2023-06-05 11:46:00
This castle, built in the late English Gothic style, could well be located somewhere in foggy Albion, reminiscent of the reign of the medieval Tudor dynasty. However, the history of this residence of the mid-19th century, located in Potsdam, Germany, is connected with the Prussian family of Hohenzollerns.
summer residence
Babelsberg Castle was the summer residence of the Prussian prince, then the crown prince, and later King Wilhelm I (1797-1888). In 1871, after the unification of the German lands, this monarch became the first Kaiser of the German Empire. The castle on the banks of the river Havel was laid for him in the early 1830s, when Wilhelm was not even heir to the throne.
Schinkel project
The second son of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III (1770-1840), Prince Wilhelm had long dreamed of his own summer residence. The king agreed to allocate funds only after much persuasion and only for a small country house. In 1833, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the leading representative of romantic historicism in German architecture, the famous architect of the classicism era, was entrusted with developing the project.
neogothic castle
Wilhelm’s wife, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1811-1890), daughter of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and niece of the Russian Emperor Alexander I, insisted on the construction of the Neo-Gothic residence.
New circumstances
But first, let’s take a look at the castle from a bird’s eye view. Agree that the size of Babelsberg significantly exceeds the scale of a small country house, which was discussed at the beginning of construction. Indeed, it was erected in two stages. The first was completed in 1835, but soon Wilhelm turned from a prince into a crown prince…
Crown Prince
In 1840, his elder brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV ascended the Prussian throne. The marriage of this king was happy, but by that time – childless, so William was declared heir to the throne. To carry out his new duties, the crown prince needed a more representative residence. The expansion project of Babelsberg in the same year was again entrusted to Schinkel.
The Princess and the Architects
The wife of Crown Prince Wilhelm had to overcome many difficulties on her way to fulfill her dream of owning her own Tudor-style castle. The work dragged on for nine years. One of the reasons was disputes with architects. The fact is that Princess Augusta visited England many times, knew Gothic architecture well and had very specific ideas about how a castle should look like.
Schinkel, who died in 1841 while the project was being developed, insisted on giving the castle a more austere look. However, Augusta wanted to see more different turrets and decor. After the death of the architect, the work was handed over to Ludwig Persius, a talented student of Schinkel, who in 1831 created the first sketches of the castle commissioned by Wilhelm and Augusta.
Prussian unfinished construction
Persius strove to stick to Schinkel’s plans, but was forced to constantly make changes as a result of Augusta’s interventions. By the time of Persius’ death in 1845, only the laying of the foundations had been completed – in particular, the large tower, the ballroom and the west wing, which contained the children’s rooms and other apartments.
The construction was completed by Johann Heinrich Strack, whose tastes coincided with the wishes of the princess. Babelsberg was the summer residence of Wilhelm and Augusta for more than half a century. Together with other palaces of Potsdam, it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
German Emperor
Wilhelm I ascended the royal throne in Prussia in 1861 after the death of his older brother, Friedrich Wilhelm IV. After 10 years, this Prussian monarch became the first Kaiser of the German Empire, created as a result of the unification around Prussia of more than two dozen kingdoms, principalities, duchies, as well as free cities: Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck. The path to this was opened after the victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The ceremony of the proclamation of the emperor took place in 1871 at the Palace of Versailles near Paris.
In the painting by Anton von Werner, Otto von Bismarck, depicted here in a white uniform, stands out among those present at Versailles. It was he who was the main driving force behind the unification of German lands. The future “iron chancellor” of the German Empire agreed to head the Prussian cabinet after an audience in Babelsberg and a walk in the local park.
Landscape
Such a view of the Havel opens from Babelsberg today. The current steel bridge is the fourth on this site. It was erected in 1907. At first it bore the name of Wilhelm I, but later it was renamed the Glienicke Bridge – after the neighboring Glienicke Palace. During the Cold War, it was here on the border between the GDR and West Berlin that spy exchanges took place.
In 1862, Wilhelm I and the future Minister-President of Prussia and the first Reich Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck, called to him, while walking in the park, saw another bridge – a stone one, built according to the project of Friedrich Schinkel in the 1830s. At the same time, Schinkel began the construction of Babelsberg. The stone bridge was later demolished and replaced with a taller one, as it impeded navigation.
last hope
Soon after accession to the throne in 1861, William I encountered difficulties in adopting the military budget and the army reform project in parliament, which is why he even wanted to abdicate the crown and prepared a letter – without a date or signature. As a last resort, a 47-year-old Prussian diplomat was summoned from Paris to Potsdam, who had held the post of envoy there and had previously worked in St. Petersburg.
Empress Augusta
Otto von Bismarck was considered a resolute and strong politician and had been predicted for many years to head the Prussian government. However, Wilhelm was wary of him, and his wife Augusta did not openly love Bismarck at all, with all his obvious talents, she considered him frivolous and arrogant. She will retain this dislike for the rest of her days.
historical conversation
The audience at Babelsberg took place on 22 September 1862 and is described in Bismarck’s memoirs. The king pointed out to his guest the ready letter of abdication and said that he could not find a candidate for premier who was ready to pursue in Prussia the policy that he, the king, considered necessary – in defiance of the Landtag and political opponents.
The conversation, which began in the castle, continued in the park. It was here that Wilhelm realized that he could trust Bismarck, and he was able to convince the king of his complete loyalty, readiness and ability to carry out his will, even in spite of the parliamentary majority. Before the meeting, the king personally prepared on eight pages a government program that the future prime minister was to adopt …
New position
However, Bismarck did not agree to this, insisting on the need for mutual trust without any written commitments. Wilhelm agreed, tore up the program and threw it off the bridge in the park, but Bismarck advised that it would be better to burn the document so that it would not fall into the hands of opponents. Two days after this historic meeting, he was appointed and. O. Minister-President and was soon approved in office.
Terraces and fountains
The “Bismarck Bridge” is still there, but the whole situation of Babelsberg was lost at the end of World War II. In the 2010s, the castle and the unique park, in whose creation Peter Josef Lenne and Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau participated, underwent a general reconstruction. In particular, the fountains were restored here and the terraces, which Schinkel called “open-air halls”, were restored.
Gift from Cologne
On one of the terraces of the Babelsberg Castle, this fountain is installed – a gift to Emperor Wilhelm I from the inhabitants of Cologne in gratitude for the financial support provided to complete the construction of the Cologne Cathedral. It was built in two stages – in the Middle Ages (1248-1437) and the 19th century (1842-1880). The fountain is decorated with the figure of the first architect of this temple – the master Gerhard von Riehl. Cologne and other lands along the Rhine passed to Prussia in 1822 as a result of the Congress of Vienna, becoming part of the Prussian Rhine Province.
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