New palace

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New palace in Sanssouci Park

The New Palais is a palace on the west side of the Sanssouci Park in Potsdam . Construction began in 1763 after the end of the Seven Years' War under Frederick the Great and was completed in 1769. It is regarded as the last significant baroque palace complex in Prussia and one of the main works of the Frederician Rococo . Friedrich had planned it not as a royal residence , but as a palace for guests of his court . Kaiser Wilhelm II made the New Palais his main residence from 1888 to 1918.

The palace, managed by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg , is accessible as a museum. Faculties and parts of the administration of the University of Potsdam are housed in the Communs , the former farm buildings.

function

Castle Howard, elevation in Vitruvius Britannicus , which was in Frederick's five libraries
Trippenhuis in Amsterdam, which Friedrich had seen in 1755
View of the New Palais 1826 (painting by August Wilhelm Julius Ahlborn )
Floor plan of the New Palace Potsdam
Floor plan of the New Palace Potsdam

Friedrich had determined the design and the selection of the building site for the New Palace before the Seven Years' War. Deviating from the previously cultivated Friderizian Rococo style , Friedrich wanted a building in the Palladian style . Castle Howard in England and the Trippenhuis at Kloveniersburgwal No. 29 in Amsterdam were considered exemplary . During peacetime, Friedrich had the house at Am Kanal 41 completed in Potsdam in 1756 in order to test the construction of stone-faced bricks with stone , which had impressed him on a visit to the Netherlands in 1755.

The splendid and expensive construction of the New Palace could only begin after the Seven Years' War , which ended favorably for Prussia, in 1763. Now the palace building for Frederick the Great not only fulfilled practical tasks, rather it was supposed to proclaim Prussia's new role among the mighty of Europe, as Friedrich himself affirmed with his term “fanfaronade” (boasting, showing off). The building's display function was not least due to the rich sculptural decorations. The iconographic program, especially in the central area of ​​the central elevation of the garden front, indicates the client's intention to use the building as a monument to the victorious general. This interpretation is underlined by the programmatic “Nec soli cedit” (“He does not give way to the sun”) as an inscription on the cartouches of the central projections, which is related to Friedrich.

In addition, at the time of Frederick the Great, the New Palais served as a splendid summer guest house, in which one could celebrate splendidly, as programmatically illustrated by three graces crowning the main dome of the palace: Aglaia (the shining one), Euphrosyne (the cheerfulness) and Thalia (the festive joy ). Between April and October the visitors traveled to the annual festival weeks. These were primarily the siblings of King Friedrich and their families, who came from various German and European rulers, hand-picked members of the Berlin court and princely guests. During these festivities, the New Palais formed the splendid stage for the meeting of the Hohenzollern dynasty, of which the public was informed through comprehensive court reports. The potential and power of the dynasty and thus of the dynastic princely state were symbolically and publicly demonstrated at these events in the New Palais - both within the own sphere of rule and as a demonstration of power politics outside.

200 rooms, four ballrooms and a rococo theater were available to the princely guests . For occasional stays, Friedrich had the southern wing - the so-called king's apartment or Friedrich's  apartment - prepared. In addition to the royal apartments and two Prince neighborhoods for particularly important guests an apartment for long-time associate of Frederick were in the Palais Marquis d'Argens , the Marquis d'Argens apartment . Prince Heinrich , the eldest brother of Frederick the Great who was still alive, also had his own room in the Heinrich apartment. The heir to the throne, Prince of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm resided in the heir to the throne apartment . The so-called princess apartment was used by Princess Anna Amalie  - the unmarried sister of Frederick the Great and Abbess of Quedlinburg - as representative accommodation. She also acted as lady of the house during the festivities, as Queen Elisabeth Christine was never present at the king's request.

After the death of Frederick the Great in 1786, the court only rarely used the New Palace for larger festivities. In 1859, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, who later became Emperor Friedrich III. , the baroque palace with his family in the summer months. During the reign, which lasted only 99 days - from March 9 to June 15, 1888 - the palace was named Schloss Friedrichskron . During this time, a moat leading around the palace was filled in and some modernization measures were taken, which his son Wilhelm II continued, such as the installation of steam heating and electric light as well as the installation of bathrooms and toilets in the individual quarters and in 1903 an elevator in the north staircase . Until 1918 the palace was the preferred residence for the last German emperor and his wife Auguste Viktoria . Visits were not possible while the imperial family was present.

After the November Revolution of 1918, the abdication of Wilhelm II and the renunciation of the throne by Crown Prince Wilhelm in 1919, the New Palace served as a museum palace. Until the Second World War and the subsequent plundering by the Soviet Army, the palace was essentially furnished as it was in Frederick the Great's times in the Frederician Rococo .

architecture

New palace with the Communs
Exterior view with unrenovated lantern from the GDR era

In contrast to the Sanssouci Palace , which was built in the Rococo style , Frederick the Great preferred the Baroque forms in the architecture of the New Palace , albeit with a few deviations. The king stuck to these two architectural styles until the end of his life, although early classicism was already preferred in Europe . Johann Gottfried Büring - who had already built the Chinese House and the picture gallery - was commissioned to plan the guest castle. Heinrich Ludwig Manger was at his side . After disagreements with the difficult client and the subsequent departure of Büring, Carl von Gontard took over the overall management from 1764. His part in the main building was mainly the layout and design of the interior, as the exterior was well advanced.

The New Palais is a three-wing complex with a front length of 220 meters. The middle section of the two and a half story building is crowned by a mighty 55 meter high dome . On it, three graces wear the royal crown on a pillow. The dome is merely an architectural decoration to enhance the appearance of the castle; there is no domed hall below it, and the interior consists only of the beams that support it. Gold-colored eagles on lanterns crown the two smaller domes of the single-storey outbuildings in the south and north. Most of the exterior walls were painted to simulate red brick masonry. Since the supply of bricks stalled at times and the clean grouting took too much time, this deceptively real-looking method was used. Only the south wing, the royal apartment , is made of red brick.

The five-axis central projection of the Corps de Logis is identical on the garden and courtyard side, with the exception of the gable reliefs, and each is pushed out by half an axis. Three window axes of the two middle templates are each spanned by a triangular gable. The central projections are additionally highlighted by the headstones of the arched windows and French doors on the ground floor.

The facade is structured by fluted Corinthian pilasters made of sandstone in a colossal order. The attic is designed as a balustrade . On the extensions of the pilasters there are pedestals with parapet sculptures - a total of 267 larger-than-life statues on the main building, 196 groups of putti on the small side wings. The arrangement of 163 other statues on the ground floor in front of the pilasters is unusual, as is the arrangement of 244 figuratively designed window closing stones. The sculptural jewelry was created by numerous sculptors, including Johann Peter Benkert , Johann Mathias Gottlieb Heymüller , the brothers Johann David Räntz and Johann Lorenz Räntz .

Castle rooms

In addition to the splendidly furnished princely apartments, there are four ballrooms in the central part of the palace. The walls and pillars of the grotto or shell hall on the ground floor were covered with shells, glass and minerals from all over the world. Pöppelmann's grotto hall from 1712/13 in the Dresden Zwinger probably served as a model . In the 19th century, the walls were enriched with minerals, fossils and semi-precious stones, including in 1890 with the " tip of Kilimanjaro " from German East Africa .

The marble gallery to the south led to the king's apartments. Red jasper and white marble from Carrara define the picture in this elongated hall. French doors let a lot of light into the interior. Three ceiling images connected by rich gold ornamentation symbolize the times of day - night , morning and noon . They are works by the painter Bernhard Rode . The division into fields and the framing stucco are based on the design of the ceiling of the much smaller gallery in Sanssouci Palace. The marble hall is located on the upper floor above the grotto hall . The main ballroom, which extends over two floors, is clad or laid out on the walls and floor with fine types of marble. Large wall paintings with scenes from ancient mythology and twelve marble statues decorate the hall. The sculptures represent eight Brandenburg electors and four emperors - Julius Caesar , Emperor Constantine , Charlemagne and Rudolf II of Habsburg  . Frederick the Great wanted the hall to be completed as quickly as possible, which is why the marble floor was sanded off too quickly one after the other during the construction has been. The water required for grinding penetrated the wooden beams. As a result, it began to mold very quickly and the moisture also moved into the walls. The hall has therefore been in danger of collapsing several times. The ceiling painting by Charles Amédée Philippe van Loo , richly framed in gold-colored ornamentation, shows the Olympic gods gathered for a meal and the introduction of Ganymede . With an area of ​​240 m² it is the largest canvas ceiling painting north of the Alps. The chandeliers were supplied by the Silesian glassworks Friedrichsgrund .

The upper gallery to the south of the marble hall is furnished with six large wall paintings of Italian baroque painting. Gold-colored garlands, round medallions on and above the doors, on the other hand, show motifs from early classicism .

Castle theater

Palace Theater in the New Palais

The “Schlosstheater im Neuen Palais” is considered to be one of the most beautiful still preserved theater rooms from the 18th century. It occupies the two upper floors of the entire south wing. The colors red and white dominate, adorned with gold-colored herms and ornamentation. The rows of seats are arranged in a semicircle similar to an ancient theater. There is no royal box; Frederick the Great attended the performances in the third row of the stalls. Since the king disliked German art, mainly Italian and French artists were hired. The old stage technology is no longer available. Performances have been held here to this day.

Communs

The Communs, a part of the University of Potsdam house

In the far west, behind the front of the New Palace and the Mopke , the palace gardens are closed off by the Communs. The purpose and name of the two buildings corresponded to the model of the Grand Commun at the Palace of Versailles . As erected there in direct relation to the palace, they also served as accommodation for the king's guests and officials as well as for their servants, in addition to accommodating its kitchens and other utility rooms. Carl von Gontard erected these representative buildings in the years 1766 to 1769 according to drafts by the architect Jean Laurent Legeay , which he improved upon. Large double-flight staircases, colonnades, domes and rich decorations do not reveal their former practical purpose. Their connection via the colonnade arch with the triumphal gate make them a unified whole and give the New Palais an effective counterpart, before unpopulated forest areas join further to the west. Additional buildings were built in 1769 for the guard in the south and the castellan in the north.

Until the end of the Prussian army , their “Infantry Training Battalion” was based in the northern pavilion, and during the Nazi era the “ Reichsschule des Deutschen Arbeitsdienstes ” was located throughout the complex . After the end of the Second World War , in 1948 it became the home of the Brandenburg State University (later the “Karl Liebknecht” University of Education ) in Potsdam . Today, the Communs and the adjoining stables house the Philosophical Faculty and the Institutes for Mathematics, Physics and Sports of the successor institution University of Potsdam . Smaller parts of the complex will continue to be used or will be used again by departments of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg .

Triumphal gate

View of the New Palais through the Triumphal Gate

Directly opposite the New Palais, on the side facing away from the park, is the 24-meter-high, domed triumphal gate in the middle between the communs . At the north and south ends it is flanked by colonnade arches with 158 columns and pavilion buildings at the ends.

King Friedrich II had the ensemble built between 1763 and 1769 immediately after the Seven Years' War . Jean Laurent Legeay presented the first plans with all elements of the later execution , from 1765 Carl von Gontard was in charge of construction. As a result of neglect and improper restoration work, it was already in danger when an aerial bomb destroyed the dome at the end of World War II. The ensemble fell into disrepair, so that parts of the north colonnade had to be dismantled in the 1980s. The first security measures were initiated in 1982, but it was not until the years 2008 to 2014 that extensive renovations were carried out, which also included the restoration of the dome.

Mopke

The construction of the Communs and the Triumphal Gate created a square on the area up to the main courtyard of the palace - the so-called "Mopke". The court used these as a venue for large-scale celebrations and for holding military ceremonies. The audience could follow the performances well from the stairs and porticos of the Communs. In 1896 Wilhelm II had an underground corridor built under the Mopke between the castle and the pavilion buildings.

park

Hedge theater seen from the audience

The New Palais is located at the western end of the Sanssouci Palace Park , where the Große Allee ends. When it was built, it was still integrated into a baroque garden area, which, however , had to give way to today's landscape park when it was redesigned by Peter Joseph Lenné . Since then, the Temple of Antiquity and the Temple of Friendship have also stood there, directly to the east of the two outer wings of the palace .

The park's hedge theater is located directly to the north, next to the palace, and symmetrically to it, in the south, a garden salon with rose-covered arcades. Both dates from the time the palace was built, although the hedge theater, which is mainly used in summer for theater performances, concerts and readings, has been hidden for a long time overgrown.

Picture gallery

  • New palace

  • The Grotto Hall in 1988

  • The Marble Hall in 1988

  • Dining room of the imperial couple as it was set at the last dinner in 1918

  • New palace and detail of the Sanssouci park

  • Long negotiations after the last emperor's abdication: Who owns the pictures, the family or the state.

  • Sideboard for the meal

  • Decoration of the porcelain cupboards with items on loan from Doorn

  • Serving room for breakfast

  • Empress bath

  • Dressing room of the empress, with passage to the safe with the empress's jewelry

  • The last emperor's desk

  • The emperor's wardrobe

  • Uniforms of the last emperor

See also

literature

  • Gert Streidt, Klaus Frahm: Potsdam. The castles and gardens of the Hohenzollern. Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-89508-238-4 .
  • Official guide of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg: The New Palais of Sanssouci. 1st edition. Potsdam 2001.
  • Adrian von Buttlar , Marcus Köhler: Death, luck and fame in Sanssouci. A guide through the garden world of Frederick the Great. Ostfildern 2012.
  • Saskia Hüneke: "Nec soli cedit" . Decoration and building sculpture at the New Palais. In: Risk of Peace. Frederick the Great. The exhibition. ed. from the General Management of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, Munich 2012, pp. 286–293.
  • Karoline Zielosko: visiting relatives. The New Palais as a stage for dynastic self-presentation. In: Frederick the Great and the Hohenzollern Dynasty. Contributions to the fifth colloquium in the "Friedrich300" series from September 30 to October 1, 2011, ed. by Michael Kaiser and Jürgen Luh ( online publication on perspectivia.net , accessed on February 21, 2013).
  • Henriette Graf: The New Palace of King Frederick the Great. Function, use, room disposition and furnishing, 1763–1784. In: How Frederician was the Frederician ceremonial? Room disposition and furnishing of selected European castles at the end of the Ancien Régime. Contributions to an international conference on June 2, 2012, ed. by Henriette Graf and Nadja Geißler (Friedrich300 - Colloquien, 6), ( online publication on perspectivia.net , published on December 20, 2013).
  • Jörg Kirschstein: The New Palace in Potsdam: Family idyll and imperial splendor. Bebra, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86124-690-9 .

Web links

Commons : Neues Palais (Potsdam)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 4.4 "  N , 13 ° 0 ′ 56.8"  E

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Joachim Giersberg : Friedrich as builder. Studies on 18th century architecture in Berlin and Potsdam . Siedler, Berlin 1986, ISBN 978-3-88680-222-7 ; to Friedrich's library p. 31; on the role model function of the house at Am Kanal 41 p. 163, illustration: Am Kanal 41 (destroyed in the war in 1945) , “Kunstmuseum Hamburg”.
  2. ^ Adrian von Buttlar, Marcus Köhler: Death, luck and fame in Sanssouci. A guide through the garden world of Frederick the Great. Ostfildern 2012, p. 132f.
  3. ↑ Saskia Hüneke: "Net soli cedit". Decoration and building sculpture at the New Palais. In: Risk of Peace. Frederick the Great. The exhibition. ed. from the General Management of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, Munich 2012, p. 286ff.
  4. ^ Henriette Graf: The New Palace of King Frederick the Great. Function, use, room disposition and furnishing, 1763–1784. In: How Frederician was the Frederician ceremonial? Room disposition and furnishing of selected European castles at the end of the Ancien Régime. Contributions to an international conference on June 2, 2012, ed. by Henriette Graf and Nadja Geißler (Friedrich300 - Colloquien, 6), URL: http://www.perspectivia.net/content/publikationen/friedrich300-colloquien/friedrich_friderizianisch/graf_palais , published on December 20, 2013.
  5. ↑ Karoline Zielosko: visiting relatives. The New Palais as a stage for dynastic self-presentation. In: Frederick the Great and the Hohenzollern Dynasty. Contributions to the fifth colloquium in the series “Friedrich300” from September 30th / October 1st 2011, ed. by Michael Kaiser and Jürgen Luh (Friedrich300 - Colloquien, 5), URL: http://www.perspectivia.net/content/publikationen/friedrich300-colloquien/friedrich-dynastie/zielosko_verwandtenbesuch , published on December 21, 2012.
  6. ^ Henriette Graf: The New Palace of King Frederick the Great. Function, use, room disposition and furnishing, 1763–1784. In: How Frederician was the Frederician ceremonial? Room disposition and furnishing of selected European castles at the end of the Ancien Régime. Contributions to an international conference on June 2, 2012, ed. by Henriette Graf and Nadja Geißler (Friedrich300 - Colloquien, 6), URL: http://www.perspectivia.net/content/publikationen/friedrich300-colloquien/friedrich_friderizianisch/graf_palais , published on December 20, 2013.
  7. ↑ Saskia Hüneke: "Net soli cedit". Decoration and building sculpture at the New Palais. In: Risk of Peace. Frederick the Great. The exhibition. ed. from the General Management of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, Munich 2012, p. 286ff.
  8. ^ Frank Bauer, Hartmut Knitter, Heinz Ruppert: Destroyed. To forget. Repressed. Military buildings and military monuments in Potsdam. Mittler, Berlin, Bonn, Herford 1993, ISBN 3-8132-0413-8 , p. 116.
  9. ↑ The triumphal gate is open. pnn.de, September 12, 2014.
  10. ↑ The King's Triumphal Gate. Colonnade at the New Palais reopened after extensive renovation . Communication from the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation dated September 11, 2014.
  11. ↑ Neues Palais, Heckentheater Foundation Prussian Palaces and Gardens Berlin-Brandenburg 2019.