So I feel like I have been doing nothing but studying since January and was going crazee! So I went with my dorm peeps to a town called Neuruppin. According to Wikipedia (and I hope I have said this often enough so that we all know that just about anything I write on my blogs info-wise comes from the Internet in some way ;) "Neuruppin has the reputation of being the most Prussian of all Prussian towns, due to its former status as a Prussian garrison town."
Our tour began here at the Temple Garden which Frederick the Great used as a vegetable garden when he was just a prince (before he became king).
It was later sold to private owners and they turned it into a 'Turkish villa'.
Here we are with our very own guide, Herr Luckow. He takes us on a variety of trips and knows A LOT!
Until I came to Berlin I had never heard of this guy. One of the reasons Neuruppin is famous is for being the birthplace of Karl Friedrich Schinkel. He designed just about every famous building in Berlin! It's intersting that he lost his father in a devastating fire in 1787 in Neuruppin - he said that it was watching the 'rebuilding' of Neuruppin that got him interested in architechture.
This whole area was burned down. Schinkel's family home was located in the grassy area just off to the left...
Schinkel's dad was a pastor and this was a home for pastors' widows and their children.
Schinkel's mom lived here with her kids for a while before moving to Berlin.
This is Theodor Fontane. He was also born in Neuruppin and unfortunately I hadn't heard of him either. He is a very famous for being the 'most important 19th century German language realist writer'.
?
Apparently he was famous for showing what the inner lives of the people were like at the time (mid-late 1800's).
Frederick the Great set this up as military housing for married soldiers. These are ORIGINAL buildings! And people STILL live in them! ;)
This is St. Trinitatis built originally in 1246.
This is the largest 'multi-functional'(?) (sometimes German terms REALLY confuse me) steel sculpture in Germany. Hmmm....
Anyway, the idea comes from a Middle Age story from the area...I THINK! :)
Au revoir, Neuruppin! We're off to Rheinsberg!
