The Berlin Cathedral at the Lustgarten on Museum Island is a Protestant church in the Mitte district of Berlin . Built between 1894 and 1905 according to designs by Julius Raschdorff in the Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque styles, the monument is the largest Protestant church in Germany in terms of area and one of the most important dynastic burial sites in Europe. In addition to church services , the cathedral is also used for state acts , concerts and other events.

 

Since the monument church on the north side was demolished in 1975, the Berlin Cathedral has consisted of the large sermon church in the middle, the smaller baptismal and wedding church on the south side and the Hohenzollern crypt , which takes up almost the entire basement. Severely damaged in the Second World War , the cathedral exterior was simplified by 1984 and the cathedral interior was restored true to the original by 2002. The Hohenzollern Crypt is scheduled to be comprehensively renovated and modernized by 2023. A subsequent reconstruction of the monument church to restore the original program of the Berlin Cathedral is currently being discussed in expert circles.

 

Dimensions

Originally the cathedral was 114 meters long, 73 meters wide, 114 meters high and offered 2,100 seats. Due to the demolished monument church, the simplified rebuilt dome and the magnificent sarcophagus moved to the sermon church, it is now 90 meters long, 98 meters high and offers 1,390 seats. The dome has a diameter of 33 meters. With an area of ​​6,270 square meters, it is the largest Protestant church in Germany.

 

History

The history of a cathedral on the Spree Island goes back to the 15th century. In the newly completed castle , the Erasmus Chapel was consecrated as a court church in 1450 . The collegiate foundation located here was confirmed by Pope Paul II in 1465 .

 

After Joachim II became elector in 1535, he had the Dominican church south of the castle converted into the new court church. The medieval brick church of the Dominicans in the Gothic style was expanded, richly furnished, princely burial places were set up and bells were installed. The new cathedral was consecrated in 1536. In 1539, Joachim II converted to the Lutheran faith: the Catholic cathedral became a Protestant cathedral. In 1608 the cathedral chapter was also dissolved and the cathedral became the highest parish church in Cölln .

 

The conversion of Elector Johann Sigismund and his court to the Reformed confession on Christmas Day 1613 [8] in the cathedral and its subsequent transformation in the Reformed spirit resulted in conflicts with the estates and the Lutheran Church of the Kurmark. In April 1615, the residents of Berlin and Cölln erupted in the so-called Berlin Tumult with serious riots and looting of the homes of the Calvinist court clergy.

 

Second Cathedral 1747–1894

Since the brick church had become dilapidated in the following centuries, Frederick II had a new baroque building built on the Lustgarten, the current location of the cathedral, between 1747 and 1750 and, after the electoral coffins had been transferred to the new building, the old cathedral was demolished. The architects of this new building, which was inaugurated on September 6, 1750, were Johann Boumann , who came from the Netherlands and had a very sober concept of the Baroque, and Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff .

 

At the beginning of the 19th century, Karl Friedrich Schinkel redesigned the cathedral in a simple variant of the then modern classicism , the interior in 1816/1817, the external appearance in 1820/1821. The lead civil engineer (government construction manager) during the renovation was Schinkel's student and later Mecklenburg-Strelitz court architect Friedrich Wilhelm Buttel .

 

During the 19th century it was discussed whether the existing, modest Schinkel Cathedral, which was a reconstruction of the baroque cathedral church built under Frederick the Great, would be able to meet the representational demands of the monarchy for any longer. At the instigation of King Frederick William IV, it was decided to build a new, more magnificent cathedral church, which would be a two-towered basilica with a three-aisled nave based on the Italian model. Friedrich August Stüler , a student of Schinkel, provided the designs . The first construction work has begun. The foundation walls with the emerging apses were built in the Spree . The high walls of the planned royal burial site and Hohenzollern burial place, the so-called Campo Santo by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, have also been built next to the cathedral. The royal washhouse located at this location had previously been demolished. The revolution of 1848 initially interrupted construction work. In the subsequent reaction era , public interest in the basilica project waned in favor of a dome building project. In addition, the court received a new, magnificent court church in 1854 with the completion of the castle dome. In the meantime, the House of Representatives in Prussia decided on the state budget . The majority were unwilling to finance the king's ambitious building projects. This meant that construction work came to a standstill for decades in 1848.

 

After the founding of the empire , there was a renewed call for a representative church that could compete with the world's large churches and at the same time impressively replace the previous Protestant churches. In 1885, the architect Julius Carl Raschdorff , a professor at the Charlottenburg University of Technology , presented plans for a new building. But it was William II, in his capacity as King and Summus Episcopus in Prussia , who ordered the demolition of the Schinkel Cathedral and the construction of a new cathedral according to Raschdorff's plans, which were characterized by an eclectic adaptation of architectural forms from the Italian High Renaissance and the Baroque.

 

The foundation stone for this building was laid on June 17, 1894, with the aim of inaugurating the building in 1900. However, construction delays meant that this could not take place until February 27, 1905.

 

A cathedral construction administration headed by the architect Julius Raschdorff (master cathedral builder since July 2, 1892) was responsible for the new cathedral. This construction administration consisted of two departments, a first department for the preparation of the construction and execution plans and the supervision of the construction models and a second department for the actual construction execution and its supervision as well as the accounting (with measurements and billing of a not simple complexity). The first department, which was also responsible for artistic planning, was headed by Julius Raschdorff's son Otto, with Wilhelm II exerting influence on the design of the cathedral throughout the entire construction period. The painter Anton von Werner changed his designs for the design of the dome mosaic fields, the mosaic images of the evangelists and window designs in the apse of the cathedral church according to Wilhelm's personal wishes. Building officer Julius Kleinau was responsible for the management of the second construction department by the cathedral construction administration , who was assisted by the later cathedral builder Bernhard Hoffmann and who was supported in construction management by the architect Moritz Korn until 1896 .

 

Heinrich Müller-Breslau was responsible for the static calculations and the design of the steel structure of the dome .

 

The main altar from the previous building, created in 1850 by Friedrich August Stüler, found its place in the new building. Carl Joseph Begas designed the altarpiece of the baptismal and wedding church.

 

The sarcophagus of Emperor Friedrich III was preserved in the Hohenzollern Crypt. , which had stood in the mausoleum in Potsdam after his death , has its new place here. For this occasion, Reinhold Begas commissioned Kaiser Wilhelm II to create a new sarcophagus made of Greek marble, which was completed in November 1905.

 

The cathedral was equipped with electric lighting at an early stage, which initially consisted of arc and Nernst lamps . In addition, the organ's fan was powered by motor power, as were the bells, and in 1905 there was already an electric passenger elevator.

 

Destruction and reconstruction

During the Second World War, the cathedral suffered increasingly serious damage. First, all the altar windows were destroyed in an Allied air raid on the neighboring Burgstrasse, and there were major cracks in the domes of the corner towers. Later, during one of the strongest air raids on Berlin on May 24, 1944, the dome and its lantern were badly hit. A canister filled with liquid fuel set fire to the wooden cladding under the copper covering, which was lined with peat as insulation. The firefighters who responded were unable to reach the source of the fire. The entire dome lantern then fell into the interior of the cathedral, breaking through the floor of the sermon church with its enormous weight and damaging large parts of the Hohenzollern crypt below . It is said that the cathedral organist Fritz Heitmann is said to have played on the organ even with the dome open, which was protected from the falling rubble. The attack also damaged the memorial church and again the four towers. After the war, the cathedral was considered 25 percent destroyed. Thieves later caused extensive damage to the organ. They stole around a third of the pipes and tore out the pneumatic action lines in order to sell the metal.

 

After the sermon church had become unusable, the cathedral community gathered for the first time at Pentecost 1944 in a section of the Hohenzollern crypt that was specially separated for this purpose under the monument church. Converted into a cathedral crypt church , it was used for church services by the cathedral community, apart from an interruption from spring to September 1945, and equipped with the Schuke organ since 1946. Until his departure in 1960, the cathedral preacher Bruno Doehring preached here every Sunday to around a thousand believers. Closed in 1971 after the makeshift restoration of the baptismal and wedding church, the reduced cathedral crypt church was used again in the years 1975–1980 during the restoration work in the baptismal and wedding church.

 

The dome had been able to maintain its shape, but now there was a large hole in the middle. The sermon church, already badly damaged by dust and debris, suffered further damage from the following weather, as did the dome mosaics . In order to protect the interior of the cathedral, the only option was to close the dome as quickly as possible. The city council therefore decided to provide emergency aid in 1948, but the necessary work could not be completed until 1953. The crypt was not renovated and was not open to the public during these years.

 

After emergency repairs, the cathedral was usable again except for the memorial and sermon churches. From 1945 until the beginning of the restoration in 1975, it served as the headquarters of the theological faculty of Humboldt University and the theological branch library of the university library .

 

After lengthy discussions about the design of the East Berlin city center, in which the demolition of the cathedral or its reuse in a different form was discussed several times, the GDR government decided in 1975 to rebuild the cathedral. In principle, the state buildings of the Palace of the Republic with the People's Chamber , the State Council Building and the Foreign Ministry of the GDR , which have now been built on Marx-Engels-Platz, should not be impaired in their effectiveness by a fully restored testament to the Empire.

 

Therefore, she had the damaged monument church on the north side and the undamaged underpass on the southwest tower demolished. The main dome and the four tower ends were not given their original shape, but were greatly simplified and reduced in height by 16 meters each. What was particularly noticeable was the removal of all end lanterns and a completely new dome cross. Furthermore, when the monument church was removed, the marble Bismarck epitaph created by Reinhold Begas was destroyed ] and the magnificent sarcophagi of the Hohenzollerns were relocated to the now smaller crypt church. 204 facade elements of the monument church were moved to a depot in Ahrensfelde , where they remain to this day. By 1983, this work had progressed so far that the extensive reconstruction of the interior was carried out by 1993. Both the imperial staircase and the central sermon church were restored according to Raschdorff's original plans. The south portal also received the bronze door of reconciliation by Siegfried Krepp . This was followed by the installation of the colored choir windows and the restoration of the dome mosaics, the last section of which was ceremoniously unveiled in 2002. This also included the comprehensive cleaning of the Sauer organ .

 

According to fellow actor Manfred Stolpe at the time, the costs for the reconstruction of the Berlin Cathedral were originally estimated at 45 million currency marks , which the Evangelical Church of Germany and the government of the Federal Republic of Germany paid in the amount of 45 million German marks. This sum was confirmed by Ludwig Geißel , negotiator on behalf of the EKD .

 

In October 1974, the GDR government also promised an annual subsidy of 200,000 GDR marks for the maintenance of the Berlin Cathedral, thus fulfilling one of the contractual partners' conditions. Previously, there was allegedly a GDR demand that negotiations on church building programs in the GDR only take place at the same time as negotiations on the reconstruction of the Berlin Cathedral.

 

In 1976, a supplementary payment was made to the already paid construction costs of 45 million D-Marks in the amount of 20.5 million D-Marks, a total of now 65.5 million D-Marks.

 

The actual costs for the reconstruction of the Berlin Cathedral until its completion in 1993 amounted to 150 million German marks and were also paid by the two donors mentioned. The reconstruction was the largest Protestant church building project on German soil in the post-war period and at the same time the longest-standing and most extensive sacred building cooperation between the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR.

 

In March 2019 it became known that the facade was crumbling due to the influence of soot, rain and exhaust fumes and would have to be renovated for 1.6 million euros by 2023. A fundraising campaign was started for this purpose.

 

Historic dome

The dismantling of the domed cross sparked a discussion about whether the five dome lanterns that adorned the structure before the war should be put back up. Critics of the domed cross from GDR times particularly complain that the originally implemented proportions of the building are only inadequately reproduced with the reduced solution. Accordingly, the Evangelical Church Building Association in particular campaigned for a reconstruction of the original state and also received support for this from the Historical Berlin Society . In the dispute over this, however, the critics were rejected by the cathedral community, which was negative about this request. The fact that the current condition has been placed under monument protection also makes reconstruction more difficult . The historical dome construction of the substructure, however, was nominated for the award as a historical landmark of civil engineering in Germany in 2007 .

 

Dome cross

At the beginning of December 2006, the lantern crown that was placed on the cathedral dome during the reconstruction in 1981 was removed. The cathedral construction office called in structural engineers after rust damage was discovered under the gold-plated copper sheet cladding in August 2006. The reports found that the stability of the 12.5 tonne and 15 meter high domed cross was no longer guaranteed in storms. [31] Since the structure made of hollow steel forms was completely eroded inside and out, it could not be restored.

 

The damage was due to bimetallic corrosion , which occurs when different noble metals (here: copper and steel) are combined and leads to corrosion of the less noble metal (here: steel). In the 1970s, the KT steel used (corrosive steel, Corten steel ) was believed to have more favorable material properties. Due to the damage pattern, other roof structures with comparable material combinations also had to be inspected for damage, e.g. B. the balls on the four corner towers and the copper-driven figural decorations.

 

The reconstruction of the domed cross in the 1981 version was carried out by the metal construction company Breidenbach from Peiting in Upper Bavaria . The new cross was then covered with 1.5 kilograms of gold leaf by Berlin specialists . On August 19, 2008, it was lifted onto the cathedral dome by a 500-ton crane. Of the 1.2 million euros in costs incurred in the renovation work on the Berlin Cathedral, 700,000 euros went to the new domed cross. The old domed cross was moved - albeit without the dome crown - to the cemetery of the upper parish and cathedral church on Liesenstrasse.

 

There is a wreath around the dome on which 20 copper angel figures are enthroned at regular intervals. These were refurbished by Kunstschmiede Berlin during repairs from 1978 to 1981 , and some of them were completely renewed. At a height of 50 m, a viewing platform open to the public extends around the drum and offers a 360° view of Berlin.

 

Facilities

In the center of the dome there is a round window that shows the Holy Spirit dove in a halo. Below you can see eight large-format mosaics depicting the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount . They were created by Anton von Werner , who also created the mosaics of the four evangelists in the niches of the vault pillars. The chancel windows depicting the birth of Jesus, crucifixion and resurrection as well as angels with the symbols of death, faith, love and hope were also created by him. On the cornices of the half-columns in the church interior there are four meter high sandstone statues of the four reformers Calvin , Luther , Melanchthon and Zwingli on the altar side , and on the opposite side, around the imperial box, that of the four secular rulers Albrecht of Prussia , Joachim II , Friedrich the Wise and Philip the Magnanimous , who were promoters of the Reformation. The figures were selected by December 1902, and the sculptors Friedrich Pfannschmidt , Gerhard Janensch , Alexander Calandrelli , Harro Magnussen , Karl Begas , Walter Schott and Max Baumbach were commissioned to produce the sculptures. Between two figures above the cone-like niches, four bas-reliefs by Otto Lessing show scenes from the Acts of the Apostles (stoning of Stephen , conversion of Paul , Peter in Athens , healing of a lame man).

 

Under the organ gallery there are baroque sarcophagi for the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm and his second wife Dorothea , as well as a bronze table tomb for Elector Johann Cicero and a grave monument for Friedrich III. Under the south gallery there are two gilded ceremonial coffins for King Frederick I and Sophie Charlotte . These were created by Andreas Schlüter . Schlüter also designed the eagle lectern from 1701 in front of the chancel. The gold-plated original of this lectern is in the Cathedral Museum.

 

The altar table made of white marble and yellowish onyx , created by Friedrich August Stüler , represents a mixture of a Lutheran block altar and a Reformed table altar and thus illustrates the merger of the two churches to form the Uniate Church in Prussia. The choir screen of the old cathedral was installed behind the altar as an altar wall. It is made of gilded bronze and is decorated with replicas of the apostle figures from Sebald's grave in Nuremberg .

 

In the area of ​​the main altar there are two floor candelabra made of gilded iron. Like the Apostle choir screen, they were designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (for the previous building). They were sculpturally designed by the Berlin sculptor Theodor Kalide (for installation in the Berlin Cathedral by Raschdorff, the chandelier was increased and provided with historic additions).

 

The design for the pulpit, carved from oak, came from Otto Raschdorff , the son of the cathedral builder, who also designed the organ front. Above the organ, cartouche images show Jesus Christ as judge of the world in an angelic glory. The stucco cartouches above the other galleries were also intended for pictures, but remained unadorned for cost reasons.

 

For ceremonial occasions, the Berlin Cathedral has a lecture cross by the Bavarian artist Helmut Ulrich . The cross is made of rose quartz, rock crystal and yellow aragonite. Since lecture crosses have become a rarity in Protestant communities, often as a demarcation from Catholic liturgy , this cross is a special feature of the Berlin Cathedral.

 

The most magnificent gallery in the church is the imperial box. On the parapet there is a coat of arms with an imperial eagle , which is crowned by a crown with a cross and thus represents the connection between church and state.

 

The Hohenzollern Crypt, which takes up almost the entire basement of the Berlin Cathedral, is the most important dynastic burial site in Germany. Together with the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna , the Cathedral of Saint-Denis near Paris and the El Escorial Monastery near Madrid , it is one of the most important dynastic burial sites in Europe. A total of 94 members of the House of Hohenzollern found their final resting place there from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century. This also includes electors and kings who significantly shaped the history of Brandenburg and Prussia .

 

Together with the magnificent sarcophagi, which were originally spacious in the monument church and have been cramped in the sermon church since their demolition in 1975, the coffins bear witness to 500 years of European burial culture. In addition to some elaborate stone and metal sarcophagi, which represent all artistic styles from the late Gothic onwards , the Hohenzollern Crypt also contains particularly rare wooden coffins that are covered with textiles such as velvet or brocade . During the Second World War, bomb hits severely damaged the tomb and almost completely destroyed some coffins. Since reopening on November 20, 1999 , the Hohenzollern Crypt has received around 720,000 visitors per year. It is expected to be renovated and made barrier-free by 2023 for around 18.6 million euros .

 

The above-mentioned magnificent sarcophagi in the Sermon Church are dedicated as cenotaphs to King Frederick I and Queen Sophie Charlotte, Emperor Frederick III, Elector Johann Cicero, Elector Frederick William I and Elector Dorothea. Except for the lost bones of Elector Johann Cicero, whose tomb is the oldest in the cathedral, [57] their remains are in stone sarcophagi with wooden inner coffins in the Hohenzollern crypt.

 

In the Hohenzollern Crypt there are, among other things: The following people are buried (in chronological and family order):

 

(Note: The numbering corresponds to that on the coffins)

No. 3: Elector Johann (1525–1598) ⚭ No. 4: Elisabeth of Anhalt (1563–1607), daughter of Joachim Ernst of Anhalt

No. 2: Elisabeth Magdalene of Brandenburg (1537–1595), daughter of Elector Joachim II , (the oldest coffin in the Hohenzollern crypt)

No. 5: Elector Joachim Friedrich (1546–1608) ⚭ First marriage: No. 6: Katharina of Brandenburg-Küstrin (1549–1602), daughter of Johann of Brandenburg-Küstrin

No. 8: Elector Johann Sigismund (1572–1620)

No. 15: Joachim Sigismund of Brandenburg (1603–1625)

No. 16: Albrecht Christian (1609–1609)

No. 9: August of Brandenburg (1580–1601)

No. 10: Albert Friedrich of Brandenburg (1582–1600)

No. 12: Joachim of Brandenburg (1583–1600)

No. 13: Ernst (1583–1613)

Elector Joachim Friedrich ⚭ Second marriage: No. 7: Eleonore of Prussia (1583–1607), daughter of Albrecht Friedrich of Prussia

No. 18: Catharina Sophia (1594–1665), daughter of Frederick IV of the Palatinate

No. 17: Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (1597–1660), wife of Elector Georg Wilhelm , daughter of Elector Friedrich IV of the Palatinate

No. 14: Anna Sophia (1598–1659)

No. 20: George (1613–1614)

No. 11: Albrecht (1614–1620)

No. 21: Catharina Sibylla (1615–1615)

No. 22: Ernst (1617–1642)

No. A: Elector Friedrich Wilhelm (1620–1688) ⚭ First marriage: No. 24: Luise Henriette of Orange (1627–1667), daughter of Friedrich Heinrich (Oranien)

No. 28: Wilhelm Heinrich (1648–1649)

No. 47: Karl Emil of Brandenburg (1655–1674)

No. D: King Frederick I in Prussia (1657–1713) ⚭ First marriage: No. 45: Elisabeth Henriette of Hesse-Kassel (1661–1683), daughter of Landgrave Wilhelm VI. from Hesse-Kassel

King Frederick I. ⚭ Second marriage: No. C: Sophie Charlotte of Hanover (1668–1705), daughter of Ernst August, Elector of Hanover

No. 48: Friedrich August (1685–1686)

No. 26: Heinrich (1664–1664)

No. 27: Amalia (1664–1665)

No. 30: Ludwig of Brandenburg (1666–1687)

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm ⚭ Second marriage: No. B: Dorothea Sophie of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1636–1689), daughter of Philipp (Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg) (1584–1663)

No. 31: Philipp Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1669–1711)

No. 91: Albrecht Friedrich of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1672–1731) ⚭ Marie Dorothea of ​​Courland (1684–1743), daughter of Duke Friedrich II Casimir Kettler of Courland

No. 92: Friedrich (1704–1707)

No. 39: Karl Friedrich Albrecht of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1705–1762)

No. 38: Louise (1709–1726)

No. 40: Frederick of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1710–1741)

No. 94: Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1714–1744)

No. 34: Karl Philipp von Brandenburg-Schwedt (1673–1695)

No. 95: Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1677–1734)

No. 29: Dorothea (1675–1676)

No. 11: Johann Sigismund (1624–1624)

No. 49: Sophie Dorothea of ​​Hanover (1687–1757), wife of King Frederick William I of Prussia , daughter of King George I of Great Britain

No. 50: Friedrich Ludwig (1707–1708)

No. 51: Friedrich Wilhelm (1710–1711)

No. 53: Charlotte Albertine (1713–1714)

No. 58: August Wilhelm of Prussia (1722–1758) ⚭ No. 59: Luise Amalie of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1722–1780), daughter of Ferdinand Albrecht II of Braunschweig

No. 61: King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia (1744–1797) ⚭ No. 62: Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt (1751–1805), daughter of Landgrave Ludwig IX. from Hesse-Darmstadt

No. 64: Wilhelmine (1772–1773)

No. 65: Friedrich Ludwig Karl of Prussia (1773–1796), called Louis

No. 66: Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Georg (1795–1798)

No. 63: (Son) (1777)

No. 88: Karl Heinrich von Prussia (1781–1846), Grand Master of the Prussian Knights of St. John

No. 87: Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851) ⚭ No. 84: Maria Anna Amalie of Hesse-Homburg (1785–1846), daughter of Landgrave Frederick V of Hesse-Homburg

No. 79: Wilhelm (1811–1813)

No. 89: Adalbert of Prussia (1811–1873)

No. 74: Thassilo (1813–1814)

No. 86: Waldemar of Prussia (1817–1849)

No. 56: Henry of Prussia (1747–1767)

No. 60: Georg Karl Emil (1758–1759)

No. 55: Anna Amalie of Prussia (1723–1787)

No. 67: Ferdinand of Prussia (1730–1813) ⚭ No. 68: Anna Elisabeth Luise of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1738–1820), daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1700–1771)

No. 71: Friederike Elisabeth Dorothea Henriette Amalie (1761–1773)

No. 70: Friedrich Heinrich Emil Carl (1769–1773)

No. 72: Ludwig (1771–1790)

No. 73: Louis Ferdinand Prince of Prussia (1772–1806)

No. 69: Friedrich Paul Heinrich August (1776–1776)

No. 75: August of Prussia (1779–1843)

No. 32: Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1700–1701)

No. 33: Georg Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1704–1704)

No. 54: Elisabeth Christine of Braunschweig-Bevern (1715–1797), wife of King Frederick II , daughter of Duke Ferdinand Albrecht II of Braunschweig

No. 52: Ludwig (1717–1719)

No. 57: Wilhelmine of Hesse-Kassel (1726–1808), wife of Henry Prince of Prussia , daughter of Landgrave Maximilian of Hesse-Kassel

No. 81: Philippine of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1745–1800), wife of Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Kassel , daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1700–1771)

No. 76: Nameless Princess (1794), daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia

No. 77: Friederike (1799–1800), daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia

No. 78: Ferdinand (1804–1806), son of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia

No. 83: Nameless Prince (1806), son of Prince William of Orange

No. 82: Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand of Hesse-Kassel (1806–1806), son of Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel

No. 80: Nameless Prince (1832), son of Prince Albrecht of Prussia

No. 88: Anna (1858–1858), daughter of Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia

No. 93: unknown

Laaber is a municipality in the district of Regensburg in Bavaria in Germany. It lies on the River Schwarze Laber.

 

The now-ruined medieval castle on the hill above the town centre was once the seat of the Lords of Laber, who were influential in the 14th and 15th centuries. Hadamar II of Laber was mayor of Regensburg in 1334, and Ulrich of Laber was mayor of Nuremberg in 1366. The dynasty had some importance as patrons of cultural activities. They contributed financially to the construction of the Scots Monastery in Regensburg, and are recorded as being enthusiastic supporters of jousting events. Hadamar III was a courtly poet (Minnesänger), famous particularly for his poem "Die Jagd" ('the hunt'). The Lords of Laber also owned the castle at Wolfsegg. The House of Laber died out in 1475, with the death of Hadamar VII.

Where teacups spin and childhood memories blur together.

 

Europapark, 50 years (Rust, Germany)

The Church of St. Martin is a medieval church in Landshut, Bavaria. St. Martin's Church, along with Trausnitz Castle and the celebration of the Landshuter Hochzeit (wedding), are the most important landmarks and historical events of Landshut. The Brick Gothic building features Bavaria's tallest church tower, and this steeple is also the 2nd tallest brick structure in the world (after Anaconda Smelter Stack) made without steel supports. St. Martin's church's bell tower has a height of 130.6 metres (428 ft).

 

In the year 1204, the town of Landshut was founded by Duke Louis I, Duke of Bavaria the Kelheimer. He established Castle Trausnitz and built a small church on the site of the present-day St. Martin's Church. That structure was superseded by building the existing church, which began in 1389.1 It took about 110 years to finish the church. During this period, five architects managed the building site. It took 55 years just to build the tower. The church was finally dedicated in 1500.

  

The Church of St. Martin is a medieval church in Landshut, Bavaria. St. Martin's Church, along with Trausnitz Castle and the celebration of the Landshuter Hochzeit (wedding), are the most important landmarks and historical events of Landshut. The Brick Gothic building features Bavaria's tallest church tower, and this steeple is also the 2nd tallest brick structure in the world (after Anaconda Smelter Stack) made without steel supports. St. Martin's church's bell tower has a height of 130.6 metres (428 ft).

 

In the year 1204, the town of Landshut was founded by Duke Louis I, Duke of Bavaria the Kelheimer. He established Castle Trausnitz and built a small church on the site of the present-day St. Martin's Church. That structure was superseded by building the existing church, which began in 1389.1 It took about 110 years to finish the church. During this period, five architects managed the building site. It took 55 years just to build the tower. The church was finally dedicated in 1500.

  

The statue of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder by Joseph Uphues is located near the Berlin Victory Column in the Tiergarten, Berlin.

 

Joseph Johann Ludwig Uphues (23 May 1850, Sassenberg – 2 January 1911, Berlin) was a German sculptor.

 

Life

After an apprenticeship as a carpenter, he embarked on a two-year tour of Belgium and the Netherlands. From 1870 to 1871, he learned stone masonry in Wiedenbrück. He worked there until 1878, when he entered the Prussian Academy of Arts, studying sculpture under Reinhold Begas and Fritz Schaper. In 1882 he was enrolled in Begas' Master Student class and worked as his assistant until 1891, opening his own studio in 1892. He became a Professor at the Academy and joined the Berlin Secession in 1899.

 

The Siegesallee (Victory Avenue)

He was one of the sculptors commissioned to produce statues for the Siegesallee, a monumental project conceived by Kaiser Wilhelm II as his gift to the people of Berlin. Uphues produced two sets of figures, dedicated in 1899:

 

Group 3, with Otto II, Margrave of Brandenburg as the centerpiece, flanked by Johann Gans Edler Herr zu Putlitz (founder of the Marienfließ Monastery in Prignitz) and Heinrich von Antwerpen (Provost of Brandenburg).

Group 28, featuring Frederick the Great with side figures of Graf Kurt Christoph von Schwerin and Johann Sebastian Bach.

As is the case with virtually all of the Siegesallee statues, his were damaged during World War II and are currently displayed at the Spandau Citadel. The Bach figure has disappeared.

 

Other selected major works

Berlin

Equestrian statue of Kaiser Friedrich III, Luisenplatz (1905). Uphues also produced statues of him for Düren (1889), Bad Homburg vor der Höhe (1890) and Wiesbaden (1897).

Statue of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, which Uphues titled Der große Schweiger (roughly, "The Man of Few Words"), in the Königsplatz (1905). Uphues produced several Moltke memorials, including the ones in Düren (1902) and Mannheim (1902).

Düren

Bismarck Memorial (1890)

Koblenz

Johannes Peter Müller Memorial on the Jesuitenplatz (1899)

Wiesbaden

Friedrich Schiller Memorial (1905)

 

Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke 26 October 1800 – 24 April 1891) was a Prussian field marshal. The chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years, he is regarded as the creator of a new, more modern method of directing armies in the field and one of the finest military minds of his generation. He commanded troops in Europe and the Middle East, in the Second Schleswig War, Austro-Prussian War and Franco-Prussian War. He is described as embodying "Prussian military organization and tactical genius". He was fascinated with railways and pioneered their military use. He is often referred to as Moltke the Elder to distinguish him from his nephew Helmuth von Moltke the Younger (Helmuth Johann Ludwig von Moltke), who commanded the German Army at the outbreak of the First World War. He is notably the earliest-born human to have been audio-recorded, being born in the last year of the 18th century (1800). He made 4 recordings, 2 of which are preserved to this day, that were recorded in October 1889.

 

Early life

Moltke was born in Parchim, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, son of the German Generalleutnant in Danish service, Friedrich Philipp Victor von Moltke (1768–1845). In 1805, his father settled in Holstein, but about the same time was left impoverished when the French burned his country house and plundered his townhouse in Lübeck, where his wife and children were during the War of the Fourth Coalition of 1806–1807. At nine he was sent as a boarder to Hohenfelde in Holstein, and at age twelve went to the cadet school at Copenhagen, being destined for the Danish army and court. In 1818 he became a page to the king of Denmark and a second lieutenant in Oldenburg's Infantry Regiment. At twenty-one, Moltke resolved to enter the Prussian service, despite the loss of seniority. In 1822 he became a second lieutenant in the 8th Infantry Regiment stationed at Frankfurt an der Oder. At twenty-three he was allowed to enter the general war school (later called the Prussian Military Academy), where he studied the full three years, graduating in 1826.

 

Military career

For a year Moltke had charge of a cadet school at Frankfurt an der Oder, then he was for three years employed on the military survey in Silesia and Posen. In 1832 he was seconded for service on the general staff at Berlin, to which he was transferred in 1833 on promotion to first lieutenant. He was at this time regarded as a brilliant officer by his superiors, including Prince William, then a lieutenant-general.

 

Moltke was well received at court and in the best society of Berlin. His tastes inclined him to literature, to historical study and to travel. In 1827 he had published a short romance, The Two Friends. In 1831 he wrote an essay entitled Holland and Belgium in their Mutual Relations, from their Separation under Philip II to their Reunion under William I. A year later he wrote An Account of the Internal Circumstances and Social Conditions of Poland, a study based both on reading and on personal observation of Polish life and character.

 

He was fluent in English and a talented writer in German; in 1832 he contracted to translate Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire into German, for which he was to receive 75 marks, his object being to earn the money to buy a horse. In eighteen months he had finished nine volumes out of twelve but the publisher failed to produce the book and Moltke never received more than 25 marks.

 

Service with the Ottoman Empire

In 1835, on his promotion to captain, Moltke obtained six months leave to travel in Southeast Europe. After a short stay in Constantinople he was asked by the Sultan Mahmud II to help modernize the Ottoman Empire's army and with permission from Berlin he accepted the offer. He remained two years at Constantinople, learned Turkish and surveyed the city of Constantinople, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. He travelled through Wallachia, Bulgaria and Rumelia, making many other journeys on both sides of the Strait.

 

In 1838, Moltke was sent as an adviser to the Ottoman general commanding the troops in Anatolia, who was to carry on the Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–1841) a campaign against Muhammad Ali of Egypt. During the summer Moltke made extensive reconnaissances and surveys, riding several thousand miles in the course of his journey. He navigated the rapids of the Euphrates and visited and mapped many parts of the Ottoman Empire. In 1839 the army moved south to fight the Egyptians but upon their approach, the general refused to listen to Moltke's advice. Moltke resigned his post of staff officer and took charge of the artillery. In the Battle of Nezib on 24 June 1839, the Ottoman Army was beaten. On 7 November 1839, he received the Pour le Mérite. The royal dispatch to Chief of Staff von Krauseneck read "I want to give to the captains von Vincke, Fischer and von Moltke of the General Staff, as proof of my satisfaction with their services during their command in Turkey, the first two the Order of the Red Eagle IV. Class and the other the V.O. [Verdienst-Orden]; and send you the insignia attached to hand them over to the named officers". With great difficulty, Moltke made his way back to the Black Sea, and thence to Constantinople. His patron, Sultan Mahmud II, was dead, so he returned to Berlin where he arrived, broken in health, in December 1839.

 

Once home Moltke published some of the letters he had written as Letters on Conditions and Events in Turkey in the Years 1835 to 1839. This book was well received at the time. Early the next year he married a young English woman, Maria Bertha Helena Burt, the daughter of John Heyliger Burt esq. of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies, who married his sister Augusta. It was a happy union, though there were no children. In 1840, Moltke had been appointed to the staff of the IV Corps, which was under command of Prince Charles of Prussia, stationed at Berlin and he published his maps of Constantinople, and, jointly with other German travellers, a new map of Asia Minor and a memoir on the geography of that region.

 

He became interested in railroads and he was one of the first directors of the Hamburg–Berlin railway. Moltke also paid close attention to the tactical and operational implications of rifled weapons. In 1843 he published the article "What Considerations should determine the Choice of the Course of Railways? Even before Germany began constructing its first railroad he had noticed their military potential and he urged the general staff to support railway construction for mobilisation and supply. He spent all of his savings on investments into Prussian railroad ventures which made him a considerable amount of wealth. During his later years in the great general staff he would add a Railways Department, which did not have the task of planning military campaign like many of the other departments, but managed the military use of railways.

 

In 1845, Moltke published The Russo-Turkish Campaign in Europe, 1828–1829, which was well received in military circles. In the same year, he served in Rome as personal adjutant to Prince Henry of Prussia, which allowed him to create another map of the Eternal City (published in 1852). In 1848, after a brief return to the General Staff in Berlin, he became Chief of the Staff of the 4th Corps, of which the headquarters was then at Magdeburg. There he remained for seven years, during which he rose to Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel.[8] In 1855, Moltke served as personal aide and mentor to Prince Frederick William (later Emperor Frederick III) as Generalmajor. He accompanied the prince to England for the prince's marriage, as well as to Paris and Saint Petersburg for the coronation of Alexander II of Russia.

 

In Prussia

On the suggestion of Edwin von Manteuffel, the new king appointed Moltke as Chief of the Prussian General Staff on 29 October 1857. He would hold the position for the next 30 years (though after the establishment of the German Empire, the Prussian General Staff's title was changed to "Great General Staff", as it would have direction of the various German armies during war.) As soon as he gained the position he went to work making changes to the strategic and tactical methods of the Prussian army: changes in armament and means of communication; changes in the training of staff officers (such as instituting staff rides); and changes in the method for the mobilization of the army. He also instituted a formal study of European politics in connection with the plans for campaigns which might become necessary. In short, he rapidly put into place the features of a modern general staff. By 1860, his reforms were completed.

 

In 1859, the Austro-Sardinian War in Italy caused the mobilization of the Prussian army, though it did not fight. After the mobilization, the army was reorganized and its strength was nearly doubled. The reorganization was the work not of Moltke but of the Prince Regent, William, and the Minister of War, Albrecht von Roon. Moltke watched the Italian campaign closely and wrote a history of it in 1862. In an act that was yet another first in military affairs, this history was attributed on the title-page to the historical division of the Prussian staff.

 

In 1860, "[Moltke] added a Railway Section to the military council. A contemporary would write that von Moltke never made an important decision without consulting the German railway timetables." Moltke had been following developments relating to the railroad ever since his return from his Egypt, at which time he wrote that: “Every new railway development is a military benefit, and for national defense it is far more profitable to spend a few million on completing our railways than on new fortresses.”

 

In December 1862, Moltke was asked for an opinion upon the military aspect of the quarrel with Denmark. He thought the difficulty would be to bring the war to an end, as the Danish army would, if possible, retire to the islands, where, as the Danes had the command of the sea, it could not be attacked. He sketched a plan for turning the flank of the Danish army before the attack upon its position in front of Schleswig. He suggested that by this means its retreat might be cut off.

 

War with Denmark

When the Second Schleswig War began in February 1864, Moltke was not sent with the Prussian forces, but kept at Berlin. His war plan was mismanaged, and the Danish army escaped to the fortresses of Dybbøl and Fredericia, each of which commanded a retreat across a strait to an island. Dybbøl and Fredericia were besieged, Dybbøl taken by storm, and Fredericia abandoned by the Danes without assault – but the war showed no signs of ending. The Danish army was safe on the islands of Als and Funen.

 

On 30 April 1864, Moltke was sent to be chief of the staff for the allied (German) forces. Moltke realized the possession of Funen and Als. He and Friedrich Graf von Wrangel planned landing on Funen, and on June 29, battalions (part of Herwarth von Bittenfeld's army corps) crossed the Alsen in boats, landed while under fire from the Danish batteries, and quickly seized the whole island as far as the Kekenis peninsula. Days later, Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein's corps crossed the Limfjord and occupied the remaining parts of Jutland while the Austrians seized the various islands. The Danish government, dejected by the course of the war, ended the war in defeat by signing the Treaty of Vienna.

 

Moltke's theory of war

In contrast to Antoine-Henri Jomini, who expounded a system of rules, Moltke was a disciple of Carl von Clausewitz and regarded strategy as a practical art of adapting means to ends. He had developed the methods of Napoleon in accordance with altered conditions of his age, was the first to realize the great defensive power of modern firearms,[citation needed] and realized that an enveloping attack had become more formidable than an attempt to pierce an enemy's front.

 

He developed the idea of Clausewitz and said "The purpose of war is to carry out the policy of the government with arms". He emphasized the autonomy of war. This brought conflicts with Otto von Bismarck. One of Moltke's characteristic strategies, seen in all his plans for war with Russia and France, was what has been called the offensive–defensive strategy, manoeuvring his army to cut the lines of communication of the enemy force and then dig in and defeat the enemy force trying to re-establish its lines of communication in a defensive action. Moltke had pondered the tactics of Napoleon at the Battle of Bautzen, when the emperor brought up Ney's corps, coming from a great distance, against the flank of the allies, rather than to unite it with his own force before the battle; he had also drawn this conclusion from the combined action of the allies at the Battle of Waterloo.[16] Moltke realized that the increase in firepower reduced the risk a defender ran in splitting his forces, while the increase in the size of armies made outflanking maneuvers more practical.

 

Moltke had worked out the conditions of the march and supply of an army. Only one army corps could be moved along one road in one day; to put two or three corps on the same road meant that the rear corps could not be made use of in a battle at the front. Several corps stationed close together in a small area could not be fed for more than a day or two. He believed that the essence of strategy lay in arrangements for the separation of the corps for marching and their concentration in time for battle. To make a large army manageable, it must be broken up into separate armies or groups of corps, each group under a commander authorized to regulate its movements and action subject to the instructions of the commander-in-chief as regards the direction and purpose of its operations.

 

Moltke also realized that the expansion in the size of armies since the 1820s made it impossible to exercise detailed control over the entire force (as Napoleon or Wellington had done in battle). Subordinates would have to use initiative and independent judgment for the forces to be effective in battle. Campaign and battle plans should encourage and take advantage of the decentralization that would be necessary in any case. In this new concept, commanders of distant detachments were required to exercise initiative in their decision-making and Moltke emphasized the benefits of developing officers who could do this within the limits of the senior commander's intent. He accomplished this by means of Mission-type tactics (directives stating his intentions) rather than detailed orders and he was willing to accept deviations from a directive provided that it was within the general framework of the mission. Moltke held this view firmly and it later became a fundamental of all German military theory, especially for the field manual Truppenführung.

 

Moltke's thesis was that military strategy had to be understood as a system of options, since it was possible to plan only the beginning of a military operation. As a result, he considered the main task of military leaders to consist in the extensive preparation of all possible outcomes. His thesis can be summed up by two statements, one famous and one less so, translated into English as "No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength" (or "no plan survives contact with the enemy") and "Strategy is a system of expedients". Right before the Austro-Prussian War, Moltke was promoted to General of the Infantry.

 

Austro-Prussian War

Bismarck, Roon, Moltke, three leaders of Prussia in the 1860s

Moltke planned and led the military operations during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. In the strategy for the war the main points are as follows. First Moltke demonstrated a concentration of effort. There were two enemy groups opposing the Prussians, the Austro-Saxon armies, 270,000 and their allied North and South German armies, some 120,000 strong. The Prussian forces were smaller by some 60,000 but Moltke was determined to be superior at the decisive point. Moltke divided the Prussian Army into three field armies: the First Army, the Second Army, and the Army of the Elbe. The First Army consisted of three army corps, a cavalry corps of six brigades and 300 guns, gathering near Görlitz (Prince Friedrich Karl). The Second Army consisted of four army corps, a cavalry division and 336 guns, near Neisse (Crown Prince Frederick William). The Army of the Elbe consisted of three divisions, two cavalry brigades and 144 guns in the cantonments round Torgau (General Karl von Bittenfeld). Beside the three field armies, three more divisions were stationed at Altona (General Edwin von Manteuffel), one at Minden (General Eduard von Falckenstein) and one at Wetzlar (General Gustav von Beyer). The three field armies, placed to attack Austria, consisted of some 278,000 men, leaving just 48,000 men remaining to defend against Austria's German allies. Those 48,000, led by Falckenstein, managed to capture the Hanoverian Army in less than two weeks and then to attack and drive away the south German forces.

 

In dealing with the Austrian and Saxon army, the difficulty was to have the Prussian army ready first. This was not easy, as the king would not mobilize until after the Austrians. Moltke's railway knowledge helped him to save time. Five railway lines led from the various Prussian provinces to a series of points on the southern frontier. By employing all these railways at once, Moltke had all his army corps moved simultaneously from their peacetime garrisons to the frontier.

 

After marching into Saxony, the Saxon army retreated into Bohemia. Moltke had two Prussian armies about 100 mi (160 km) apart. The problem was how to bring them together to catch the Austrian army between them like the French at Waterloo between Wellington and Blücher. He determined to bring his two armies together by directing each of them to advance towards Gitschin. On June 22, 1866, Moltke told the two princes that Gitschin was the desirable point for juncture of the two armies. He foresaw that the march of the Crown Prince would probably bring him into collision with a portion of the Austrian army. Prince Friedrich Karl sent the 3rd Division to Gitschin; but the Crown Prince had 100,000 men, and it was not likely that the Austrians could have a stronger force. When Friedrich Karl commanded further attacks, straining his own supply lines, Moltke inferred that the prince was trying to take Prague by himself.

 

The Austrians, under Ludwig von Benedek, marched faster than Moltke expected, and might have opposed Prince Frederick Charles (the Red Prince) with four or five corps; but Benedek's attention was centered on Crown Prince Frederick William, and his four corps, not under a common command, were beaten in detail. On 1 July Benedek collected his shaken forces into a defensive position in front of Königgrätz. Moltke's two armies were now within a short march of one another and of the enemy. On 3 July they were brought into action, the first army against the Austrian forces and the second against the Austrian right flank. The Austrian army was completely defeated and the campaign and war were won.

 

Moltke was not quite satisfied with the Battle of Königgrätz. He tried to have the Prussian Army of the Elbe brought up above Königgrätz, so as to prevent the Austrian retreat, but its commanding officer failed to get there in time. He also tried to prevent the Prussian First Army from pushing its attack too hard, hoping in that way to keep the Austrians in their position until their retreat should be cut off by the Crown Prince's army, but this also did not happen. During the negotiations, Otto von Bismarck opposed the king's wish to annex the Kingdom of Saxony and other territory beyond what was actually taken; he feared the active intervention of France. Moltke, however, was confident of beating both French and Austrians if the French should intervene, and he submitted to Bismarck his plans in case a war against both France and Austria proved necessary. After the peace, the Prussian government voted Moltke the sum of 30,000 marks (equivalent to approximately 225,000 US$ in 2016), with which he bought the estate of Creisau (present-day Krzyżowa), near Schweidnitz (present-day Świdnica) in the Province of Silesia.

 

In 1867, The Campaign of 1866 in Germany was published. This history was produced under Moltke's supervision and was regarded as quite accurate at the time. In the same year Moltke became a member of Reichstag as a member of the Conservative Party. He repeated to discuss about the military issues. On 24 December 1868 Moltke's wife died at Berlin. Her remains were buried in a small chapel erected by Moltke as a mausoleum in the park at Creisau.

 

After the war, Bismarck assessed him that he was a reliable soldier.

 

Later career

Moltke again planned and led the Prussian armies in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), which paved the way for the creation of the Prussian-led German Empire in 1871. The aspects of such a war had occupied Moltke's attention almost continuously since 1857; documents published after his death show the many times he considered such a war and the best arrangement of the Prussian or German forces for such a campaign. The arrangements for the transport of the army by railway were revised annually to suit the changes in his plans brought about by political conditions and by the growth of the army, as well as by the improvement of the Prussian system of railways.

 

The successes of 1866 had strengthened Moltke's position, so that when, on 5 July 1870, the order for the mobilization of the Prussian and South German forces was issued, his plans were adopted without dispute. Five days later he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Army for the duration of the war. This gave Moltke the right to issue orders which were equivalent to royal commands.

 

Moltke's plan was to assemble the whole army south of Mainz, this being one district in which a single army could secure the defence of the whole frontier. If the French disregarded the neutrality of Belgium and Luxembourg, and advanced towards Cologne (or any other point on the Lower Rhine), the German army would be able to strike at their flank. At the same time the Rhine itself, with the fortresses of Koblenz, Cologne and Wesel, would be a serious obstacle in their path. If the French should attempt to invade south Germany, an advance by the Germans up the Rhine river would threaten their communications. Moltke expected that the French would be compelled by the direction of their railways to collect the greater part of their army near Metz, and a smaller portion near Strasbourg.

 

The German forces were grouped into three armies: the first of 60,000 men under Von Steinmetz, on the Moselle below Trier; the second of 130,000 men, under Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, around Homburg (with a reserve of 60,000 men behind them); the third under the Crown Prince Frederick William of 130,000 men, at Landau. Three army corps were held back in north-Eastern Germany, in case Austria-Hungary should make common cause with France. He reported this to the King on 17 April 1870.

 

Moltke's plan was that the three armies, while advancing, should make a right wheel, so that the first army on the right would reach the bank of the Moselle opposite Metz, while the second and third armies should push forward, the third army to defeat the French force near Strasbourg, and the second to strike the Moselle near Pont-à-Mousson. If the French army should be found in front of the second army, it would be attacked in front by the second army and in flank by the first or the third (or both). If it should be found on or north of the line from Saarburg to Lunéville, it could still be attacked from two sides by the second and third armies in co-operation. The intention of the great right wheel was to attack the principal French army in such a direction as to drive it north and cut its communications with Paris. The fortress of Metz was to be only monitored, and the main German forces, after defeating the chief French army, would then march against Paris.

 

This plan was carried out in its broad outlines. The Battle of Wörth was brought on prematurely, and therefore led, not to the capture of MacMahon's army, which was intended, but only to its defeat and hasty retreat as far as Châlons. The Battle of Spicheren was not intended by Moltke, who wished to keep Bazaine's army on the Saar until he could attack it with the second army in front and the first army on its left flank. But these unexpected victories did not disconcert Moltke, who carried out his intended advance to Pont-Mousson, crossed the Moselle with the first and second armies, then faced north and wheeled round, so that the effect of the battle of Gravelotte was to drive Bazaine into the fortress of Metz and cut him off from Paris.

 

Nothing shows Moltke's insight and strength of purpose in a clearer light than his determination to attack on 18 August, at the Battle of Gravelotte, when other strategists would have thought that, the strategic victory having been gained, a tactical victory was unnecessary. He has been blamed for the last attack of Gravelotte, in which there was a fruitless heavy loss; but it is now known that this attack was ordered by the king, and Moltke blamed himself for not having used his influence to prevent it.

 

During the night following the battle Moltke left one army to invest Bazaine at Metz and set out with the two others to march towards Paris, the more southerly one leading, so that when MacMahon's army should be found the main blow might be delivered from the south and MacMahon driven to the north. On 25 August it was found that MacMahon was moving north-east for the relief of Bazaine. The moment Moltke was satisfied of the accuracy of his information, he ordered the German columns to turn their faces north instead of west. MacMahon's right wing was attacked at Beaumont while attempting to cross the Meuse, his advance necessarily abandoned, and his army with difficulty collected at Sedan.

 

At the Battle of Sedan, the two German armies surrounded the French army, which on 1 September was attacked from multiple sides and compelled to surrender. Moltke then resumed the advance on Paris, which was also surrounded.

 

From this time Moltke's strategy is remarkable for its judicious economy of force, for he was wise enough never to attempt more than was practicable with the means at his disposal. The surrender of Metz and of Paris was just a question of time, and the problem was, while maintaining the sieges, to be able to ward off the attacks of the new French armies levied for the purpose of raising the Siege of Paris. The Siege of Metz ended with its surrender on 27 October.

 

On 28 January 1871, an armistice was concluded at Versailles by which the garrison became virtually prisoners and the war was ended.

 

Later life

Final years and death

In October 1870, Moltke was made a Graf (count) as a reward for his services during the Franco-Prussian War and victory at the Battle of Sedan. In June 1871, he was further rewarded by a promotion to the rank of field marshal and a large monetary grant. He served in the Diet of the North German Confederation from 1867 to 1871, and from 1871 to 1891 he was a member of the Reichstag (federal parliament).

 

Under his supervision, the German General Staff wrote studies about the Second Italian War of Independence, the Second Schleswig War, the Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War. William I recognized the cultural achievements of Moltke by awarding him the civil class of the Pour le Mérite on 24 May 1874.

 

Moltke superintended the preparation of the official history of the Franco-Prussian War, which was published between 1874 and 1881 by the German General Staff. After the war, he became a national hero and celebrity. More than 50 monuments to Moltke were erected throughout Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; some were destroyed during or after World War II, but many remain.

 

When Moltke retired in 1888 as Chief of the General Staff, he was succeeded by Alfred von Waldersee. (His nephew, Helmuth Johann Ludwig von Moltke, was chief from 1906 to 1914.) Moltke officially retired from active service on 9 August 1888. His 90th birthday on 26 October 1890 was declared a national holiday. Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke died at his home in Berlin on 24 April 1891 after a short illness. He received a state funeral where his body lay in state surrounded by military honors and thousands paid their respects, including Kaiser Wilhelm II; Bismarck did not attend. Thousands of troops, led by the Kaiser, escorted his casket to Berlin's Lehrter Railroad Station, from which it was transported to Silesia.

 

Moltke's remains were interred in the family mausoleum on the Kreisau estate, which however was plundered after the Second World War, when Kreisau (now Krzyżowa) was lost to Poland. No trace of his remains is known to exist.

 

Personal life

In April 1842, aged 41, Moltke married his 16-year-old step-niece Bertha Maria Wilhelmine Burt, known as Marie. She was the daughter of John Heyliger Burt, a member of a wealthy slave-owning planter family in the British West Indies. Her father married Moltke's sister Auguste after the death of his first wife, who was also a German. They remained married until Marie's death on 24 December 1868, although they had no children. He was devoted to his wife, and long after her death still daily visited the chapel where she and her sister were buried to meditate.

via Instagram ift.tt/1Yj5apz

Trabant is a series of small cars produced from 1957 until 1991 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. Four models were made: the Trabant 500, Trabant 600, Trabant 601, and the Trabant 1.1. The first model, the 500, was a relatively modern car when it was introduced.

 

It featured a duroplast body on a steel chassis, front-wheel drive, a transverse two-stroke engine, and independent suspension. Because this 1950s design remained largely unchanged until the introduction of the last model, the Trabant 1.1 in 1990, the Trabant became symbolic of the former East Germany's stagnant economy and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in general. Called "a spark plug with a roof", 3,096,999 Trabants were produced. Older models have been sought by collectors in the United States due to their low cost and fewer restrictions on the importation of antique cars. The Trabant also gained a following among car tuning and rallying enthusiasts.

 

Overview

The German word Trabant, derived from Middle High German drabant, means 'satellite' or 'companion'. The car's name was inspired by the Soviet Sputnik satellite. The cars are often referred to as "Trabbi" or "Trabi". Produced without major changes for nearly 30 years, the Trabant became the most common automobile in East Germany. It came to symbolize the country during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as images of East Germans crossing the border into West Germany were broadcast around the globe.

 

Manufactured by a state monopoly, acquiring a Trabant took about ten years. East German buyers were placed on a waiting-list of up to thirteen years. The waiting time depended on their proximity to Berlin, the capital. Official state price was 7,450 GDR marks and the demand to production ratio was forty three to one (1989). The free market price for a second-hand one was more than twice the price of a new one, and the average worker had to wait ten to thirteen years on a waiting list, or, if available, pay more than double for a second hand model.

 

The Trabant had a steel frame, with the roof, boot lid, bonnet, wings and doors made of duroplast, a hard plastic made from recycled cotton waste from the Soviet Union and phenol resins from the East German dye industry. It was the second car with a body made of recycled material; the first was the AWZ P70 Zwickau, produced from 1955 to 1959. The material was durable, and the average lifespan of a Trabant was 28 years.

 

The Trabant's build quality was poor, and it was loud, slow, and poorly designed.

 

The car had four principal variants:

The Trabant P 50, also known as the Trabant 500 (produced 1957–1962)

The Trabant 600 (1962–1965)

The Trabant 601 (1964–1990)

The Trabant 1.1, produced in 1990–1991 with a 1,043 cc (63.6 cu in) VW engine

 

The engine for the 500, 600 and the original 601 was a small two-stroke engine with two cylinders, accounting for the vehicle's modest performance. Its curb weight was about 600 kg (1,323 lb). When it ceased production in 1989, the Trabant delivered 26 PS (19 kW) from 594 cc (36.2 cu in) displacement. It took 21 seconds to accelerate from zero to its top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph).

 

The engine produced a very smoky exhaust and was a significant source of air pollution: nine times the hydrocarbons and five times the carbon-monoxide emissions of the average 2007 European car. Its fuel consumption was 7 L/100 km (40 mpg‑imp; 34 mpg‑US).[17] Since the engine was two-stroke, oil had to be added to the 24-liter (6.3 U.S. gal; 5.3 imp gal) fuel tank at a 50:1 (or 33:1) ratio of fuel to oil at each fill-up. Contemporary gas stations in countries where two-stroke engines were common sold a premixed gas-oil mixture at the pump. Because the Trabant had no fuel pump, its fuel tank was above the motor so fuel could reach the carburettor by gravity; this increased the risk of fire in front-end accidents. Earlier models had no fuel gauge, and a dipstick was inserted into the tank to determine how much fuel remained.

 

Known for its dull colour scheme and cramped, uncomfortable ride, the Trabant is an object of ridicule for many Germans and is regarded as symbolic of the fall of the Eastern Bloc.[19] Known as a "spark plug with a roof" because of its small size, the car did gain public affection.

 

Its design remained essentially unchanged from its introduction in the late 1950s, and the last model was introduced in 1990, the 1980s model had no tachometer, no indicator for either the headlights or turn signals, no fuel gauge, no rear seat belts, no external fuel door, and drivers had to pour a mix of gasoline and oil directly under the bonnet/hood. In contrast, the West German Volkswagen Beetle received a number of updates (including improvements in efficiency) over a similar period.

 

History

VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau had its origins in the former Auto Union/DKW business which had operated out of the site prior to the war, and the company's first products were essentially copies of pre-war DKW designs. Following the partition of Germany, Auto Union re-established itself in West Germany (ultimately evolving into Audi), leaving VEB Sachsenring with the two stroke engine inherited from DKW.

 

The Trabant was the result of a planning process which had been intended to design a three-wheeled motorcycle.[6] In German, Trabant is an astronomical term for a moon (or other natural satellite) of a celestial body.

 

Full production

The first of the Trabants left the VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau factory in Saxony on 7 November 1957. It was a relatively advanced car when it was formally introduced the following year, with front wheel drive, unitary construction and independent suspension. The Trabant's greatest shortcoming was its engine. By the late 1950s, many small West European cars (such as the Renault) had cleaner, more-efficient four-stroke engines, but budgetary constraints and raw-materials shortages mandated an outdated (but inexpensive) two-stroke engine in the Trabant. It was technically equivalent to the West German Lloyd automobile, a similarly sized car with an air-cooled, two-cylinder four-stroke engine. The Trabant had a front, transversely mounted engine and front-wheel drive in an era when many European cars were using rear-mounted engines or front-mounted engines with rear-wheel drive. Its greatest drawback was its largely unchanged production; the car's two-stroke engine made it obsolete by the 1970s, limiting exports to Western Europe.

 

The Trabant's air-cooled, 500 cc (31 cu in) engine—upgraded to 600 cc (37 cu in) in 1962–63—was derived from a pre-war DKW design with minor alterations during its production run. The first Saab car had a larger (764 cc), water-cooled, two-cylinder two-stroke engine. Wartburg, an East German manufacturer of larger sedans, also used a water-cooled, three-cylinder, 1,000 cc (61 cu in), two-stroke DKW engine.

 

The original Trabant, introduced in 1958, was the P 50. Trabant's base model, it shared a large number of interchangeable parts with the latest 1.1s. The 500 cc, 17 PS (13 kW) P50 evolved into a 20 PS (15 kW) version with a fully synchronized gearbox in 1960, and received a 23 PS (17 kW), 600 cc (37 cu in) engine in 1962 as the P 60.

 

Trabant with brown trim in a museum

The updated P601 was introduced in 1964. It was essentially a facelift of the P 60, with a different front fascia, bonnet, roof and rear and the original P50 underpinnings. The model remained nearly unchanged until the end of its production except for the addition of 12V electricity, rear coil springs and an updated dashboard for later models.

 

A blue Trabant

The Trabant's designers expected production to extend until 1967 at the latest, and East German designers and engineers created a series of more-sophisticated prototypes intended to replace the P601; several are displayed at the Dresden Transport Museum. Each proposal for a new model was rejected by the East German government due to shortages of the raw materials required in larger quantities for the more-advanced designs. As a result, the Trabant remained largely unchanged for more than a quarter-century. Also unchanged was its production method, which was extremely labour-intensive.

 

Production started from 34,000 p.a. in 1964, reached 100,000 p.a. in 1973, to a high of 150,000 in 1989.

 

The Trabant 1.1 was a 601 with a better-performing 1.05-liter (64 cu in), 45 PS (33 kW) VW Polo engine. With a slightly modified look (including a floor-mounted gearshift), it was quieter and cleaner than its predecessor. The 1.1 had front disc brakes, and its wheel assembly was borrowed from Volkswagen. It was produced from 1989 to 1991, in parallel with the two-stroke P601. Except for the engine and transmission, many parts from older P50s, P60s and 601s were compatible with the 1.1.

 

1989–1991

In mid-1989, thousands of East Germans began loading their Trabants with as much as they could carry and drove to Hungary or Czechoslovakia en route to West Germany–the so-called "Trabi Trail". Many had to get special permission to drive their Trabants into West Germany. The cars did not meet West German emissions standards and polluted the air at four times the European average.

 

A licensed version of the Volkswagen Polo engine replaced the Trabant's two-stroke engine, the result of a trade agreement between East and West Germany. The first prototypes were built in 1988, with pre-series cars appearing in 1989, but series production only began in May 1990 - By which time the two German states had already agreed to reunification. The locally built EA111-series engine was given the model code BM 820 by the East Germans; the plant also made 1.3-liter versions for the Wartburg 1.3 (BM 860) and the Barkas utility vehicle (BM 880). The model, the Trabant 1.1, also had minor improvements to its brake and signal lights, a renovated grille, and MacPherson struts instead of a leaf-spring-suspended chassis.

 

By April 1991, after only eleven months, the Trabant 1.1 was discontinued. In total, 3.7 million Trabant vehicles had been produced. However, it soon became apparent that there was no place for the Trabant in a reunified German economy. Its inefficient, labour-intensive production line had only survived thanks to government subsidies.

 

The Zwickau factory in Mosel (where the Trabant was manufactured) was sold to Volkswagen AG; the rest of the company became HQM Sachsenring GmbH. Volkswagen redeveloped the Zwickau factory into a centre for engine production; it also produces some Volkswagen Golfs and Passats.

 

1990s and later

Many Trabant vehicles were abandoned in Germany after 1989 (this one photographed in Leipzig, 1990). A Volkswagen Golf can be seen parked in the background. Private brands like Volkswagen spilled over into East Germany after its state-owned auto industry collapsed.

 

Trabi World, a tourist attraction in Berlin featuring a Trabant museum and a self-driven tour of Berlin in Trabants.

According to Richard Leiby, the Trabant had become "a symbol of the technological and social backwardness of the East German state." Trabants became a symbol of the GDR's serious flaws in the West after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when many were abandoned by their Eastern owners who migrated west. Unlike the Lada Niva, Škoda Estelle, Polski Fiat (design licensed from the Italian car manufacturer) and Yugo, the Trabant had negligible sales in Western Europe.

 

A Trabant could be bought for as little as a few Deutsche Marks during the early 1990s, and many were given away. Although prices recovered as they became collectors' items, they remain inexpensive cars. In her Bodywork project, performance artist Liz Cohen transformed a 1987 Trabant into a 1973 Chevrolet El Camino. The Trabant was planned to return to production in Uzbekistan as the Olimp during the late 1990s, but only one model was produced.

 

A Trabant during the first Parade of Trabants in 2007

Former Bulgarian Foreign Minister and Atlantic Club of Bulgaria founding president Solomon Passy owned a Trabant which was blessed by Pope John Paul II in 2002 and in which he took NATO Secretaries General Manfred Wörner, George Robertson, and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer for rides. In 2005, Passy donated the vehicle (which had become symbolic of Bulgaria's NATO accession) to the National Historical Museum of Bulgaria. In 1997, the Trabant was celebrated for passing the moose test without rolling over, as the Mercedes-Benz W168 had; a Thuringian newspaper's headline read, "Come and get us, moose! Trabi passes A-Class killer test".

 

The Trabant entered the world of diplomacy in 2007 when Steven Fisher, deputy head of mission at the British Embassy in Budapest, used a 1.1 (painted as close to British racing green as possible) as his diplomatic car. American Trabant owners celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall with the Parade of Trabants, an annual early-November rally held in Washington, D.C. The event, sponsored by the privately owned International Spy Museum, includes street tours in Trabants, rides, live German music and displays about East Germany.

 

Planned reintroduction

The Herpa company, a Bavarian miniature-vehicle manufacturer, bought the rights to the Trabant name and showed a scale model of a "newTrabi" at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show. Plans for production included a limited run, possibly with a BMW engine. A Trabant nT model was unveiled two years later in Frankfurt.

 

The Trabant nT consortium includes Herpa, the German specialized-auto-parts manufacturer IndiKar and the German automobile-engineering company IAV. The group was looking for investment, design and production in the Trabant's original hometown of Zwickau,[38] with sales "in 2012". The Trabant nT electric car would be equipped with a 45 kW (60 hp; 61 PS) asynchronous motor powered by a lithium-ion battery.

 

Models

P50: Later known as the 500 (Limousine and Universal [Combi])

600 (Limousine and Universal)

601 Standard (Limousine, Universal)

601S (Sonderwunsch; Special Edition) with fog lamps, a rear white light and an odometer

601 DeLuxe: Similar to the 601S, with two colours and a chrome bumper

601 Kübel: Doorless jeep with a folding roof, auxiliary heating system and RFI-shielded ignition

601 Tramp: Civilian version of the Kübel, primarily exported to Greece

601 Hycomat: For drivers unable to use their left leg, with an automatic clutch

800RS: Rally version

1.1: Limousine, Universal and Tramp (convertible)

 

Prototype and concepts

Dozens of prototypes have been created over the years that have not gone into mass production.

 

1954 Trabant P50 prototype

1954 Trabant P50 Universal prototype

1959 Trabant P504

1961 Trabant P100

1965 Trabant P602V

1970 Trabant P760

1971 Trabant P610 Prototype

1981 Trabant P601 Z

1982 Trabant 601 WE II Prototype

1988 Trabant 1.1 E

2009 Trabant nT Concept

Am 26. Juli 2025 zeigte sich Stuttgart von seiner stilleren Seite – Regen, spiegelnde Straßen und ein fast leerer Schlossplatz.

 

Zwischen Tropfen, Reflexionen und gedämpftem Licht bot die Stadt eine ganz eigene Stimmung: ruhig, klar und überraschend farbig.

 

Mit der Fujifilm X-H2 entstanden diese Aufnahmen – konzentriert auf Licht, Struktur und Atmosphäre eines Sommertags, der anders war als geplant, aber genau deshalb besonders.

 

Mehr Fotos und Serien findest du auf 👉 www.fujicolours.com

 

— Stuttgart, Schlossplatz, 26. Juli 2025 ☔

Potsdam is the capital and largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of Berlin, and lies embedded in a hilly morainic landscape dotted with many lakes, around 20 of which are located within Potsdam's city limits. It lies some 25 kilometres (16 miles) southwest of Berlin's city centre. The name of the city and of many of its boroughs are of Slavic origin.

 

Potsdam was a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Emperor until 1918. Its planning embodied ideas of the Age of Enlightenment: through a careful balance of architecture and landscape, Potsdam was intended as "a picturesque, pastoral dream" which would remind its residents of their relationship with nature and reason.

 

The city, which is over 1,000 years old, is widely known for its palaces, its lakes, and its overall historical and cultural significance. Landmarks include the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, Germany's largest World Heritage Site, as well as other palaces such as the Orangery Palace, the New Palace, Cecilienhof Palace, and Charlottenhof Palace. Potsdam was also the location of the significant Potsdam Conference in 1945, the conference where the three heads of government of the USSR, the US, and the UK decided on the division of Germany following its surrender, a conference which defined Germany's history for the following 45 years.

 

Babelsberg, in the south-eastern part of Potsdam, was already by the 1930s the home of a major film production studio and it has enjoyed success as an important center of European film production since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Filmstudio Babelsberg, founded in 1912, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world.

 

Potsdam developed into a centre of science in Germany in the 19th century. Today, there are three public colleges, the University of Potsdam, and more than 30 research institutes in the city.

The Roon monument on the Großer Stern in the Tiergarten district of Berlin commemorates the Prussian army reformer and German unification fighter Albrecht von Roon (1803–1879). Created in 1904 by Harro Magnussen in the neo-baroque style , it is one of the masterpieces of the Berlin sculpture school .

 

History and Description

The Roon Monument was created in 1904 by Harro Magnussen in the neo-baroque style . The five-meter-high bronze sculpture shows Roon in a contemporary uniform standing next to a column, his head turned slightly to the left . Around his neck he wears the Pour le Mérite , which was awarded to him for his services to the unification of Germany . His right hand is resting on his hip, his left hand is holding the general's helmet. The six meter high base made of shell limestone with the gold-plated inscription “ROON” has elements of neoclassicism . The total height of the statue is eleven meters. It is one of the masterpieces of the Berlin school of sculpture . The casting was carried out by Martin & Piltzing .

 

In 1938 the Roon monument, together with the monuments of Moltke , Bismarck and the Victory Column , was removed from its original location on the northern edge of Königsplatz , where it stood in the way of Albert Speer's plans for the conversion of Berlin into the world capital of Germania , and in 1939 to its current location Location placed on the northern edge of the Great Star . The substructure was removed and the base was replaced.

 

The statue surrounds an ornamental wall open to the Victory Column with the following inscription: “ALBRECHT GRAF VON ROON / PREUSS. FIELD MARSHAL GENERAL AND MINISTER OF WAR / BIRTH. April 30, 1803 . GEST. February 23, 1879 . BY IMPLEMENTING THE / ARMY REFORM HE CREATED THE PREREQUISITES FOR THE VICTORIES / IN THE WARS OF 1864. 1866. 1870-71”.

 

Albrecht Theodor Emil von Roon , Count von Roon from 1871 (born April 30, 1803 in Pleushagen near Kolberg ; † February 23, 1879 in Berlin ), was a Prussian field marshal . As Minister of War, he played a key role in Prussia's success in the Wars of German Unification . He is one of the most important army reformers of his time.

 

Albrecht von Roon was the son of Heinrich Friedrich von Roon (born October 17, 1768 in Berlin; † October 15, 1808 in Pleushagen), Prussian second lieutenant a. D. , ducal Braunschweig chamberlain and lord of Pleushagen, Fürstenthum district , and his wife Johanna Constantia Ulrike Albertine, née von Borke , widowed blacksmith von Schmiedeseck (* August 1773 in Schwochow; † October 4, 1823 in Friedensburg ).

 

After his father's death, Roon lived in Stettin since 1811 , came to the Prussian Army cadet institute in Kulm in 1816 and to the main cadet institute in Berlin in 1819. From January 9, 1821 he was a second lieutenant in the 14th Infantry Regiment . From 1824 to 1827 he attended the General War School in Berlin and university events organized by the geographer Carl Ritter and the historian Friedrich von Raumer . In 1833 he worked as a geographer for the topographical office of the Grand General Staff , which he joined in 1836 with the rank of captain . In the same year he married Anna Rogge, Bernhard Rogge 's older sister . The works he published as a student of Ritter had a reputation as standard works . From 1846 to 1848, Roon taught Prince Friedrich Karl and accompanied him during his studies in Bonn and on several trips to Germany, France and Italy.

 

In the summer of 1849, Roon served in Cologne as chief of the general staff of the 15th Division under Lieutenant General Moritz von Hirschfeld . When he took over the leadership of the first of the two army corps set up by Prussia to suppress the revolution in the Palatinate and Baden , Roon remained on his staff. During the campaign he made the acquaintance of the Supreme Commander, Prince of Prussia , to whose ideal circle he belonged from now on. Roon was deployed in various positions in the general staff and in the military service. In 1851 he was promoted to colonel , in 1856 he was appointed major general and in 1858 he was appointed commander of the 14th Division , always with transfers to various regions of the Prussian monarchy.

 

At the suggestion of the Prince of Prussia, Roon, retired in Kolberg , wrote a memorandum in the summer of 1858 on questions of modernizing the Prussian military system. It was entirely in the spirit of Otto von Bismarck and the prince in the looming Prussian constitutional conflict . After the beginning of his reign , the Prince of Prussia appointed Roon to the Commission for the Reorganization of the Army in 1859, appointed him Minister of War in December 1859 and, after his accession to the throne as Wilhelm I in 1861, also Minister of the Navy . As a non-attached member of the Prussian House of Representatives , of which he was a member from 1859 to 1860 and 1863 to 1870, Roon defended the army reform against the majority in an uncompromising and rhetorical manner.

 

When Wilhelm wanted to give up in the fight for army reform, Roon sent Bismarck a memorable telegram on September 18, 1862 with the sentence: “Periculum in mora. Dépêchez-vous!” (“Danger imminent! Hurry!”). The telegram prompted Bismarck to return from his Paris ambassadorial post to Berlin, where the king appointed him Prime Minister .

 

At Bismarck's side, Roon then modernized the army against strong liberal opposition . In the German public, Roon's reputation rose like that of Bismarck and Helmuth von Moltke when successes in solving the German question through blood and iron became noticeable in the wars against Denmark and Austria since 1864. The Prussian state parliament granted them endowments . After the Battle of Königgrätz, Roon received the Order of the Black Eagle .

 

On June 16, 1871, on the day of the brilliant Berlin Victory Parade , the king elevated Roon to the rank of Prussian count for his services to the victorious wars of unification and appointed him a lifelong member of the manor house in 1872 . The Reichstag , whose predecessor, the North German Reichstag , Roon had been a member of the conservative faction for the Teltow - Beeskow - Storkow constituency until 1868, awarded him an endowment of 300,000 thalers.

 

On January 1, 1873, Wilhelm I appointed Roon as Prime Minister of Prussia and appointed him Field Marshal . However, as a result of Roon's obvious excessive demands in the office of Prussian Prime Minister during the Kulturkampf , which was also evident for health reasons, the hoped-for relief for Bismarck as Reich Chancellor did not occur . On November 9, 1873, Wilhelm I awarded him the diamonds of the Order of the Black Eagle to mark his repeatedly requested farewell .

 

Roon acquired Gütergotz Castle near Potsdam in 1868 , beautified it and redesigned the park. After his departure, he sold the property and retired to Neuhof Castle near Coburg in Franconia . In Reichenbach he bought Krobnitz Castle on September 6, 1873 . Roon spent the last years of his life there and found his final resting place in the family crypt.

 

Harro Magnussen (born May 14, 1861 in Hamm near Hamburg; † November 3, 1908 in Grunewald near Berlin) was a German sculptor .

 

Family

As the son of the painter Christian Carl Magnussen, he received his first lessons in drawing, modeling and wood carving from his father. His siblings were the ceramist and landscape painter Walter Magnussen (1869–1946) and the painter and writer Ingeborg Magnussen (1856–1946).

 

Studies and work

In 1882, Harro Magnussen began studying painting at the Munich Art Academy under Nikolaus Gysis , Gabriel von Hackl and Ludwig von Löfftz . Strongly impressed by the works of the Berlin school of sculpture - especially the neo-baroque style of Reinhold Begas - he moved to Berlin in 1888 to Begas' studio, where he stayed for five years and, among other things, worked on the Kaiser Wilhelm National Monument . Self-employed since 1893, Magnussen took part in a number of competitions, but with only moderate success. In contrast, portrait busts dominated his work. His Bismarck bust from 1889 is said to have been sold ten years later in more than 1,000 copies, mostly in plaster or bronze, but also as an electroplating by the WMF .

  

Magnussen in his studio (1898)

In 1899, Magnussen attracted the attention of Kaiser Wilhelm II , who purchased a marble portrait of the dying Frederick II and commissioned him to design further designs for a statue of the king for the White Hall in the Berlin City Palace

 

With this reputation , Magnussen suddenly became known to the public. His memorial group for the Siegesallee Berlin earned him the Royal Order of the Crown, IV Class.

 

In 1905 he also took over the artistic supervision and stage design of the Small Theater in Berlin.

 

Magnussen committed suicide in 1908 .

 

Benefits

Harro Magnussen had a distinctive gift for characterizing the people he sculpted, which earned him a respected position among Berlin sculptors and the goodwill of the emperor. In his efforts to do justice to reality in his works, he did not go beyond a certain “rigidity” in the way he presented things.

 

The Großer Stern is the central square of the Großer Tiergarten in the Tiergarten district of Berlin .

 

History

The square was under Elector Friedrich III. (from 1701 Frederick I , King of Prussia ) created around 1698 by the court hunter Hemmrich as a hunting star . From 1742 onwards, the Großer Stern was expanded into a representative square as part of the redesign of the zoo by Knobelsdorff and from 1833 to 1840 by Peter Joseph Lenné . From the mid-18th to early 19th centuries, a group of sandstone statues of ancient gods, called The Dolls , stood there .

 

Today's expansion

Today several of the city's major traffic axes meet here:

 

the Street of June 17th

to the west over Ernst-Reuter-Platz , as Bismarckstrasse or Kaiserdamm to Theodor-Heuss-Platz and further as Heerstrasse

to the east over the Brandenburg Gate at Pariser Platz and the Boulevard Unter den Linden to the Palace Bridge at the Berlin Cathedral

Altonaer Straße to the northwest over Hansaplatz to the Gotzkowsky Bridge

the Spreeweg to the northeast to Bellevue Castle at the Luther Bridge

the Hofjägerallee to the south via Lützowplatz and Nollendorfplatz to Winterfeldtplatz

The Großer Stern is designed as a large, multi-lane spiral roundabout that is used by around 180,000 cars every day.

 

In the middle of the square stands the Victory Column with the gilded bronze sculpture of Victoria with a laurel wreath called Goldelse by the Berliners . The square got its current appearance in 1938. Its diameter was greatly enlarged and the Victory Column was moved from Königsplatz, today's Republic Square directly in front of the Reichstag building , and increased it - also for reasons of proportion - by a column drum. As part of the widening of the Great Star, the Hubertus Fountain by Cuno von Uechtritz-Steinkirch on the northern edge of the square was demolished in 1938. The Siegesallee, which was relocated to Große Sternallee in May 1938, ran back towards the Victory Column , only now in the direction of the Großer Stern . The monuments of the victors from 1864–1871, which had previously surrounded the Victory Column, were again placed in a semicircle: Bismarck National Monument , Albrecht von Roon and Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke . The inauguration of the ensemble took place on April 20, 1939, Hitler's 50th birthday, when a gigantic military parade also rolled over the Großer Stern.

 

Tiergarten is a district in the Mitte district of Berlin . It was created during the administrative reform in 2001 by dividing the former Tiergarten district , which also included the Hansaviertel and Moabit . In today's usage, Tiergarten often stands for the Tiergarten district, the former Tiergarten district or the Großer Tiergarten city park . The area of ​​today's district south of the Großer Tiergarten is also called Tiergarten Süd in contrast to the former Tiergarten district .

 

Geography

The Tiergarten district is bordered in the north by the Spree . In the northwest, north and northeast it borders on the districts of Hansaviertel, Moabit and Mitte , all of which - like Tiergarten - belong to the Mitte district. To the west it borders on the Charlottenburg district in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district , to the south it is connected to the Schöneberg district in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district , and to the southeast is the Kreuzberg district in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district .

 

A considerable part of the Tiergarten district is occupied by the Großer Tiergarten , Berlin's second largest park after Tempelhofer Feld ; the Kleiner Tiergarten, on the other hand, is located in the Moabit district.

 

History

Tiergarten district (before 1920)

The areas outside the Berlin customs wall between the Großer Tiergarten and the Spree were incorporated into Berlin in 1861. Since 1884, this area has been officially designated as the new Tiergarten district .The western part originally consisted of the “Schöneberger Wiesen”, on which the Hansaviertel was created in 1877. There was originally a large parade ground on the Spree bend further east . The representative Königsplatz (today's Platz der Republik ) was built there with the Victory Column , the Reichstag building and the Kroll Opera . The noble Alsenviertel with the Swiss Embassy was built on the northern edge of the Spree bend . In 1910 the Tiergarten district had 24,717 inhabitants.

 

Tiergarten District (1920–2000)

In 1920, the new Tiergarten district was formed from the Berlin districts of Tiergarten, Moabit, Untere Friedrichsvorstadt and Schöneberger Vorstadt . In 1938 the area south of Kurfürstenstrasse was ceded to the Schöneberg district ; At the same time, Martinikenfelde, which had previously belonged to Charlottenburg, was added to Tiergarten.

 

The developments south of the Spree and north of the Landwehr Canal were almost completely destroyed in the Second World War . In the Alsenviertel, north of the Reichstag building, numerous buildings had already been demolished as part of Hitler's “Germania” plans and many embassies had been relocated to the southern Tiergarten. The Great Hall was originally supposed to be built here. The Second World War put an end to these plans. During the division of Berlin the area lay fallow . After the political change and the federal government's move to Berlin, the former Alsenviertel became part of the new government district and several large-scale new buildings were built for the federal government's institutions. The only surviving building from before the First World War is the Swiss Embassy , ​​which today stands like a memorial in an open area on the edge of the Spreebogenpark , which was created in 2005 .

 

Severe destruction also occurred in the Tiergartenviertel , a villa colony from the first half of the 19th century, west of Potsdamer Platz . As in the Alsenviertel, several villas had already been demolished before the war to make room for Hitler's new building plans. Numerous Jewish owners had previously been expropriated and expelled from their homes. A few buildings in the district survived the Second World War, such as St. Matthäus Church , some historic embassy buildings and the Bendlerblock , today's Federal Ministry of Defense . Due to the division of Berlin, many of the historic cultural cities were located in the political east of the city, separated from West Berlin . As a result, the Kulturforum was built in the area of ​​the former Tiergartenviertel from 1958 as the new cultural center of the western part of Berlin.

 

Potsdamer Platz, one of the busiest squares in Europe in the Roaring Twenties with numerous restaurants, hotels and variety shows , was also in ruins after the Second World War and subsequently became a border area in the divided city due to its close proximity to the Berlin Wall . Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall did a planned new development take place in the 1990s, which was intended to continue the old tradition.

 

The Hansaviertel on the northern edge of the Tiergarten was also severely affected by the Allied air raids and was rebuilt by the most renowned architects as part of the Interbau International Building Exhibition in 1957.

 

In Moabit and south of the Landwehr Canal, however, large parts of the old buildings were preserved despite severe war damage.

 

The population of the Tiergarten district was 283,581 in 1925, 110,620 in 1946 and 86,380 in 1987.

 

Tiergarten district (since 2001)

The Tiergarten district was merged with the neighboring districts of Wedding and Mitte in 2001 to form today's new Mitte district . By decision of the district council , this new district was divided into the districts of Mitte, Wedding, Gesundbrunnen , Moabit, Hansaviertel and Tiergarten.

 

Berlin is the capital and a state of the Federal Republic of Germany . With around 3.8 million inhabitants, the city is the most populous and, with 892 square kilometers, the largest municipality in Germany and the most populous city in the European Union . The city has the third highest population density in the country. Around 4.8 million people live in the Berlin agglomeration and around 6.3 million in the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan region . The city-state consists of twelve districts . In addition to the rivers Spree , Havel and Dahme, there are smaller rivers and numerous lakes and forests in the urban area.

 

Berlin was first mentioned in documents in the 13th century . The city was the capital of the March of Brandenburg , Prussia and Germany . Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Berlin developed into the world's third largest city. After the end of the Second World War, the city was subject to four-power status in 1945 ; From 1949 , East Berlin served as the capital of the German Democratic Republic , while West Berlin became part of the Federal Republic . With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification in 1990, the two halves of the city grew together again and Berlin regained its role as the pan-German capital. Since 1999, the city has been the seat of the federal government , the Federal President , the German Bundestag , the Bundesrat as well as most federal ministries , numerous federal authorities and embassies .

 

Berlin is one of the economic centers in Europe. Among the important branches of the city's economy are tourism , the creative and cultural industries , the biotechnology and health industry with medical technology and the pharmaceutical industry , information and communication technology , the construction and real estate industry , the financial industry , trade , and optoelectronics , energy technology , logistics as well as trade fairs and congresses . The city is a European transport hub for road , rail and air transport . Berlin is an international location for innovative company founders and has recorded high growth rates in the number of employed people since 2010 .

 

Berlin is considered a global city of culture , media and science . The city's universities, research institutions , sporting events and museums enjoy an international reputation. The metropolis holds the UNESCO title of City of Design and is one of the most visited destinations on the continent. Berlin's music, architecture , festivals , top gastronomy , nightlife and urban quality of life are known worldwide.

The former Jesuit monastery church of St. Ignatius (also known as the Jesuit Church) is located at the upper end of Landshut's Neustadt street. It formally forms the end of the Neustadt district toward the Hofberg. Adjacent to it is the former Jesuit College of Landshut. The towerless church is a subsidiary church of the parish of St. Martin and is listed as a historic monument by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (number D-2-61-000-392) as well as a protected cultural asset under the Hague Convention. The church's patron saint is St. Ignatius of Loyola (commemorated on July 31), founder of the Jesuit order.

The Fernsehturm in central Berlin was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the government of the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, as both a functional broadcasting facility and a symbol of Communist power.

 

It remains a landmark today from its position next to Alexanderplatz in the city's Marien Quarter, part of the district of Mitte, visible across most suburban districts of Berlin. With its height of 368 metres (1207') (including antenna) it is the tallest structure in Germany, and the third-tallest structure in the European Union. When built it was the fourth-tallest freestanding structure in the world after the Ostankino Tower, the Empire State Building and 875 North Michigan Avenue, then known as The John Hancock Center.

 

Of the four tallest structures in the European Union, the Fernsehturm is 2 metres (6.6 ft) shorter than the Torreta de Guardamar, 0.5 metres (1.6 ft) shorter than the Riga Radio and TV Tower, and 8 metres (26 ft) taller than the Trbovlje Power Station. The structure is also more than 220 metres (720 ft) higher than the old Berlin Radio Tower in the western part of the city, which was built in the 1920s.

 

In addition to its main function as the location of several radio and television transmitters, the building – internally known as "Fernmeldeturm 32" – serves as a viewing tower with observation deck including a bar at a height of 203 metres (666 ft), as well as a rotating restaurant. Also, the Berlin TV Tower can be booked as a venue for events. The distinctive city landmark has undergone a radical, symbolic transformation: After German reunification, it changed from a politically charged, national symbol of the GDR into a citywide symbol of a reunited Berlin. Due to its universal and timeless design, it has increasingly been used as a trademark and is identified worldwide with Berlin and Germany. In 1979, the Berlin TV Tower received official monument status by the East German government, a status which was perpetuated after the German reunification.

 

The tower has become one of the most prominent symbols of the country and is often in the establishing shot of films set in Berlin, alongside monuments such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Victory Column and the Reichstag building. It is also one of the ten most popular attractions in Germany with more than 1,000,000 visitors every year.

 

Overview

The original total height of the tower was 365 metres (1,198 ft), but it rose to 368 metres (1,207 ft) after the installation of a new antenna in 1997. The Fernsehturm is the fourth tallest free-standing structure in Europe, after Moscow's Ostankino Tower, the Kyiv TV Tower and the Riga Radio and TV Tower. The sphere is a visitor platform and a revolving restaurant in the middle of the sphere. The visitor platform, also called panoramic floor, is at a height of about 203 metres (666 ft) above the ground and visibility can reach 42 kilometres (26 mi) on a clear day. The restaurant "Sphere", which rotates once every 30 minutes, is a few metres (yards) above the visitors platform at 207 metres (679 ft). When first constructed, it turned once per hour; the speed was later doubled following the tower's 1997 renovation.

 

Two lifts transport visitors to the sphere of the tower within 40 seconds. There is also a stairway with 986 steps. Wheelchair users cannot visit the tower due to fire regulations.

 

To mark the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, for which the final match was played in the Berlin Olympic Stadium, the sphere was decorated as a football with magenta-coloured pentagons, reflecting the corporate colour of World Cup sponsor and owner of the Fernsehturm, Deutsche Telekom.

 

Location and surroundings

The Berlin TV Tower is located southwest of the Alexanderplatz station and northeast of the Marx-Engels Forum. The structure is often erroneously described as being part of the Alexanderplatz that lies to the northeast.

 

In addition to the Berlin U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines, several tram and bus lines stop at Alexanderplatz station, from which the middle exit leads to the entrance building of the TV Tower.

 

The Interhotel Stadt Berlin on Alexanderplatz, planned concurrently to the TV Tower and completed in 1970, is 125 metres (410') high and is now operated as a Park Inn by Radisson Berlin Alexanderplatz. Between 1967 and 1972, the Rathauspassagen shopping arcade was built next to the Rotes Rathaus, directly south of the TV Tower.

 

History

At the European Broadcasting Conference in Stockholm in 1952, which was responsible for the coordination of frequency waves in Europe, the GDR – not recognised politically by most countries at the time – was only allocated two frequency channels. Under these circumstances, it was impossible to cover Berlin's urban area by multiple small broadcasting stations without interference and thus disturbances or gaps in the broadcasting signals. For comprehensive and continuous coverage, a powerful large broadcasting facility at the highest possible location was required. In the 1950s, this task was fulfilled in Berlin by the fragile makeshift stations of Deutscher Fernsehfunk (East German broadcasting organisation).

 

As early as 1952, GDR's Deutsche Post began planning a TV tower for Berlin. The plans initially involved a location in the southeast of Berlin. However, the project was interrupted after construction had started, when it transpired that the site was only eight kilometres (5 miles) away from the Berlin Schönefeld Airport (now part of Berlin Brandenburg Airport) and the tower threatened to jeopardise flight operations due to its height and location at the edge of an airport corridor. After various compromise solutions failed, the construction project was discontinued in 1956. In the following years, alternatives were sought and several sites were discussed, including in Berlin Friedrichshain, but these plans also fell victim to austerity measures triggered by the high costs of building the Berlin Wall.

 

In the next few years, the search for a new location was continued. Alongside its actual purpose of providing the best possible broadcasting services, the role of the tower as a new landmark of Berlin was increasingly gaining significance. For this reason, in 1964 the government demanded that the tower be built at a central location, an appeal that was supported by the SED leadership. Ultimately, the choice of location was a political decision. Walter Ulbricht, leader of the Socialist Unity Party which governed East Germany, decided to allow the construction of a television tower modelled on the Fernsehturm Stuttgart and the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik.

 

Various architects were involved in the planning and implementation of the tower between 1965 and 1969, including Hermann Henselmann and Jörg Streitparth, Fritz Dieter, Günter Franke and Werner Ahrendt, as well as Walter Herzog, Gerhard Kosel and Herbert Aust.[5] The construction of the Tower and the surrounding Pavilion building at its base resulted in the razing and clearing of a huge section of the historic centre of the capital of Germany. A medieval church stands next to the tower as a testament to the destruction of the old city.

 

Construction of the Tower

Work on the foundation began on 4 August 1965 and was finished by the end of 1965. The concreting of the tower foot began on 15 March 1966. The concreting progressed rapidly, so that the 100-metre (300') mark was exceeded on 4 October 1966. The shaft reached its final height on 16 June 1967. A total of 8,000 cubic metres (10,000 cu. yd.) of concrete was used to build the shaft, which was 248.78 metres (816') high and weighed 26,000 tons.

 

While the shaft was being erected, the preliminary work for the tower ball progressed. The working group VEB Ipro had worked out the procedure for assembling the ball on the reinforced concrete shaft, according to which the ball could be pieced together from 120 separate segments on the ground. In April 1967, a 35-metre (115') high replica of the shaft was erected on the construction site between Marienkirche and the Red Town Hall on which the ball segments were pre-assembled. This work lasted until November 1967. The construction costs had meanwhile skyrocketed from an estimated 33 million to 95 million marks, caused mainly by components and materials that had to be paid in foreign currencies, some of which were imported from West Germany. In February 1968, the assembly of the ball on the shaft was started. The last segment of the ball was finally installed on October 7. A spike was mounted on the tower structure and the antenna structure above the ball, so that work on the interior could be started the following year.

 

At the beginning of 1969, water trickled into the interior of the tower, causing considerable damage; the ball had to be sealed again. Until 3 October 1969, the interior was expanded, and the entrance pavilion was completed. After 53 months of actual construction work, the tower was completed in "record-breaking" time in spite of all the adversities. The costs amounted to over 132 million marks.

 

The building, officially called the Fernseh- und UKW-Turm Berlin (Television and VHF Tower Berlin), was the world's second highest television tower in October 1969. The only TV tower that was taller was the Ostankino in Moscow. It was also the third-highest freestanding building of its time, after the tower in Moscow and the Empire State Building in New York.

 

Since the inauguration

On 3 October 1969 Walter Ulbricht, together with his wife Lotte and a delegation of high-ranking companions, including Günter Mittag, Herbert Warnke, Paul Verner, Rudolph Schulze, Erich Honecker, Werner Lamberz and Erich Mielke, inaugurated the television tower and gave the starting signal for GDR's second state channel, DFF 2, thus launching colour TV on two channels in the GDR. The tower has been accessible to the public since 7 October 1969, Republic Day.

 

From 16 February 1970, five FM programmes were broadcast from the tower; a first television programme followed on 4 April 1970. At the beginning of 1972, the two planned pavilions for exhibitions, the Berlin Information Centre, a cinema and gastronomic facilities were completed. Overall, the restaurants offered space for around 1000 guests. After the establishment of a legal basis for the preservation of monuments in 1975, the Berlin TV Tower was awarded this status in 1979. After the fall of the GDR, the Federal Republic of Germany enshrined the building's monument status.

 

After German reunification in 1990, voices were raised favouring the demolition of the tower. The Federal Republic of Germany decided to keep the building. As the new operator, Deutsche Telekom finally invested more than 50 million marks to overhaul the broadcasting facilities, and a number of renovations were also undertaken on the building. Among other things, the antenna received a new, more powerful tip from the height of 327 metres (1073'), increasing the tower's height from originally 365 metres (1198') to 368 metres (1207') in summer 1997.

 

The TV Tower is one of the buildings in Berlin that is illuminated by a special light installation for several days during the Festival of Lights held every year in October since 2004. On the occasion of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the tower ball was covered to make it look like a magenta football as part of an advertising campaign by the operator Telekom.

 

"Pope's Revenge"

When the sun shines on the Fernsehturm's tiled stainless-steel dome, the reflection usually appears in the form of a Greek cross. Berliners nicknamed the luminous cross Rache des Papstes, or the "Pope's Revenge", believing the Christian symbol a divine retaliation for the government's removal of crosses from East Berlin's churches. For the same reasons, the structure was also called "St. Walter" (from Walter Ulbricht). U.S. President Ronald Reagan mentioned this in his Tear down this wall speech on 12 June 1987

 

The Berlin TV Tower is not only a broadcasting tower, but also a landmark, tourist attraction and venue. The TV Tower's observation deck and revolving restaurant are run by Magnicity, a group based in France that operates attractions at the top of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris and 360 CHICAGO at the former John Hancock Center in Chicago, among others. The Berlin TV Tower is the highest publicly accessible building in Europe and was the highest publicly accessible observation platform in Germany until 2017, when the TK Elevator Test Tower in Rottweil has overtaken this rank. In the first three years after its inauguration, as many as four million people visited the structure. After the German reunification, the visitor average has levelled off to approximately 1.2 million from some 90 countries a year. Of these, around 60 per cent come from abroad, with Spaniards being the biggest group, accounting for 8.1 per cent, followed by Italians (7.6 per cent) and Danes (6.7 per cent). The maximum admissible number of persons inside the ball is 320 persons. Of the up to 5,000 visitors daily, about 1,500 visit the tower restaurant. In GDR times, the duration of a stay in the Tele-Café was limited to 60 minutes and in the observation deck to 30 minutes.

 

The two visitor elevators carry 12 people each in about 40 seconds to the observation platform at 203 metres (666'), where Berlin's highest bar is also located. From 60 windows there is a panoramic view over the whole of Berlin and the surrounding areas. The restaurant, which is located 21 steps above the observation platform at 207 metres (680') altitude, rotates 360 degrees in an hour. For fire protection reasons, the main kitchen is located at the foot of the tower. The meals are transported by lift to the restaurant floor, where they are prepared in a small satellite kitchen. Apart from the two evacuation platforms below the tower basket, the fire protection concept includes a strict smoking ban throughout the entire structure.[15] Wheelchair users and persons with current walking disabilities cannot visit the Berlin TV Tower, as they would not be able to use the escape route in case of emergency. Animals, prams and large luggage are also not admitted for safety reasons.

 

On 14 June 2011 – almost 42 years after the inauguration – the then Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit welcomed the 50 millionth visitor. The entire city can be viewed from the observation deck of the TV Tower. If there is good visibility, the view reaches as far as the recreational park Tropical Islands Resort, at a distance of almost 60 kilometres (40 miles).

 

The TV Tower, which is open all year to the public, has seasonal opening times. The last ascent to the observation platform is daily at 11.30 pm, whereas the last admission to the restaurant is at 11 pm. The public area can be rented for special events, parties, receptions and other events with a maximum of 200 guests. Civil weddings can also be celebrated on the TV Tower. In this case, the bar area on the observation deck is reserved for an hour for the bridal couple and a wedding party of up to 30 guests.

 

Technical details

1 tuned mass damper

Entrance of observation deck is 6.25 metres (20.5 ft) above ground

2 Kone lifts for transport of visitors

1 lift for transport of technical equipment and staff of technical facilities

Steel stairway with 986 steps

Evacuation platforms at 188 metres (617 ft) and 191 metres (627 ft) high

Observation deck at 203.78 metres (668.6 ft)

Restaurant at 207.53 metres (680.9 ft)

Height of the tower: 368.03 metres (1,207.4 ft)

Weight of the shaft: 26,000 tonnes (26,000 long tons; 29,000 short tons)

Weight of the sphere 4,800 tonnes (4,700 long tons; 5,300 short tons)

Diameter of the sphere 32 metres (105 ft)

Foundation depth: between 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) and 5.8 metres (19 ft)

Outer diameter of the foundation: 42 metres (138 ft)

Diameter of the tower ball: 32 metres (105 ft)

The transmission systems for television and radio broadcasting and the operating rooms of the technicians are located at 216 metres (709 ft), 220 metres (720 ft) and 224 metres (735 ft)

The air-conditioning system is located on the ground floor at 200 metres (660 ft), the fire-gas control centre for fire fighting is located on the top floor

150 different antennas for TV and radio transmission on the antenna carrier

20,000 square kilometres (8000 sq. mi.) of transmission area

  

The Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church is an historic Russian Orthodox church building in Potsdam, Germany.

 

The church was built for the Russian residents of the settlement of Alexandrowka, now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin", below the Kapellenberg. Consecrated in 1826, it is still an active congregation and the oldest Russian Orthodox church in Germany. Designed by Vasily Stasov, Nevsky Church is a very early example of the Byzantine Revival architecture in Germany, and one of the earliest examples of Byzantine Revival in Russian Revival architecture.

 

The Russian colony of Alexandrowka is located north of downtown Potsdam. It was built in 1826-1827 by King Frederick William III of Prussia for the last twelve Russian singers in a choir that had previously 62 members.

 

Alexandrowka was named after Tsar Alexander I as a tribute to the strong ties between the Hohenzollern and Romanov families. This name was chosen following the death of Tsar Alexander I in 1825. The colony is currently part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Potsdam Castles and Parks, as it constitutes an integral part of Potsdam's cultural landscape.

 

History

In 1806, the Prussian-Saxon army was defeated by Napoleonic forces at the battle of Jena and Auerstedt. After Napoleon's victory over Prussia in 1812, France and Prussia were compelled to form an alliance against Russia.

 

Out of the significant number of Russian soldiers captured in Russia during 1812, 62 soldiers remained in Potsdam by October of that year. A choir was formed from this group and officially affiliated with the King's 1st Prussian Guard Regiment. After the signing of the neutrality agreement known as the Convention of Tauroggen on December 30, 1812, Prussia and Russia became allies against France in the spring of 1813. At the request of the Prussian king, most of the former prisoners of war who were Russian soldiers were integrated into a separate regiment. Russian and Prussian troops, along with former Russian prisoners of war and Prussian deserters, joined forces under common leadership to fight against Napoleon. Tsar Alexander I not only permitted the soldiers' choir to remain in Prussia, but he also transferred seven grenadiers from one of his regiments to the king's guard regiment. The choir of former Russian prisoners of war continued to provide entertainment in the king's army camp, and losses in its ranks were compensated in 1815 by the transfer of additional grenadiers from a Russian regiment.

 

When Tsar Alexander I died in 1825, only 12 of these Russian singers were still living in Potsdam. On April 10, 1826, Frederick William III issued the following order:

 

"It is My intention, as a lasting monument to the memory of the bonds of friendship between Me and the High Seas Emperor Alexander of Russia's Majesty, to found a colony near Potsdam, which I intend to occupy with the Russian Singers given to Me by His Majesty as Colonists and name Alexandrowka."

 

— Friedrich Wilhelm III.

The new residents moved into the fully furnished estates in 1827. Every household received a cow, and the gardens were carefully designed to accommodate their needs. While the colonists had the right to pass down their holdings to male descendants, they were prohibited from selling, renting, or mortgaging the properties.

 

A Russian Orthodox memorial church, named Alexander Nevsky, was built on Chapel Hill and consecrated in September 1829. Adjacent to the church is the fourteenth residential house, which was inhabited by Tarnowsky, a royal footman of Russian origin.

 

The last singer died in 1861. After a century the founding of the Russian colony, only four families remained, and following the land reform, only two families could trace their direct lineage back to the original singers. The last member of the Shishkoff family, associated with the colony, died in 2008. Initially, the colony was privately owned by the House of Hohenzollern until it was expropriated in 1926. However, military control over the colony was held by the 1st Guards Regiment on Foot. It was only after the disbandment of the regiment in 1919 that the House of Hohenzollern took over the maintenance of the location. The previous royal laws governing the obligations and privileges of the citizens remained in effect until 1945. Fundamental changes in the legal status of the colony and its residents occurred during the period of the Soviet Zone of Occupation (SBZ) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Following German reunification, the majority of the homes have been privately owned.

 

Frederick William III (German: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved.

 

Frederick William III ruled Prussia during the times of the Napoleonic Wars. The king reluctantly joined the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon in the German Campaign of 1813. Following Napoleon's defeat, he took part in the Congress of Vienna, which assembled to settle the political questions arising from the new, post-Napoleonic order in Europe. His primary interests were internal – the reform of Prussia's Protestant churches. He was determined to unify the Protestant churches to homogenize their liturgy, organization, and architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of Churches. The king was said to be extremely shy and indecisive. His wife Queen Louise (1776–1810) was his most important political advisor.[citation needed] She led a mighty group that included Baron Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, Gerhard von Scharnhorst, and Count August von Gneisenau. They set about reforming Prussia's administration, churches, finance, and military. He was the dedicatee of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1824.

 

Early life

Frederick William was born in Potsdam on 3 August 1770 as the son of Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt. He was considered to be a shy and reserved boy, which became noticeable in his particularly reticent conversations, distinguished by the lack of personal pronouns. This manner of speech subsequently came to be considered entirely appropriate for military officers He was neglected by his father during his childhood and suffered from an inferiority complex his entire life.

 

As a child, Frederick William's father (under the influence of his mistress,[3] Wilhelmine Enke, Countess of Lichtenau) had him handed over to tutors, as was quite normal for the period. He spent part of the time living at Paretz, the estate of the old soldier Count Hans von Blumenthal who was the governor of his brother Prince Henry. They thus grew up partly with the count's son, who accompanied them on their Grand Tour in the 1780s. Frederick William was happy at Paretz, and for this reason, in 1795, he bought it from his boyhood friend and turned it into an important royal country retreat. He was a melancholy boy, but he grew up pious and honest. His tutors included the dramatist Johann Jakob Engel.

 

As a soldier, he received the usual training of a Prussian prince, obtained his lieutenancy in 1784, became a lieutenant colonel in 1786, a colonel in 1790, and took part in the campaigns against France of 1792–1794. On 24 December 1793, Frederick William married Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who bore him ten children. In the Kronprinzenpalais (Crown Prince's Palace) in Berlin, Frederick William lived a civil life with a problem-free marriage, which did not change even when he became King of Prussia in 1797. His wife Louise was particularly loved by the Prussian people, which boosted the popularity of the whole House of Hohenzollern, including the King himself.

 

Reign

Frederick William succeeded to the throne on 16 November 1797. He also became, in personal union, the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel (1797–1806 and again 1813–1840). At once, the new king showed that he was earnest of his good intentions by cutting down the royal establishment's expenses, dismissing his father's ministers, and reforming the most oppressive abuses of the late reign. He had the Hohenzollern determination to retain personal power but not the Hohenzollern genius for using it. Too distrustful to delegate responsibility to his ministers, he greatly reduced the effectiveness of his reign since he was forced to assume the roles he did not delegate. This is the main factor of his inconsistent rule.

 

Disgusted with his father's court (in both political intrigues and sexual affairs), Frederick William's first and most successful early endeavor was to restore his dynasty's moral legitimacy. The eagerness to restore dignity to his family went so far that it nearly caused sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow to cancel the expensive and lavish Prinzessinnengruppe project, which was commissioned by the previous monarch Frederick William II. He was quoted as saying the following, which demonstrated his sense of duty and peculiar manner of speech:

 

Every civil servant has a dual obligation: to the sovereign and the country. It can occur that the two are not compatible; then, the duty to the country is higher.

 

At first, Frederick William and his advisors attempted to pursue a neutrality policy in the Napoleonic Wars. Although they succeeded in keeping out of the Third Coalition in 1805, eventually, Frederick William was swayed by the queen's attitude, who led Prussia's pro-war party and entered into the war in October 1806. On 14 October 1806, at the Battle of Jena-Auerstädt, the French effectively decimated the Prussian Army's effectiveness and functionality; led by Frederick William, the Prussian army collapsed entirely soon after. Napoleon occupied Berlin in late October. The royal family fled to Memel, East Prussia, where they fell on the mercy of Emperor Alexander I of Russia.

 

Alexander, too, suffered defeat at the hands of the French, and at Tilsit on the Niemen France made peace with Russia and Prussia. Napoleon dealt with Prussia very harshly, despite the pregnant queen's interview with the French emperor, which was believed to soften the defeat. Instead, Napoleon took much less mercy on the Prussians than what was expected. Prussia lost many of its Polish territories and all territory west of the Elbe and had to finance a large indemnity and pay French troops to occupy key strong points within the kingdom.

 

Although the ineffectual king himself seemed resigned to Prussia's fate, various reforming ministers, such as Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst, and Count August von Gneisenau, set about reforming Prussia's administration and military, with the encouragement of Queen Louise (who died, greatly mourned, in 1810). After bereavement, Frederick William fell under the influence of a 'substitute family' of courtiers, among whom included Friedrich Ancillon, a Huguenot preacher that provided the king with strong ideological support against political reforms that might restrain monarchical power, Sophie Marie von Voß, an older woman with conservative views and Prince Wilhelm zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein.

 

In 1813, following Napoleon's defeat in Russia and pressured by the Convention of Tauroggen, Frederick William turned against France and signed an alliance with Russia at Kalisz. However, he had to flee Berlin, still under French occupation. Prussian troops played a crucial part in the victories of the allies in 1813 and 1814, and the king himself traveled with the main army of Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, along with Alexander of Russia and Francis of Austria.

 

At the Congress of Vienna, Frederick William's ministers succeeded in securing significant territorial increases for Prussia. However, they failed to obtain the annexation of all of Saxony, as they had wished.[citation needed] Following the war, Frederick William turned towards political reaction, abandoning the promises he had made in 1813 to provide Prussia with a constitution.

 

Prussian Union of Churches

Frederick William was determined to unify the Protestant churches to homogenize their liturgy, organization, and architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of Churches. The merging of the Lutheran and Calvinist (Reformed) confessions to form the United Church of Prussia was highly controversial. Angry responses included a large and well-organized opposition. Especially the "Old Lutherans" in Silesia refused to abandon their liturgical traditions. The crown responded by attempting to silence protest. The stubborn Lutheran minority was coerced by military force, their churches' confiscation, and their pastors' imprisonment or exile. By 1834 outward union was secured based on common worship but separate symbols—the opponents of the measure being forbidden to form communities of their own. Many left Prussia, settling in South Australia, Canada, and the United States. The king's unsuccessful counterattack worsened tensions at the highest levels of government. The crown's aggressive efforts to restructure religion were unprecedented in Prussian history. In a series of proclamations over several years, the Church of the Prussian Union was formed, bringing together the majority group of Lutherans and the minority group of Reformed Protestants. The main effect was that the government of Prussia had full control over church affairs, with the king himself recognized as the leading bishop.

 

In 1824 Frederick William III remarried (morganatically) Countess Auguste von Harrach, Princess of Liegnitz.They had no children.

 

In 1838 the king distributed large parts of his farmland at Erdmannsdorf Estate to 422 Protestant refugees from the Austrian Zillertal, who built Tyrolean style farmhouses in the Silesian village.

 

Death

Frederick William III died on 7 June 1840 in Berlin, from a fever, survived by his second wife. His eldest son, Frederick William IV, succeeded him. Frederick William III is buried at the Mausoleum in Schlosspark Charlottenburg, Berlin.

 

Potsdam is the capital and largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of Berlin, and lies embedded in a hilly morainic landscape dotted with many lakes, around 20 of which are located within Potsdam's city limits. It lies some 25 kilometres (16 miles) southwest of Berlin's city centre. The name of the city and of many of its boroughs are of Slavic origin.

 

Potsdam was a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Emperor until 1918. Its planning embodied ideas of the Age of Enlightenment: through a careful balance of architecture and landscape, Potsdam was intended as "a picturesque, pastoral dream" which would remind its residents of their relationship with nature and reason.

 

The city, which is over 1,000 years old, is widely known for its palaces, its lakes, and its overall historical and cultural significance. Landmarks include the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, Germany's largest World Heritage Site, as well as other palaces such as the Orangery Palace, the New Palace, Cecilienhof Palace, and Charlottenhof Palace. Potsdam was also the location of the significant Potsdam Conference in 1945, the conference where the three heads of government of the USSR, the US, and the UK decided on the division of Germany following its surrender, a conference which defined Germany's history for the following 45 years.

 

Babelsberg, in the south-eastern part of Potsdam, was already by the 1930s the home of a major film production studio and it has enjoyed success as an important center of European film production since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Filmstudio Babelsberg, founded in 1912, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world.

 

Potsdam developed into a centre of science in Germany in the 19th century. Today, there are three public colleges, the University of Potsdam, and more than 30 research institutes in the city.

Laaber is a municipality in the district of Regensburg in Bavaria in Germany. It lies on the River Schwarze Laber (note the spelling difference).

 

The now-ruined medieval castle on the hill above the town centre was once the seat of the Lords of Laber, who were influential in the 14th and 15th centuries. Hadamar II of Laber was mayor of Regensburg in 1334, and Ulrich of Laber was mayor of Nuremberg in 1366. The dynasty had some importance as patrons of cultural activities. They contributed financially to the construction of the Scots Monastery in Regensburg, and are recorded as being enthusiastic supporters of jousting events. Hadamar III was a courtly poet (Minnesänger), famous particularly for his poem "Die Jagd" ('the hunt'). The Lords of Laber also owned the castle at Wolfsegg. The House of Laber died out in 1475, with the death of Hadamar VII.

The Reichstag a historic legislative government building on Platz der Republik in Berlin, is the seat of the German Bundestag. It is also the meeting place of the Federal Convention, which elects the President of Germany.

 

The Neo-Renaissance building was built between 1884 and 1894 in the Tiergarten district on the left bank of the River Spree to plans by the architect Paul Wallot. It housed both the Reichstag legislature of the German Empire and the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. The Reich's Federal Council also originally met there. The building was initially used by the Reichstag for Nazi Germany, but severe damage in the Reichstag fire of 1933 prevented further use and the Reichstag moved to the nearby Kroll Opera House. The 1933 fire became a pivotal event in the entrenchment of the Nazi regime. The building took further damage during the Second World War and its symbolism made it an important target for the Red Army during the Battle of Berlin.

 

After the war, the building was modernised and restored in the 1960s and used for exhibitions and special events, as its location in West Berlin prevented its use as a parliament building by either of the two Germanies. From 1995 to 1999, the Reichstag was fundamentally redesigned by Norman Foster for its permanent use as a parliament building in the now reunified Germany. The keys were handed over to the President of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Thierse, on 19 April 1999. The Bundestag has been meeting there ever since. A landmark of the city is the walk-in glass dome above the plenary chamber, designed by Gottfried Böhm.

 

Etymology

The term Reichstag, when used to connote a diet, dates back to the Holy Roman Empire. The building was built for the Diet of the German Empire, which was succeeded by the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. The latter would become the Reichstag of Nazi Germany, which left the building (and ceased to act as a parliament) after the 1933 fire and never returned, using the Kroll Opera House instead; the term Reichstag has not been used by German parliaments since World War II. In today's usage, the word Reichstag (Imperial Diet) refers mainly to the building, while Bundestag (Federal Diet) refers to the institution.

 

History

Imperial and Weimar Republic eras

Construction of the building began well after the unification of Germany in 1871. Starting in 1871, and for the next 23 years, the parliament met in the former property of the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin, at Leipziger Straße 4. In 1872, an architectural contest with 103 participating architects was carried out to erect a new building, a contest won by Ludwig Bohnstedt. The plan incorporated the Königsplatz (today's Platz der Republik), which was then occupied by the palace of a Polish-Prussian aristocrat, Athanasius Raczyński. That property was unavailable at the time.

 

In 1882, another architectural contest was held, with 200 architects participating. This time, the winner—the Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot—would actually see his Neo-Baroque project executed. The direct model for Wallot's design was Philadelphia's Memorial Hall, the main building of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. Wallot adorned the building's façade with crowns and eagles symbolising imperial strength. The building's four corner towers represented the four German kingdoms at unification, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg, and the heraldic coat of arms of each kingdom, as well as smaller devices representing various German city-states, flanked the main entrance, celebrating the process of unification. Some of the Reichstag's decorative sculptures, reliefs, and inscriptions were by sculptor Otto Lessing.

 

On 29 June 1884, the foundation stone was finally laid by Wilhelm I, at the east side of the Königsplatz. Before construction was completed by Philipp Holzmann A.G. in 1894, Wilhelm I died (in 1888, the Year of Three Emperors). His eventual successor, Wilhelm II, took a more jaundiced view of parliamentary democracy than his grandfather. The original building was acclaimed for the construction of an original cupola of steel and glass, considered an engineering feat at the time. But its mixture of architectural styles drew widespread criticism.

 

In 1916, the iconic words Dem deutschen Volke ("To the German People") were placed above the main façade of the building, much to the displeasure of Wilhelm II, who had tried to block the adding of the inscription for its democratic significance. During the revolutionary days of 1918, two days before World War I ended and just hours after Wilhelm's abdication was announced, Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the institution of a republic from one of the balconies of the Reichstag building on 9 November. The building continued to be the seat of the parliament of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933), which was still called the Reichstag. Up to 42 protesters died during the Reichstag Bloodbath of 13 January 1920, when workers tried to protest against a law that would restrict their rights; it was the bloodiest demonstration in German history.

 

On 27 February 1933, there was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, precisely four weeks after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Despite the firefighters' efforts, most of the building was gutted. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch "council communist", was the apparent culprit; however, Hitler attributed the fire to Communist agitators. He used it as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government, and induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties, and pursue a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communists.

 

Following the Reichstag fire, the building was not used for parliamentary sessions for the next 12 years of Nazi rule. Instead, the nearby Kroll Opera House was modified into a legislative chamber and served as the location of all parliamentary sessions, whilst the Reichstag building became the setting for political exhibitions. In 1939, the library and archive were moved elsewhere, and the windows bricked up as the building was made into a fortress. By 1943, the building was used as a hospital, and a radio tube manufacturing facility by AEG. During the Battle of Berlin in 1945, it became one of the central targets for the Red Army to capture, due to its perceived symbolic significance.

 

When the Cold War emerged, the building was physically within West Berlin, but in ruins. During the Berlin blockade, an enormous number of West Berliners assembled before the building on 9 September 1948, and Mayor Ernst Reuter held a famous speech that ended with "Ihr Völker der Welt... schaut auf diese Stadt..." ("You people of the world...look upon this city...").

 

In 1956, after some debate, the West German government decided that the Reichstag should not be torn down, but be restored instead under the guidance of Paul Baumgarten. The cupola of the original building, which had also been heavily damaged in the war, was dismantled, and the outside façade made simpler with the removal of ornaments and statues. Reconstruction started in 1961, and was complete by 1971.

 

The artistic and practical value of his work was the subject of much debate after German reunification. Under the 1971 Four Power Agreement on Berlin, Berlin was formally outside the bounds of either East or West Germany, and so the West German parliament, the Bundestag, was not allowed to assemble formally in West Berlin. This prohibition was obeyed even though East Germany had declared East Berlin its capital, violating this provision. Until 1990, the building was thus used only for occasional representative meetings, and one-off events, such as a free concert given by British rock band Barclay James Harvest on 30 August 1980 and by Tangerine Dream on 29 August 1981. It was also used for a widely lauded permanent exhibition about German history called Fragen an die deutsche Geschichte ("Questions on German history").

 

The official German reunification ceremony on 3 October 1990, was held at the Reichstag building, including Chancellor Helmut Kohl, President Richard von Weizsäcker, former Chancellor Willy Brandt and many others. The event included huge firework displays. The following day the parliament of the united Germany assembled as a symbolic act in the Reichstag building.

 

However, at that time, the role of Berlin had not yet been decided upon. Only after a fierce debate, considered by many as one of the most memorable sessions of parliament, on 20 June 1991, did the Bundestag conclude with quite a slim majority in favour of both government and parliament returning to Berlin from Bonn. On 21 June 1994, Norman Foster was asked to include a dome solution in his draft reconstruction proposal, which he included in his 10 February 1995 plans.

 

Before reconstruction began, the Reichstag was wrapped by the Bulgarian-American artists Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude in 1995, attracting millions of visitors. The project was financed by the artists through the sale of preparatory drawings and collages, as well as early works of the 1950s and 1960s.

 

During the reconstruction, the building was first almost completely gutted, taking out everything except the outer walls, including all changes made by Baumgarten in the 1960s. Respect for the historic aspects of the building was one of the conditions stipulated to the architects, so traces of historical events were to be retained in a visible state. Among them were bullet holes and graffiti left by Soviet soldiers after the final battle for Berlin in April–May 1945. However, graffiti considered offensive was removed, in agreement with Russian diplomats at the time.

 

Reconstruction was completed in 1999, with the Bundestag convening there officially for the first time on 19 April of that year. The Reichstag is now the second most visited attraction in Germany, not least because of the huge glass dome that was erected on the roof as a gesture to the original 1894 cupola, giving an impressive view over the city, especially at night.

 

The large glass dome at the very top of the Reichstag has a 360° view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The main hall (debating chamber) of the parliament below can also be seen from inside the dome, and natural light from above radiates down to the parliament floor. A large sun shield tracks the movement of the sun electronically and blocks direct sunlight which would not only cause large solar gain, but dazzle those below. Construction work was finished in 1999 and the seat of parliament was transferred to the Bundestag in April of that year. The dome is open to visitors by prior registration.

 

Platz der Republik (German: [ˈplats deːɐ̯ ʁepuˈbliːk], Republic Square) is a square in Berlin, Germany. It is located in the Tiergarten (borough Mitte), directly in front (west) of the Reichstag building. The square has an area of about 36,900 square meters and is almost completely covered by grass but is decorated with some hedges and a few trees.

 

Before 1926 and between 1933 and 1948 it was called Königsplatz (German: [ˈkøːnɪçsˌplats], King's Square). The Victory Column stood here before it was moved to its present location in 1939.

 

History

The square was created in about 1735 and was used under King Frederick William I as parade-ground, a sandy field then known as "Exerzierplatz vor dem Brandenburger Tor". In 1844 the Kroll Opera House was built on its west end, and in 1867 it was turned into a city square named "Königsplatz".

 

In 1873 the Victory Column was erected in the center of the square, at the end of the newly created Siegesallee boulevard. At the east end of the square stood the Palais of the Polish-Prussian count Atanazy Raczyński, before the Reichstag building was built there from 1884 to 1894.

 

During the Weimar Republic, the square was named "Platz der Republik" to commemorate the abolition of the monarchy. When the Nazis took power in 1933, the square was renamed "Königsplatz". As part of a grandiose plan to create a "Welthauptstadt Germania", the Victory Column was enlarged and moved to its present location in 1939. World War II ended in 1945 and in 1948 the square returned to the name "Platz der Republik". The Kroll Opera, severely damaged in the war, was finally demolished in 1951.

 

The Berlin Wall ran past the back side of the Reichstag. The square, now a large lawn, was thus far away from traffic and was used as a recreational area for weekend barbecues etc. After German reunification in 1990 the square regained its position of central importance in Berlin. A large German flag was raised on the square in the night from 2 to 3 October 1990.

 

In 1991 the German Bundestag decided that Berlin would again be the seat of government and parliament. The renovation of the Reichstag building was completed in 1999.

 

Events

In the fall of 1948, the square saw a huge demonstration protesting against the Berlin blockade. About 300,000 people participated, and mayor Ernst Reuter gave a haunting speech.

 

A number of concerts had taken place at the Platz der Republik in the late 1980s, including in 1987 David Bowie as part of the Glass Spider Tour, Eurythmics as part of the Revenge Tour and Genesis as part of the Invisible Touch Tour and latterly in 1988 Pink Floyd as part of the A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour and Michael Jackson as part of the Bad World Tour.

 

On 22 July 2005 an ultralight aircraft crashed on the square, killing the pilot. The police later determined that it was a likely suicide.

 

Leading up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, in April 2006 the sports company Adidas began to asphalt the square in order to erect the "Adidas World of Football", a miniature version of the Olympiastadion Berlin with about 8,000 seats. It was used to show live coverage of the football games. After the event, Adidas restored the square to its prior condition; this included finding trees all over Germany that matched the trees that had to be removed.

 

Berlin is the capital and a state of the Federal Republic of Germany . With around 3.8 million inhabitants, the city is the most populous and, with 892 square kilometers, the largest municipality in Germany and the most populous city in the European Union . The city has the third highest population density in the country. Around 4.8 million people live in the Berlin agglomeration and around 6.3 million in the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan region . The city-state consists of twelve districts . In addition to the rivers Spree , Havel and Dahme, there are smaller rivers and numerous lakes and forests in the urban area.

 

Berlin was first mentioned in documents in the 13th century . The city was the capital of the March of Brandenburg , Prussia and Germany . Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Berlin developed into the world's third largest city. After the end of the Second World War, the city was subject to four-power status in 1945 ; From 1949 , East Berlin served as the capital of the German Democratic Republic , while West Berlin became part of the Federal Republic . With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification in 1990, the two halves of the city grew together again and Berlin regained its role as the pan-German capital. Since 1999, the city has been the seat of the federal government , the Federal President , the German Bundestag , the Bundesrat as well as most federal ministries , numerous federal authorities and embassies .

 

Berlin is one of the economic centers in Europe. Among the important branches of the city's economy are tourism , the creative and cultural industries , the biotechnology and health industry with medical technology and the pharmaceutical industry , information and communication technology , the construction and real estate industry , the financial industry , trade , and optoelectronics , energy technology , logistics as well as trade fairs and congresses . The city is a European transport hub for road , rail and air transport . Berlin is an international location for innovative company founders and has recorded high growth rates in the number of employed people since 2010 .

 

Berlin is considered a global city of culture , media and science . The city's universities, research institutions , sporting events and museums enjoy an international reputation. The metropolis holds the UNESCO title of City of Design and is one of the most visited destinations on the continent. Berlin's music, architecture , festivals , top gastronomy , nightlife and urban quality of life are known worldwide.

January 2024 Hellenthal/ Nordeifel/ Kreis Euskirchen/ Germany

Shot on the Sony A6000 with Sigma ART 18-35 f1.8

Am 26. Juli 2025 zeigte sich Stuttgart von seiner stilleren Seite – Regen, spiegelnde Straßen und ein fast leerer Schlossplatz.

 

Zwischen Tropfen, Reflexionen und gedämpftem Licht bot die Stadt eine ganz eigene Stimmung: ruhig, klar und überraschend farbig.

 

Mit der Fujifilm X-H2 entstanden diese Aufnahmen – konzentriert auf Licht, Struktur und Atmosphäre eines Sommertags, der anders war als geplant, aber genau deshalb besonders.

 

Mehr Fotos und Serien findest du auf 👉 www.fujicolours.com

 

— Stuttgart, Schlossplatz, 26. Juli 2025 ☔

➡️L'Île du Rhin est une zone géographique située dans la région frontalière entre la France et l'Allemagne, le long du Rhin. Elle a été formée par les aménagements hydrauliques réalisés sur le fleuve, notamment la construction du Grand Canal d'Alsace. Ce canal a séparé une partie du Rhin, créant ainsi une île artificielle.

➡️L'île est située près de Vogelgrun en France, entre Neuf-Brisach et Breisach en Allemagne. Elle est partagée entre les deux pays, avec des parties qui relèvent de la souveraineté française et d'autres qui sont allemandes.

Le Rhin est un fleuve transfrontalier qui forme la frontière naturelle entre la France et l'Allemagne à cet endroit.

➡️L'île est principalement utilisée à des fins industrielles et énergétiques. On y trouve notamment la centrale hydroélectrique de Vogelgrun, construite dans le cadre du développement du Grand Canal d'Alsace.

Elle abrite également des installations de navigation, des écluses permettant aux bateaux de franchir les dénivelés créés par les barrages.

➡️Bien que l'île soit largement industrialisée, elle fait partie d'une zone écologiquement sensible. Le Rhin et ses affluents abritent une biodiversité importante, et des efforts sont faits pour préserver ces écosystèmes aquatiques.

L'île du Rhin est parfois associée à des zones protégées ou des initiatives transfrontalières visant à conserver la faune et la flore dans cette région du Rhin supérieur.

➡️Si ce petit récit ainsi les quelques photos ton inspiré rend nous visite sur notre chaine YouTube pour visionner tout cela en image www.youtube.com/@Lesvoyageursdebelgique et n'oublie pas de un Like👍un commentaire📝et Abonne toi 📌😉

⬇️

Full description, video 🎬, photos on our website:

www.lesvoyageursdebelgique.com

⬇️

Suivez nous sur

⬇️

✅Facebook

✅Instagram

✅Flickr

✅ Web

 

Ein ruhiger Herbsttag in Weimar, aufgenommen am 4. Oktober 2025 mit der Fujifilm X-H2.

 

Weiches Licht, klare Luft, Blätter in warmen Farbtönen – die Stadt zeigt im Herbst eine eigene, stille Schönheit. Zwischen Altstadt, Park an der Ilm und kleinen Gassen entstanden diese Aufnahmen, ohne Plan, einfach beim Gehen und Beobachten.

 

Ich wollte das Gefühl festhalten, das der Herbst in Weimar hinterlässt – still, farbig, vergänglich und friedlich.

 

Mehr Fotos und Projekte findest du auf 👉 www.fujicolours.com

 

— Weimar, Oktober 2025 🍁

January 2024 Hellenthal/ Nordeifel/ Kreis Euskirchen/ Germany

Am 26. Juli 2025 zeigte sich Stuttgart von seiner stilleren Seite – Regen, spiegelnde Straßen und ein fast leerer Schlossplatz.

 

Zwischen Tropfen, Reflexionen und gedämpftem Licht bot die Stadt eine ganz eigene Stimmung: ruhig, klar und überraschend farbig.

 

Mit der Fujifilm X-H2 entstanden diese Aufnahmen – konzentriert auf Licht, Struktur und Atmosphäre eines Sommertags, der anders war als geplant, aber genau deshalb besonders.

 

Mehr Fotos und Serien findest du auf 👉 www.fujicolours.com

 

— Stuttgart, Schlossplatz, 26. Juli 2025 ☔

Shot on the Sony A6000 with Sigma ART 18-35 f1.8

The Soviet War Memorial in the Tiergarten is located in the Großer Tiergarten in the Berlin district of Tiergarten (Mitte district) on the Straße des 17. The facility was built in 1945 to honor the Red Army soldiers who died in World War II.

 

The memorial was located on the territory of the British sector of Berlin. However, Berlin's four-power status allowed it to be guarded by Soviet soldiers. After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, it was sealed off and secured by the British occupying forces.

 

In 1970, West Berlin assistant nurse Ekkehard Weil shot at a Soviet guard who had been hit by two bullets in the attack and survived. The attacker had planned the act for November 7, the 53rd anniversary of the October Revolution, and had previously painted slogans in red paint in the Tiergarten. Weil later carried out further right-wing terrorist attacks.

 

In a session of the 7th German Bundestag in November 1975, Member of Parliament Lorenz Niegel (CSU) described the monument as a "humiliating winner's monument in the free part of the city of Berlin".

 

Until December 22, 1990, Soviet Army honor guards were stationed at the memorial. The plant was then handed over to the city of Berlin.

 

With the bilateral agreement of 16 December 1992 between the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Government of the Russian Federation on the Care of War Graves, the reunited Germany committed itself under international law to the permanent protection of the memorial.

 

Extensive repairs took place in the mid-1990s and in 2014 in the run-up to the 70th anniversary of the end of the war. Among other things, the bronze sculpture of the Red Army soldier was re-anchored, the guns and tanks were completely renovated, and the inscriptions and emblems were re-gilded.

 

In view of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, which has been going on since 2022, the CDU member of the Berlin House of Representatives, Stefanie, called for the guns and tanks of the Soviet memorial in Berlin-Tiergarten to be removed. In her view, "the tank in Tiergarten no longer stands only for the liberation of Germany from Nazi fascism, but for the aggressive warfare of the Putin regime that disregards territorial borders and human lives." A few days later, unknown persons covered the two tanks with large flags in the national colors of Ukraine, against which the Russian embassy protested at the Foreign Office.

im Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord

Visit the wildlife park in Thale. Harz Mountains, Germany.

 

Shot on the Sony A6000 with Sigma ART 18-35 f1.8

Im Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord

Shot on the Sony A6000 with Sigma ART 18-35 f1.8

The Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church is an historic Russian Orthodox church building in Potsdam, Germany.

 

The church was built for the Russian residents of the settlement of Alexandrowka, now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin", below the Kapellenberg. Consecrated in 1826, it is still an active congregation and the oldest Russian Orthodox church in Germany. Designed by Vasily Stasov, Nevsky Church is a very early example of the Byzantine Revival architecture in Germany, and one of the earliest examples of Byzantine Revival in Russian Revival architecture.

The Victory Column is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Second Schleswig War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria and its German allies in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories in the unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, 8.3 metres (27 ft) high, designed by Friedrich Drake, giving the victory column its current height of 67m.

 

Berliners have given the statue the nickname Goldelse, meaning something like "Golden Lizzy", named after an 1866 novel by E. Marlitt and its heroine. The Victory Column is a major tourist attraction in the city of Berlin. Its viewing platform, for which a ticket is required, offers a view over Berlin.

 

The base consists of polished red Swedish granite, measuring 18.8 meters square and 7.2 meters high. The base contains four bronze reliefs depicting scenes from the three victories. Measuring 12 meters wide and 2 meters high, they were designed by Moritz Schulz, Karl Keil, Alexander Calandrelli, and Albert Wolff. Upon the base is a round hall with 16 granite columns measuring 4.7 meters high. Along the hall's circumference is a glass mosaic designed by Anton von Werner. Four sandstone columns rise above this hall, the first three containing 20 gilded gun barrels each, 12 pounders from the Danish victory, 8 pounders from the Austrian victory, and 4 pounders from the French victory. On top of the fourth sandstone column resides the 8.52 meter tall gilded bronze victory.

 

The relief decoration was removed in 1945. It was restored for the 750th anniversary of Berlin in 1987 by the French president at that time, François Mitterrand.

 

During the Battle of Berlin of 1945, Soviet troops nicknamed the column "the Tall Woman". Polish Army troops, fighting alongside their Soviet allies, hoisted the Polish flag on the column on 2 May 1945 at the end of the Battle in Berlin.

 

During the allied victory parade in 1945, the French tricolour was raised atop the column on the statue by French troops.

 

It served as the location for the Globalist Barack Obama's speech in Berlin as a US presidential candidate during his visit to Germany on 24 July 2008.

Reichstag a historic legislative government building on Platz der Republik in Berlin, is the seat of the German Bundestag. It is also the meeting place of the Federal Convention, which elects the President of Germany.

 

The Neo-Renaissance building was constructed between 1884 and 1894 in the Tiergarten district on the left bank of the River Spree to plans by the architect Paul Wallot. It housed both the Reichstag legislature of the German Empire and the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. The Reich's Federal Council also originally met there. The building was initially used by the Reichstag for Nazi Germany, but severe damage in the Reichstag fire of 1933 prevented further use and the Reichstag moved to the nearby Kroll Opera House. The 1933 fire became a pivotal event in the entrenchment of the Nazi regime. The building took further damage during World War II, and its symbolism made it an important target for the Red Army during the Battle of Berlin.

 

After the war, the building was modernised and restored in the 1950s and used for exhibitions and special events, as its location in West Berlin prevented its use as a parliament building by either of the two Germanies. From 1995 to 1999, the Reichstag was fundamentally redesigned by Norman Foster for its permanent use as a parliament building in the now reunified Germany. The keys were ceremonially handed over to the President of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Thierse, on 19 April 1999. A landmark of the city is the redesigned walk-in glass dome above the plenary chamber, proposed by artist and architect Gottfried Böhm.

Am 26. Juli 2025 zeigte sich Stuttgart von seiner stilleren Seite – Regen, spiegelnde Straßen und ein fast leerer Schlossplatz.

 

Zwischen Tropfen, Reflexionen und gedämpftem Licht bot die Stadt eine ganz eigene Stimmung: ruhig, klar und überraschend farbig.

 

Mit der Fujifilm X-H2 entstanden diese Aufnahmen – konzentriert auf Licht, Struktur und Atmosphäre eines Sommertags, der anders war als geplant, aber genau deshalb besonders.

 

Mehr Fotos und Serien findest du auf 👉 www.fujicolours.com

 

— Stuttgart, Schlossplatz, 26. Juli 2025 ☔

The Historic Mill of Sanssouci is a mill in Potsdam, Germany. Thanks to the legend of The Miller of Sanssouci (German: Der Müller von Sanssouci), the Mill (Historische Mühle) became famous, particularly due to its association with Frederick the Great and his summer palace of Sanssouci.

 

In 1736 the soldier king, Frederick William I of Prussia, gave permission for the construction of a windmill, which was started in 1737. This first windmill, completed in 1738, was a post mill, whose entire superstructure, supported on a wooden post, was turned "into the wind" depending on the wind direction. The first mill and actual Historic Mill was thus older than the nearby summer palace, built in the years 1745 to 1747 for Frederick the Great.

 

A half-century later the, by now dilapidated, post mill had to be demolished. The construction of a new mill, between 1787 and 1791, was financed by Frederick William II, because the mill had become famous far beyond the city of Potsdam as the result of a legend. The task was given to the master builder, Cornelius Wilhelm van der Bosch, who erected a bigger smock mill based on the Dutch prototype in place of the post mill.

 

Following the accession of Frederick William IV in 1840, the landscape architect, Peter Joseph Lenné, smartened up the area around the mill. In connexion with this, a triumphal way was planned by the king, in honour of Frederick the Great, but it was only partially realised. It was intended to incorporate the Historic Mill into this project as the road was to run from the Gate of Triumph, east of Sanssouci Park, and run past the newly built Orangery Palace to the Belvedere on the Klausberg. The March Revolution of 1848 and a lack of finance, however, meant that this grand project came to nothing.

 

In 1858 the last miller finished his tenancy. Because the king refused to allow other applicants to run the mill, the building became open to visitors in 1861.

 

At the end of the Second World War, on 27 April 1945, a Soviet tank was hit by a panzerfaust between the mill and the drive up to Sanssouci Palace. In the battle that followed the mill and the Swiss house at its foot were set ablaze. Both buildings were destroyed, but the Swiss house (Schweizerhaus) was not rebuilt.

 

In 1983 the Potsdam Chamber of Commerce began the restoration of the stone base. This work had to be stopped in 1990 due to financial difficulties. At the end of 1991, the rebuilding work was able to start again thanks to donations from the state of Brandenburg, the North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation and the then Potsdam-Sanssouci Foundation of Prussian Palaces and Gardens.

 

The present smock mill is a replica of the one built from 1787 to 1791 and the third so-called Historic Mill. It had to be planned from photographs and measurements of the mill foundations, because the construction drawings by Cornelius Wilhelm van der Bosch were no longer available.

 

The mill is owned by the Berlin-Brandenburg Foundation for Prussian Palaces and Gardens (Stiftung Preußische Schlösser and Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg). It has been operated since 1995 by the Berlin-Brandenburg Mill Association, founded in 1990.

 

Since 1984 a replica of the Historic Mill of Sanssouci in Potsdam has stood in the open land of the Gifhorn Mill Museum.

Shot on the Sony A6000 with Sigma ART 18-35 f1.8

Ein ruhiger Herbsttag in Weimar, aufgenommen am 4. Oktober 2025 mit der Fujifilm X-H2.

 

Weiches Licht, klare Luft, Blätter in warmen Farbtönen – die Stadt zeigt im Herbst eine eigene, stille Schönheit. Zwischen Altstadt, Park an der Ilm und kleinen Gassen entstanden diese Aufnahmen, ohne Plan, einfach beim Gehen und Beobachten.

 

Ich wollte das Gefühl festhalten, das der Herbst in Weimar hinterlässt – still, farbig, vergänglich und friedlich.

 

Mehr Fotos und Projekte findest du auf 👉 www.fujicolours.com

 

— Weimar, Oktober 2025 🍁

The statue of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder by Joseph Uphues is located near the Berlin Victory Column in the Tiergarten, Berlin.

 

Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (German: [ˈhɛlmuːt fɔn ˈmɔltkə]; 26 October 1800 – 24 April 1891) was a Prussian field marshal. The chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years, he is regarded as the creator of a new, more modern method of directing armies in the field and one of the finest military minds of his generation. He commanded troops in Europe and the Middle East, in the Second Schleswig War, Austro-Prussian War, and Franco-Prussian War. He is described as embodying "Prussian military organization and tactical genius". He was fascinated with railways and pioneered their military use. He is often referred to as Moltke the Elder to distinguish him from his nephew Helmuth von Moltke the Younger (Helmuth Johann Ludwig von Moltke), who commanded the German army at the outbreak of the First World War. He is notably the earliest-born human whose recorded voice is preserved, being born in the last year of the 18th century (1800). He made four recordings; two that were recorded in October 1889 are preserved to this day.

 

Ein ruhiger Herbsttag in Weimar, aufgenommen am 4. Oktober 2025 mit der Fujifilm X-H2.

 

Weiches Licht, klare Luft, Blätter in warmen Farbtönen – die Stadt zeigt im Herbst eine eigene, stille Schönheit. Zwischen Altstadt, Park an der Ilm und kleinen Gassen entstanden diese Aufnahmen, ohne Plan, einfach beim Gehen und Beobachten.

 

Ich wollte das Gefühl festhalten, das der Herbst in Weimar hinterlässt – still, farbig, vergänglich und friedlich.

 

Mehr Fotos und Projekte findest du auf 👉 www.fujicolours.com

 

— Weimar, Oktober 2025 🍁

St. Jakobus in Laaber is the main church of the Roman Catholic parish of Laaber, which also includes the churches of St. Laurentius in Bergstetten , St. Johannes Baptist in Großetzenberg and St. Maria in Endorf . The church is located in the Upper Palatinate district of Regensburg in Bavaria (Kirchplatz 17).

 

The oldest parts of the church date back to the 15th century. The tower was renovated in 1735 and the nave was expanded in 1738. In the middle of the 18th century, the church was decorated with foliage and ribbons and later with rococo shells . The ceiling fresco depicts the beheading of Saint James the Elder . It was designed by Otto Gebhard in 1750 , and the same fresco can also be found in Cham in the parish church of St. Jakob .

 

Further restorations took place in 1884 and in 1952 by Hanns Beckers . The interior was renovated in 1997. During the renovation in 1952, the church was rotated 90 degrees and significantly expanded.

 

The high altar, which shows the glorification of James, was moved into the newly created choir room . The high altar dates from the late 17th century and was allegedly consecrated by the Regensburg bishop Franz Wilhelm Graf von Wartenberg . In the altar table there are supposedly relics of Saint James. The newly created ceiling painting depicts the calling of the Apostle James. The altarpiece on the side altar shows the motif “ The Seven Holy Refuges ”.

 

The oldest piece of equipment is a Romanesque baptismal font from the 13th century with a Gothic base.

 

The epitaph of Hadmar IV von Laaber shows him in high medieval armor. The inscription on the epitaph reads: Anno. dni. m. cccc . xx. at . the . little child. Day . died. the noble. Mr . Hadmar. the old h'r. between lab. God has mercy on him and gives the date of death as December 28, 1420. Hadmar was born in 1364 and was, among other things, mayor of Regensburg.

 

Next to the east entrance is the St. James Bell from 1786. Due to damage in 1976, it was replaced by the “Peace Bell” in the spring of 1982.