Sanssouciis the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia at Potsdam, just outside Berlin. It is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more intimate Rococo style and is far smaller than its French Baroque counterpart, it is notable for the numerous temples and follies in Sanssouci Park. Designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff between 1745 and 1747 to fulfil Frederick's need for a private residence where he could relax away from the pomp and ceremony of the Berlin court, the palace is little more than a large single-storey villa—more like the Château de Marly than Versailles. Containing just ten principal rooms, it was built on the brow of a terraced hill at the centre of the park. So great was the influence of Frederick's personal taste in the design and decoration of the palace that its style is characterised as "Frederician Rococo", and so personally did he regard the palace that he conceived it as "a place that would die with him".Because of a disagreement about the sight of the palace from the park Knobelsdorff was fired in 1746. Jan Bouman, a Dutch architect finished the project.During the 19th century, the palace became a residence of Frederick William IV. He employed the architect Ludwig Persius to restore and enlarge the palace, while Ferdinand von Arnim was charged with improving the locality and thus the view from the palace. The town of Potsdam, with its palaces, was a favourite place of residence for the German imperial family until the fall of the Hohenzollern dynasty in 1918. After World War II, the palace became a tourist attraction in East Germany. It was fully maintained with due respect to its historical importance, and was open to the public. Following German reunification in 1990, the final wish of Frederick came to pass: his body was finally returned to his beloved palace and buried in a new tomb overlooking the gardens he had created. Sanssouci and its extensive gardens became a World Heritage Site in 1990 under the protection of UNESCO; in 1995, the Foundation for Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin-Brandenburg was established to care for Sanssouci and the other former imperial palaces in and around of Berlin. These palaces are now visited by more than two million people a year from allhe location and layout of Sanssouci above a vineyard reflected the pre-Romantic ideal of harmony between man and nature, in a landscape ordered by human touch. Winemaking, however, was to take second place to the design of the palace and pleasure gardens. The hill on which Frederick created his terrace vineyard was to become the focal point of his demesne, crowned by the new, but small, palace—"mein Weinberghäuschen" ("my little vineyard house"), as Frederick called it.With its extensive views of the countryside in the midst of nature, Frederick wanted to reside there sans souci (French for "without a care") and to follow his personal and artistic interests. Hence, the palace was intended for the use of Frederick and his private guests only during the summer months, from the end of April to the beginning of October.Sanssouci is small, with the principal block (or corps de logis) being a narrow single-storey enfilade of just ten rooms, including a service passage and staff rooms behind them. Frederick's amateur sketch of 1745 (illustrated above) demonstrates that his architect, Knobelsdorff, was more a draughtsman at Sanssouci than complete architect. Frederick appears to have accepted no suggestions for alteration to his plans, refusing Knobelsdorff's idea that the palace should have a semi-basement storey, which would not only have provided service areas closer at hand, but would have put the principal rooms on a raised piano nobile. This would have given the palace not only a more commanding presence, but also would have prevented the problems of dampness to which it has always been prone.However, Frederick wanted an intimate palace for living: for example, rather than scaling a large number of steps, he wanted to enter the palace immediately from the garden. He insisted on a building on the ground level, of which the pedestal was the hill: in short, this was to be a private pleasure house. His recurring theme and requirement was for a house with close connections between its style and free nature. The principal rooms, lit by tall slender windows, face south over the vineyard gardens; the north façade is the entrance front, where a semicircular cour d'honneur was created by two segmented Corinthian colonnades. In the park, east of the palace, is the Sanssouci Picture Gallery, built from 1755 to 1764 under the supervision of the architect Johann Gottfried Büring. It stands on the site of a former greenhouse, where Frederick raised tropical fruit. The Picture Gallery is the oldest extant museum built for a ruler in Germany. Like the palace itself, it is a long, low building, dominated by a central domed bow of three bays.he panoramic vista of the garden of Sanssouci is the result of Frederick the Great's decision to create a terraced vineyard on the south slope of the hills of Bornstedt. The area had previously been wooded but the trees were felled during the reign of the "soldier-king" Frederick William I to allow the city of Potsdam to expand.On 10 August 1744, Frederick ordered the bare hillside to be transformed into terraced vineyards. Three wide terraces were created, with convex centres to maximise the sun light . On the partitions of the supporting walls, the brickwork is pierced by 168 glazed niches. Trellised vines from Portugal, Italy, France, and also from nearby Neuruppin, were planted against the brickwork, while figs grew in the niches. The individual parts of the terrace were further divided by strips of lawn, on which were planted yew trees. Low box hedging surrounded trellised fruit, making a circular ornamental parterre. In the middle of this "wheel", 120 steps (now 132) led downward further dividing the terraces into six. Below the hill, a Baroque ornamental garden, modelled on the parterre at Versailles, was constructed in 1745. The Great Fountain was built at the centre of this garden in 1748. Frederick never saw the fountain playing because the engineers employed in the construction had little understanding of the hydraulics involved. From 1750, marble statues were placed around the basin of the fountain. This again was a feature copied from Versailles: figures of Venus, Mercury, Apollo, Diana, Juno, Jupiter, Mars and Minerva, as well as allegorical portrayals of the four elements Fire, Water, Air and Earth. Venus and Mercury, the works of the sculptor Jean Baptiste Pigalle, and two groups of hunters, allegories of the elements (wind and water) by Lambert Sigisbert Adam, were presented by Versailles's owner, the French King Louis XV. The remaining figures came from the workshop of François Gaspard Adam, a renowned sculptor in Berlin. By 1764, the French Rondel, as it came to be known, was completed.Nearby was a kitchen garden, which Frederick William I had laid out sometime prior to 1715. The soldier-king jokingly gave this simple garden the name "My Marly",in reference to the very similar garden at the summer residence of the Louis XIV in Marly-le-Roi.In his plans for the grounds, Frederick attached great importance on the combination of both an ornamental and a practical garden, thus demonstrating his belief that art and nature should be united. Following the terracing of the vineyard and the completion of the palace, Frederick turned his attention to the landscaping of the greater vicinity of the palace and thus began the creation of Sanssouci Park. In his organisation of the park, Frederick continued what he had begun in Neuruppin and Rheinsberg.[14] A straight main avenue was laid out, ultimately 2.5 km long, beginning in the east at the 1748 obelisk and extended over the years to the New Palace, which marks its western end.Continuing the horticultural theme of the terraced gardens, 3,000 fruit trees were planted in the park, and greenhouses and nurseries laid out, producing oranges, melons, peaches and bananas. Statuary and obelisks were also erected, with representations of the goddesses Flora and Pomona. Frederick had several temples and follies erected in the same rococo style as the palace itself. Some were small houses which compensated for the lack of reception rooms in the palace itself. Twenty years after his creation of Sanssouci, Frederick built the New Palace (Neues Palais) in the western part of the park. This far larger palace was in direct contrast to the relaxed ethos behind Sanssouci, and displayed Frederick's power and strength to the world, in the Baroque style. The design of the New Palace was intended to demonstrate that Prussia's capabilities were undiminished despite its near defeat in the Seven Years' War.[4] Frederick made no secret of his intention, even referring to the new construction as his "fanfaronnade" (his "showing off").[5]This concept of a grand palace designed to impress has led to the comparison of the palaces of Potsdam to Versailles,[6] with Sanssouci being thrust into the role of one of the Trianons. This analogy, though easy to understand, ignores the original merits of the concept behind Sanssouci, the palace for which the whole park and setting were created. Unlike the Trianons, Sanssouci was not an afterthought to escape the larger palace, for the simple reason that the larger palace did not exist at the time of Sanssouci's conception. It is true, however, that Sanssouci was intended to be a private place of retreat rather than display of power and strength and architectural merit. Unlike the Trianons, Sanssouci was designed to be a whole unto itself.
Hans Hermann von Katte (February 28, 1704 – November 6, 1730) was a close friend of Frederick II of Prussia who was executed by Frederick's father Frederick William I of Prussia when they plotted to escape from the Kingdom of Prussia to the Kingdom of Great Britain. It is believed by some that the two were lovers and were fleeing to Great Britain where they would defect to the service of George II of Great Britain and possibly return to Prussia to depose Frederick William.Katte was a nobleman by birth, stemming from a long line of aristocratic militarymen. His ancestors were squires of Wust, a village in the eldest part of Prussia, the so-called Altmark. His father, Hans Heinrich Graf von Katte, was one of Frederick William's most regarded cuirassiers (a traditional horseman who donned the cuirass). Hans Hermann's mother, Dorothee Sophia von Wartensleben, was the daughter of a seasoned and revered field marshall, Graf Leopold Alexander von Wartensleben. Hans Hermann studied in Koenigsberg and Utrecht — his foci were French and Law. After the completion of his studies, he joined the Prussian Royal Army, which is no doubt where he met Frederick II. Due to a botched escape attempt, he was captured and found guilty by a court martial. He was sentenced to a life-long imprisonment, but the king wanted him to be executed, declaring that "it would be better that Katte came to death than the justice out of the world". Katte was beheaded in Küstrin (today Kostrzyn). Frederick was forced to watch the execution of his friend Katte at Küstrin, who was beheaded on November 6, 1730. When his companion appeared in the courtyard, Frederick called out from his cell, "My dear Katte, a thousand apologies," to which Katte replied, "My prince, there is nothing to apologize for." Frederick fainted before the sword fell. Von Kattes mortal remains rest in the crypt of the church in Wust.
Frederick was a gifted musician. He played the cross-flute and composed 100 sonatas for the flute as well as four symphonies. The "Hohenfriedberger Marsch", a military march, was supposedly written by Frederick to commemorate his victory in the Battle of Hohenfriedberg during the Second Silesian War. His court musicians included C. P. E. Bach, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Franz Benda. A meeting with Johann Sebastian Bach in 1747 in Potsdam led to Bach writing The Musical Offering.
Anti-Machiavel by Frederick of PrussiaAnti-Machiavel is an 18th century essay by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia and patron of Voltaire, rebutting The Prince, the 16th century book by Niccolò Machiavelli. It was first published in September 1740, a few months after Frederick became king.The work was produced at a turning point in Frederick's life, after his turbulent and rebellious youth, and immediately before his assumption of the throne of Prussia. Frederick had, of course, read Machiavelli long before; it is not exactly clear what drew his attention to this subject in the late 1730s, although his affiliation with Voltaire and his impending change in rank most certainly contributed to the project. It is known from letters to Voltaire that Frederick began to ruminate on the project early in 1738; his draft of the brief work was completed by the end of 1739.At this point, Voltaire took over. Living in the Vieille Cour, the Prussian residence in The Hague, and working with a local printer named Van Duren, Voltaire revised the text extensively--so much so, in fact, that the printer decided to publish, in addition to Voltaire's revised edition, a version of the king's original manuscript. There was also a combined edition, with Voltaire's emendations as footnotes.In the meantime, Frederick had become king, and his authorship--which was a very open secret--made the book an instant success and bestseller. Not surprisingly, Frederick had other matters to occupy his attention, and he did not return to the work in an appreciable way.Frederick's argument is essentially moral in nature: he asserts that Machiavelli offered a partial and biased view of statecraft. His own views appear to reflect a largely Enlightenment ideal of rational and benevolent statesmanship: the king, Frederick contends, is charged with maintaining the health and prosperity of his subjects. On the one hand, then, Machiavelli erred by assigning too great a value on princely machinations that, Frederick claims, ended in disaster, as the king's evil actions are taken up by his subjects. On the other hand, and in support of the first idea, Frederick points out the numerous cases in which Machiavelli had ignored or slighted the bad ends of the numerous malefactors he describes and praises.