Berlin
The 55-hectare Charlottenburg Palace Garden is Berlin’s leading historical garden monument, the baroque parterre having been recreated, in a free interpretation of the original, after the damage it suffered in the Second World War. Surviving sections of the original landscaped design have been reworked in compliance with the principles of monument preservation.
The Belvedere in the palace gardens formed part of the project commissioned by Frederick William II to redesign the park. The building, conceived by Karl Gotthard Langhans, was built in 1788 in the late baroque and early classical style, and it now houses the porcelain collection belonging to the State of Berlin. The focus here is on china from the Royal Porcelain Manufactory (KPM), acquired by Frederick the Great in 1763.
The Mausoleum, to the south-west of the Belvedere, was commissioned by Frederick William III to house the tomb of his lady consort Luise when she died on 19 July 1810. The king had his own ideas for the design and, after consulting Karl Friedrich Schinkel, he appointed Heinrich Gentz to produce drawings. The tomb was built by Christian Daniel Rauch in 1811–1814 using marble from Carrara. The Mausoleum was first extended in 1841–1843 under Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse, after the death of Frederick William III himself, and then again around 1888–1894 to drawings by Albert Geyer, in order to incorporate the tombs – made by Erdmann Encke – of the first Imperial couple, Kaiser William I and his wife Augusta.
In 1824–1825 Schinkel designed a summer pavilion for Frederick William III to the east of Charlottenburg Palace. The New Pavilion was completely destroyed in the war, but after its reconstruction in 1970 it re-opened as a museum. The key themes here are the creative versatility of Schinkel and art in Berlin during the early 19th century. Apart from the royal quarters, visitors will find paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Carl Blechen, Schinkel and Eduard Gärtner.
