Rheinsberg – Prussian Memorial Sites

Crown Prince Frederick moved to Rheinsberg House and Park in autumn 1736. He spent the happiest time of his life here until he came to power in 1740. Here he devoted himself to his studies – philosophy, history and languages (Voltaire came to Rheinsberg in 1740) – as well as other pleasurable pursuits such as music, theatre and masquerades. His time in Rheinsberg was also the only period he spent with his wife Elisabeth Christine, whom he married in 1733. Only a few traces of Frederick’s time here are to be found inside the palace: the great hall (former music room) with the antechamber and Bacchus Cabinet on the upper floor of the north wing, the fireplace in Henry’s picture gallery in the south wing, and the ceiling painting with the Minerva in the Tower Cabinet – once Frederick’s library.

Knobelsdorff: artistic soul

Painter and architect Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (1699-1753) was the soul of artistic life in Rheinsberg, having designed the palace and garden. When a fire reduced the whole town to rubble and ashes in 1740, Knobelsdorff planned a new layout with a grid-shaped street network and a market and church square on the main axis. This uniform building arrangement in squares with one to two-storey houses survives to this day. Incidentally, the church was spared destruction by the fire, so its precious Renaissance furnishings come as quite a surprise.

Redesign under Prince Henry

As King, Frederick left Rheinsberg to his brother Henry (1726-1802), who was 14 years his junior. He commissioned Carl Gotthard Langhans (1732-1808) to redesign the interior of the palace in the early Classicist style. The garden was extended and turned into a landscape park. On the other side of the lake, Henry had an obelisk erected in 1791 with commemorative medals dedicated to the heroes of the Seven Years’ War, especially in memory of his brother Augustus William (1722-1758), whom the King had insulted. Close to the Heckentheater in Rheinsberg Park is Henry’s tomb pyramid.

Further information

The town made its mark in world literature in 1912: Kurt Tucholsky published his story “Rheinsberg, ein Bilderbuch für Verliebte” (“Rheinsberg, a picture book for lovers”). For this reason, Rheinsberg House and Park today houses the Kurt Tucholsky Literature Museum.