Potsdam Maps

Potsdam is the capital of Brandenburg, Germany, with approximately 185,000 inhabitants, located southwest of Berlin on the Havel River. The city served as the residence of Prussian kings and German kaisers until 1918 and is renowned for its magnificent palaces and parks. Potsdam gained international attention after World War II as the site of the Potsdam Conference in 1945, where Allied leaders decided post-war Europe's fate.

The Sanssouci Palace, built for Frederick the Great between 1745 and 1747, epitomizes Prussian rococo architecture with its terraced vineyard gardens and intimate single-story design. The expansive Sanssouci Park encompasses over 290 hectares with numerous buildings including the New Palace (Neues Palais), the Orangery Palace, and the Chinese House. These palaces and parks are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, recognized as masterpieces of landscape architecture.

The Cecilienhof Palace, built in English country house style, hosted the 1945 Potsdam Conference where Truman, Stalin, and Churchill (later Attlee) met, with the conference room preserved as it was during historic negotiations. The Dutch Quarter (Holländisches Viertel) features 134 red-brick houses built in Dutch style for craftsmen in the 1730s, now filled with galleries, cafes, and shops. The Babelsberg Park contains the neo-Gothic Babelsberg Palace and provides scenic views.

The Einstein Tower, designed by Erich Mendelsohn in 1920, represents expressionist architecture and continues to function as an astrophysical observatory. The Potsdam Film Museum documents the Babelsberg film studio's history, Europe's oldest large-scale film studio, where numerous German and international films have been produced since 1912.

The University of Potsdam, founded in 1991, has grown rapidly. The city's economy benefits from tourism, film production, scientific research, and proximity to Berlin. Potsdam's extraordinary concentration of palaces, parks, and historic buildings creates one of Europe's most impressive urban landscapes. The city successfully combines royal heritage with contemporary culture and maintains extensive green spaces and waterways.