Schloss Charlottenburg

On top is a picture of Schloss Charlottenburg, to which we paid a quick visit on July 23. We wandered around the grounds without paying our euros to go inside, despite Nicholas' insistent demands to see all the glories of baroque Prussia. This palace was begun by the Frederick who is known as the Great Elector before he dared call himself king of Prussia (hence the Elector business), and was meant as a summer residence for his wife, Sophie Charlotte (whence Charlottenburg). The place is surrounded by a vast garden, now a popular spot for weekend strollers and joggers in addition to tourists. I'd say it was a oasis of green within the busy city, but Berlin has so many such green places that the oasis metaphor wears a bit thin. With its zoning keeping buildings fairly low (usually no more than five storeys or so) and the numerous parks, Berlin hardly feels overpoweringly urban to me (but then again we live in a fairly low-key residential part of the city). This abundance of greenery was particularly important during the Cold War, when West Berlin was an island surrounded by the Berlin Wall. Back then the city's economy was highly subsidized, as its industrial base had been destroyed by the war and the isolation within East Germany, and few major corporations wanted to risk placing important assets in what seemed a very dangerous place. While the wall is gone, Berlin remains in some ways a less busy place than the other major cities of Germany: there are far fewer major corporations headquartered here than in places like Stuttgart and Hamburg, and the pace of life is apparently a bit slower.

Well, back to us. Our, or at least my favorite spot on the Schloss Charlottenburg grounds was the Mausoleum (pictured above) holding the remains of some of the Hohlenzollern Royalty, most famous those of Queen Louisa (to the right), spouse of Frederick III. Louisa had the misfortune to be on the scene for

Prussia's worst times (until the end of the Hohlenzollern house in 1919), when the kingdom was defeated by Napoleon. She died in 1810, too early for the redemption of Prussia, which aided the British at Waterloo in 1815. The mausoleum, a work of Schinkel, the great

est Prussian architect, retains even today a quiet beauty. The burial chamber (which contains Louisa's spouse, and one subsequent Hohlenzollern couple) was lit just enough by side windows to allow one to see the fine scupltures atop the marble caskets. Despite the long time, and immense history, that's passed since Louisa passed from the scene, the chamber was somber and suitably funereal even on our visit. The most beloved members of the Prussian monarchy seem to have been the queens: hence Louisa here, and Charlottenburg. Only Friederich the Great seems to get much good press among the males, presumably because he combined enlightenment, by some definitions, with conque

st.