – in case you need some peace and quiet from the start.

Neues Palais. Photo: Leon Seibert on Unsplash

To this end, you take the regional train from Alexanderplatz to Brandenburg, and exit not at Potsdam main station, but instead at Park Sanssouci, the former Kaiserbahnhof, nowadays used by the lucky students of Potsdam University who attend the faculties situated near the Neues Palais castle. You exit the train, take note of the beautifully restored station restaurant for a pint later on, and veer a little to the right; cross the street and enter the park through a marvellous wrought-iron portal. This takes you straight to Neues Palais, or, to your right, to the hushed grounds of the gardeners’ houses. Don’t be surprised to meet a peacefully grazing heard of sheep.

Now your adventure through one of Europe’s most beautiful parks can begin, and there is a lot to discover. I am running out of word space here – just to say, please don’t skip the beautiful castle and gardens of Schloss Charlottenhof and the Orangerie – and make sure to enjoy the Prussian Potato Soup at the restaurant Drachenhaus. Did you know why there are always potatoes on Frederic the Great’s grave? Well, he saved his subjects from dying of famine by introducing potatoes as a nourishing vegetable. Thus, the lifelong musician and philosopher was also lovingly known as the Potato King.