Last Day in Berlin

Day 42

Our last day in Berlin … hard to believe we’ve been here 5 days.  Original plans were to visit the Sanssoucci Palace but tickets had to be bought online for a designated entry time and then printed out.  We have no access to a printer and I couldn’t find out if they would accept the ticket document sent to my phone or via a dropbox so Sanssouci got ditched in favour of Charlottenburg Palace. 

We woke to rain, not heavy but potentially enough to be annoying.  It drizzled on and off all morning but we didn’t really get wet.  On the train to Richard Wagner Platz and then a short bus ride and we were deposited at the front gate. 

The oldest sections of the palace date from 1695 when Sophie Charlotte, the wife of Friedrich III,  commissioned the building of  palace.  This part was finished just before Friedrich crowned himself as King Friedrich I in Prussia in 1701.  The rooms in this section of the palace are gorgeous.

Queen Sophie Charlotte was an accomplished harpsicord layer

Red silk damask wall 'paper' with lace detail

close-up of that luscious wallpapaer

The Royal Chapel

Friedrich's rooms were furnished quite differently to Sophie's

Family portraits in Sophie's dressing room

In 1702, two side wings were added to enclose a large courtyard, and the main palace was extended on both sides. Sophie Charlotte died in 1705 and Friedrich named the palace and its estate Charlottenburg in her memory.

Sophie loved blue & white porcelain but died before this room was completed

Extraordinary ceiling in the Porcelain room

When Friedrich I died in 1713, he was succeeded by his son, Friedrich Wilhelm I whose building plans were less ambitious, although he did ensure that the building was properly maintained. Building was resumed after his son Friedrich II (Frederick the Great) came to the throne in 1740.

Italian marble statues in the foyer of the new wing

In 1786, Frederick II was succeeded by his nephew Friedrich Wilhelm II who transformed five rooms on the ground floor of the east wing into his summer quarters and part of the upper floor into Winter Chambers, although he did not live long enough to use them. His son, Friedrich Wilhelm III came to the throne in 1797 and reigned with his wife, Queen Luise for 43 years.

Pale green, white & gold - this state room takes your breath away

Queen Luise had a 'sleeping nook' built into her new bedroom after she discovered Napoleon had slept in her original bedroom

The furniture in this room is original - it (and anything else they could move) were moved into safe storage in about 1942

The library

After visiting the royal apartments we had a look at the Palace treasurery.  Stunning porcelain, silver & gold tableware!  Most of the jewellery ended up elsewhere having been given down the various lines but Queen Luise's diamond ear-rings were pretty cool.

Snuff box

Meissen soup taurine 

Silver tableware

Chalottenburg was badly damaged during WW2 and came close to being demolished.  What we saw today is the result of many years of painstaking work by an extraordinary team of artisans.  Some of the furniture is original hving been removed to safe storage in late 1942, other pieces are original to the time (but not this palace) having come to Charlottenburg from other now-demolished palaces, some pieces are modern recreations. 

With the exception of the ‘man cave’ (the Pavillion) built by Friedrich Wilhelm III every effort has been made to re-do/re-furnish the rooms as they would have been during the time of one of the Freds.  The ‘man cave’ now houses a few of his pieces but is essentially a tribute to the architect responsible for much of the palace.

We dubbed this the 'man cave' - Friedrich Wilhelm III escaped to this 2 story Pavilion 

We’d spent about 3 ½ hours exploring the two main wings of the palace, the Pavilllion and taking  walk to the imposing formal garden and once again we’d missed a ‘normal’ lunch time so we headed back to Richard Wagner Platz and grabbed a late sandwich at a little bakery. 

Restoration work on the gardens only began about 2002

After this we headed for K’damm and the Kathe Wolfhardt Christmas shop where I hoped to add one more to my collection.  It totally sucked to find her closed for stocktaking! ….. so we had a wander round the shopping area of K’damm, checked out the partially demolished  Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and Legoland before heading to Potsdammer Platz in search of dinner.

It’s been a delight being back in Berlin and I’d visit again in a heartbeat.  Next stop Erfurt.