Potsdam

The city of Potsdam - located just 24 kilometers south-west of Berlin - is even older than Berlin. While the birthdate of the city of Berlin is taken to be 1237, Potsdam was first mentioned in a historical document in 993. The name Potsdam is the Germanic variation of the old Slavic name Potzupimi, meaning under the Oak trees. Potsdam was a sleepy town until the ruling family in the principality of Brandenburg - later to become part of the Kingdom of Prussia - the Hohenzollern - decided to develop Potsdam as a summer retreat. The city started to grow as Friedrich Wilhelm I - also known as the Soldier King - made the city into his garrison city in the late 17th, early 18th Century, but mostly Potsdam started to develop during the reign of his son, Fredrick the II, known as Frederick the Great in the second half of the 18th Century. Frederick the Great is known as the Philosopher King, and as a son of the Enlightenment movement, he was indeed forward-thinking for his time. When he was still the Crown Prince, he wrote a book called ‘Anti-Machiavelli’, where he argued that the King is not an absolute ruler, and has to take care of the well-being of his people. Indeed, when he came to the throne he took actions to free the peasants, and he abolished torture as a mean to extract confessions from crime suspects (a common procedure at the time). In his Palace in Potsdam he hosted famous thinkers of the time, the most famous of which was the French philosopher Voltaire. Frederick was also known for his military successes. He started a process that a hundred years later made Prussia into a major force in Northern Europe. Frederick the Great is the one who first built Sanssouci Palace and developed the Park of the same name. Sans,Souci is a magnificent complex of palaces laid between beautiful gardens, often referred to as Berlin’s equivalent of Versailles. Potsdam was also the site of another historical event, the ‘Potsdam Conference’, where the heads of the Allies - Truman, Churchill and Stalin - met to decide the fate of Germany and of Europe after WWII. This conference was held in the Cicilienhof Palace, where there is today a museum. The old city of Potsdam is simply charming and offers many options for lunch.