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".....it can be claimed that the memory
of an older, finer Potsdam has never truly been erased, and that it still occupies the hearts and minds of those who live
in the city, and the increasing number of those who choose to visit it."
HRH The Prince Of Wales
Historical View of Potsdam in its Landscape Setting
"Potsdam, Alter Markt"
(Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture)
"Potsdam is a picturesque, pastoral dream.
In it, a longed-for relationship between mankind and the world it inhabits is given form through a balance between architecture
and the natural world. Nothing about the place is accidental, everything has been carefully considered to remind the inhabitants
of Potsdam of their relationship with a wider universe of sense and meaning.
A jewel set in the most stunning landscape of rivers and mountains, studded with villas by the likes of
Schinkel and Persius, their towers reaching to the skies, Potsdam is a place which testifies to the deep desire on the part
of those who founded, and who nurtured it, to embrace the land and to make of the entire landscape a work of art."
HRH The Prince Of Wales
(Foreword to "Potsdam, Alter Markt")
Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture
Alter Markt 1945 with Schinkel's Nikolaikirche Ruin
(Photo: Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Potsdam)
"A great presence has been replaced - because of the
Allied bombings in the very last days of the War, and then, nearly twenty years later, an ideologically-driven destruction
- by a yawning absence.
The task, therefore, was clear: it was to find a way of retrieving that lost idea, and of giving it a physical
form which would be more than a mere replica of the city which had existed before.
What we sought was a new city, responsive to the current demands upon it, yet one thouroughly imbued
with the spirit of that older, seemingly irretrievable lost city."
Brian Hanson
Director of The Prince Of Wales's Urban Design Task
Force
(From the Introduction to "Potsdam, Alter Markt")
The Prince of Wales's Insitute of Architecture
Situation of Alter Markt in 1996
(Photo by Richard Ivey)
"......this powerful physical image has been altered
almost beyond recognition."
Brian Hanson
View from Alter Markt towards Merkur Hotel and Orangerie
(Photo by Richard Ivey)
The New Stadtschloss
The Potsdam Project:
Reconstruction of Alter Markt and Stadtschloss Site
(Photo by Richard Ivey)
The Prince of Wales's Urban Design Task Force 1996
"The Prince of Wales's Urban Design Task
Force is not recommending a historical reconstruction of the Stadtschloss.......
The main option developed by the Prince of Wales's Urban Design Task Force consists of a partial reconstruction.
Rather than maintaining the Stadtschloss ensemble as one building, it is fragmented and articulated into several significant
parts, relevant within their urbanistic logics and within a larger scenario of urban reconstruction of the historical centre
of Potsdam.
However, the historical footprint, silhouette and enclosure remain the principal and paradigmatic
guide and inspiration of the reconstruction endeavours!"
"Potsdam, Alter Markt"
(The Prince of Wales's Urban Design Task Force 1996)
Axionometric of the Potsdam Project
Prince of Wales's Urban Design Task Force 1996
(Drawing by Rick Shaupp)
"Supporting the resolution of the City
Parliament of 24th October 1990, which called for 'a delicate reappropriation of the characteristic historically grown cityscape',
the proposals of The Prince of Wales's Urban Design Task Force stand as an unprejudiced contribution to a vision of Potsdam.
This vision encompasses the reconciliation of the Potsdamers with their city in its historical dimension and memory, its modern
reality and its future potential."
"Potsdam, Alter Markt"
(The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture)
The Proposed Stadtschloss Reconstruction in Potsdam
The Prince of Wales's Urban Design Task Force 1996
(Drawing by Sandy Vitzthum)
"There is nothing past for which one may
yearn, there is only an eternal newness which is shaped by the wider elements of the past; and true nostalgia has always to
be productive to create a new excellence."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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