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Brandenburg
Prussian heritage. The state of Brandenburg surrounds the
German capital Berlin; the state capital Potsdam (138,000 inhabitants)
lies southwest of the metropolis. During the Potsdam Conference
held at Cecilienhof Palace in the summer of 1945, the political
leaders of the U.S.A., Great Britain and the Soviet Union made
far-reaching decisions concerning the future of Germany. Potsdam
has been linked with Prussian-German history since time immemorial.
Beginning in 1157, Albert I the Bear called himself the Margrave
of Brandenburg. In 1237 the city of Berlin was founded. In 1640
the Hohenzollern elector Frederick William, later called the "Great
Elector”, assumed power in Germany's largest electorate.
He encouraged Huguenots from France as well as colonists from
Holland and Switzerland to settle in Brandenburg, thus stimulating
the development of commerce and craft trades. In 1685 the immigrants
were granted religious freedom through the Edict of Potsdam; the
"Dutch Quarter” and the "French Church” in
Potsdam evoke memories of these warmly welcomed foreigners. In
1701 Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg crowned himself Frederick
I, King in Prussia, thus laying the foundations for the Prussian
kingdom; the Brandenburg March became part of Prussia. Under Frederick
II the Great (1740-1786) Prussia grew to become a great European
power. He made Potsdam his residence and oversaw the evolution
of the masterpiece Sanssouci Park with its palaces and other magnificent
buildings. On 17 August 1991 the coffin of Frederick
the Great, which had been hidden during World War II and moved
to the ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern dynasty in Hechingen
(Baden-Württemberg) in 1952, was brought back to Sanssouci.
In June 1995 the Berlin House of Representatives and the Brandenburg
State Parliament approved the state treaty on the merger of the
two states around the turn of the millennium. In the referendum
held on 5 May 1996, however, the people of Brandenburg voted against
the merger, so the two states will not be merged in the foreseeable
future.
Nature reserves and industrial sites. Compared to other
federal states, Brandenburg is sparsely populated. The Havel and
Spree rivers meander through its hilly countryside. Nature conservation
is practiced in the numerous nature parks, landscape reserves
and biosphere reserves in areas such as the Uckermark, the Elbtalaue,
the Schorfheide and the Spreewald. In years past, Brandenburg's
poor sandy soil led it to be called the "sandbox of the Holy
Roman Empire of the German Nation”. Today the backbone of
the state's economy is increasingly shifting from agriculture
with its traditional crops of rye and oilseed to industries such
as vehicle construction, mechanical engineering, electronics,
the optical industry, and the energy, food and chemical industries.
In the context of the program "Upswing East” Brandenburg
has thus far been able to attract more than 120 major investors
who have each made available more than DM 50 million.
Now that visas are no longer required for travel between Germany and Poland, the city of Frankfurt an der Oder is acquiring ever-greater importance as the place of transshipment for trade with the countries of Eastern Europe. Since 1991 a German-Polish intergovernmental commission has been working to promote good-neighborly contacts.
"Viadrina”
and membrane research. Viadrina University in Frankfurt an
der Oder already existed between 1506 and 1811. Heinrich von Kleist
and the von Humboldt brothers studied there. In 1991 the institution
was reopened as the European University Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder;
it places special emphasis on Polish-German cooperation in teaching
and research. Since 1992 the GFZ Potsdam has been engaged in basic
research on topics of global significance in the geosciences.
The likewise unique Membrane Research Department of the GKSS Research
Center in Teltow is devoted to the development of high-performance
membranes for fields of application such as environmental engineering,
materials salvage, recycling and medicine. The Potsdam Institute
for Climate Impact Research studies today's climate changes as
problems arising from a distorted relationship between mankind
and nature. The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, which
took up its work in March 1993, cultivates not only the natural,
biological and social sciences but the humanities as well. Upcoming
projects include an edition of the works of Jean Paul, an edition
of the works of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and a documentation
of medieval stained-glass painting in the new federal states.
Theodor Fontane and Marlene Dietrich. The 19th-century
writer Theodor Fontane described Brandenburg's beauty and natural
charm in his "Walks in the March of Brandenburg”. Approximately
350 palaces and manor houses can be found here; particularly popular
tourist destinations in addition to Sanssouci are the palaces
in Rheinsberg (which Kurt Tucholsky made the subject of a short
novel) and Branitz (with the Prince Pückler Museum). Of the
roughly 150 museums and memorials, the Heinrich von Kleist Museum
and Research Institution on Kleist in Frankfurt an der Oder deserves
special mention here.
Cultural festivals take place throughout the year. Well known
beyond the state's boundaries are the Rheinsberg Music Days, the
concerts in the impressive former abbeys of Chorin and Lehnin,
and the Potsdam-Sanssouci Music Festival. A distinctive kind of
technical achievement is the world's largest ship elevator in
Niederfinow (built in 1934), which enables ships to overcome a
36-meter difference in elevation along the course of the Oder-Havel
Canal.
In one of the world's largest and oldest film studios, the film city of Potsdam-Babelsberg carries on the tradition of the Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), harking back to the days when stars such as Marlene Dietrich and directors such as F.W. Murnau, Ernst Lubitsch and Fritz Lang made their famous films here.