Potsdam
City of Palaces and Gardens
Extensive landscape of castles, palaces and sprawling parks are the main attraction for palatial Potsdam. From the 17th through 20th centuries, Prussian kings commissioned the best artists of their time to build elaborate palaces and gardens in Potsdam, a center of Prussia and home of the royal residence. In the 19th century, renowned landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné unified these riches into such a harmonious landscape that UNESCO placed it on the list of World Heritage sites in 1991.For most visitors, it is the Park Sanssouci (Sanssouci Gardens) that is the prime attraction. It covers 724 acres – compared to Central Park’s 840 – and has three palaces: Schloss Sanssouci (Sanssouci Palace), the Neues Palais (New Palace) and Schloss Charlottenhof (Charlottenhof Palace). Many visitors to the "Park Sanssouci" (Sanssouci Gardens) neglect the smaller but exquisite "Neuer Garten" (New Garden), with two charming palaces: the Marmorpalast (Marble Palace) and Schloss Cecilienhof (Cecilienhof Palace), built in 1917 in the style of an English country estate. Although Cecilienhof is the youngest of the Hohenzollern palaces, it carries perhaps the greatest direct significance for Americans and modern Europe. It was here that the victorious powers of World War II met from June 17 to August 2, 1945, for the Potsdam Conference.
Be sure to set aside some time to walk around the Baroque Old Town, especially the Holländerviertel (Dutch Quarter) with its gabled brick houses and the Brandenburgerstrasse (Brandenburg Street), a pedestrian shopping boulevard lined with antique stores and shops. Gain some of the best views of the parks and palaces from the lakes and river. Relaxing cruises are available of different lengths and routes.
The "Schloss Sanssouci" (Sanssouci Palace) is the most popular of Potsdam's palaces, a charming rococo masterpiece set atop a hill overlooking the Havel landscape. 
The "Park Sanssouci" (Sanssouci Gardens) covers 724 acres - compared to Central Park's 840 - and has three palaces: the rococo "Schloss Sanssouci" (Sanssouci Palace), the Baroque "Neues Palais" (New Palace) and "Schloss Charlottenhof" (Charlottenhof Palace). 
The building complex of the "Neues Palais" (New Palace) is the last and most impressive baroque monument of the Prussian kings, built in part as a boastful response to the palace of Versailles of the French kings. 
The "Einsteinturm" (Einstein Tower) is the first important building designed by the famous architect Erich Mendelsohn. It was planned and built in the years 1919 to 1924, the main part was finished in 1921. One may argue whether it makes sense to define the building in terms of architectural style. The tower is often called the "main example for architectural expressionism". Its general design is very harmonic, however, and Mendelsohn's own perception oppose was different. In this aspect, everybody has to find his own answer.
The Baroque "Holl
The small "Schloss Charlottenhof" (Charlottenhof Palace) and the park area around it is an outstanding example of romantic classicism in Germany, an artistic entity of buildings, gardens and landscape park. Before 1825, the area that became the grounds of the "Schloss Charlottenhof" was covered by an agricultural estate. When it became the property of the crown prince, later the "romantic king" Friedrich Wilhelm IV, he developed plans to transform it and add it to the existing park of Sanssouci. He found congenial assistants in the famed architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné. 
"Schloss Cecilienhof" (Cecilienhof Palace), built in the "Neuer Garten" (New Garden) from 1914-1917, was the last royal contribution to Potsdam's cultural landscape. The 180-room English country house-style palace was the setting for the 1945 Potsdam Conference. 
The "Brandenburgerstrasse" (Brandenburg Street), a restored 18th-century residential area, has been transformed into a wide pedestrian boulevard filled with eclectic book stores, antique shops and bistros.
Potsdam is also famous in the world of film. Marlene Dietrich began her rise to fame in the Babelsberg studios as the star of “The Blue Angel”. 