Caputh Park

Although it lies to the south outside the island of Potsdam, Caputh Park is connected to the Potsdam garden landscape by the view across Lake Templin and a lakeside path suggested by Peter Joseph Lenné. A small park at this location, along with the gardens in Glienicke and Bornim, was already part of the wreath of electoral gardens around the Potsdam pleasure garden (Lustgarten), the nucleus of Prussian state embellishment, in the 17th century.

As early as the 16th century, Electress Katharina von Brandenburg-Küstrin had her summer residence here, which included a veritable model economy with vineyard, ponds, animal husbandry, estate and palace gardens. In 1662, the electoral quartermaster Philipp de Chièze rebuilt the palace, which had been destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, together with a terraced Baroque garden with many magnificent fruit trees and rich sculptural decorations. After his death, everything reverted to the Elector, was further furnished and used primarily for festivities and hunting holidays until 1713. This was followed by a century of leasing and various commercial uses. During this time, one of the most efficient royal fruit tree nurseries flourished here.

The property was then sold to Lieutenant General August von Thümen. His son Wilhelm von Thümen had the garden landscaped from 1820 onwards, based on Lenné's beautification plan, and added the Kavalierhaus between the palace and the Havel. The course of the road to Potsdam along the riverbank goes back to Lenné's plans for the beautification of the countryside.

The introduction of small utility areas into the palace garden after 1908 hardly changed the character of the park. After the Second World War, various schools moved into the palace and the garden became increasingly neglected. With the handover to the SPSG in 1994, restoration work began, accompanied by garden archaeological research, including the search for baroque remains. Since the opening of the palace in 1999, all but small areas of the garden can be experienced as it was in the first half of the 19th century.