More than once today on our tour of Potsdam I found myself in an a space talking not about the famous building that was there, but about the building that once stood there. Instead I was usually looking at an empty lot often covered in scattered weeds and or broken concrete. So many times on the lenthy (but helpful) tours over the past few days I have heard the same story. It goes something like this:
Once upon a time there was a beautiful cathedral (or palace or amazing piece of architecture) standing in this spot, but then it was bombed in the air raids of WW2. Then it sat for 20 years in ruins. Then it was restored. Then it was demolished after the fall of the wall because it stood for ideals that were no longer accepted. And then my favorite: Now they are REBUILDING it but (here's the kicker) we don't really know what we want to do with it once it's built.
Berlin and Potsdam are both so beautiful but it's nearly impossible to tell what era a building is from because it was either restored or rebuilt or is just generally confused. I have to wonder what a people who have been surrounded by this kind of pattern for even the last 20 years have done to cope with the tug of war of sorts. This city seems to thrive on destruction as a means of not only economy but as creation itself.
Imagine the ordeal over what to do with the site of the World Trade Center...It was a big controversial contest and still almost 10 years later we still don't have anything in the sky there...but something is started right? I guess I don't even really know the whole story. But there is 10 or 20 times as much of that going on here today. Even my friends who were here a year ago saw a different city. And when I come back in 10 years, who even knows...
That's my rant about history for now. I have so much to learn.
Who'd have known that Frederich the Great had this amazing palace in the middle of Germany that was modeled after his love for French literature and architecture? Sannsouci is this amazing park that is full of green and palaces and hedges and fairytale dreams. When you first walk in the gates you can see 2.83 Kilometers straight through the park to the palace at the far end. And then there are the palaces along the way. This one was Frederich's "pleasure home." Our tour ended outside the palace, so I took a quick bathroom break in this guy Frederich's backyard and then snuck away on my own. As I walked through the gardens I was finally able to take a moment and experience Germany for myself. I wandered, sat under a tree for a while trying to Meditate (thanks Valerie) and just cleared my mind of all the biznass of the last couple days. As I walked out of the park down another path of beautiful trees, I hopped over an old stone wall and found myself in front of the ruins of an old outdoor theater. I walked under the long forgotten scaffolding surrounding the structure and stood on the stage. It was covered in rubble and vegetation, but faintly on the backwall I could make out a scene painting of a beautiful lake (I assume Wannsee, the nearest lake). It reminded me of my mentor, Ron Harris, and his backyard theater that I performed in on the eve of my departure for my initial audition for NYU as he coached me through my monologue. His biggest suggestion: SLOW DOWN. I need to remind myself of this now.
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