Neuruppin

Caspar Merian Newen Ruppin 1652

During my recent trip to Havelland, our group visited the city of Neuruppin. Walking the city is easy.

Click to enlarge

After the great fire in 1787 that destroyed 90% of the buildings, the town was generously rebuilt in the classicist style and chessboard fashion. 

         The Old Gymnasium on School Square dedicated as Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium in 1790.
Its motto: Civibus avi futuri (to the citizens of the age to come)

In the spirit of the Enlightenment, the main square was no longer adorned by a church but by the Städtisches Gymnasium (municipal high school).

Here are the two great sons of Neuruppin: 

Karl Friedrich Schinkel 1883 by Max Wiese

Some of Schinkel's buildings in Berlin, as seen at the Neuruppin Museum:

1815: Alte Wache at Unter den Linden

1821: Schauspielhaus at Gendarmenmarkt

1830: Altes Museum on Museumsinsel

Theodor Fontane 1898 by Hanns Fechner at the Neuruppin Museum

And then there is Frederik the Great, who lived as crown prince in Neuruppin from 1732 to 1740, commanding the Regiment Cronprintz Friedrich.

We continue our visit with the King's Monument.

Das Königsdenkmal on School Square

The citizens of Neuruppin erected the bronze monument of King Frederick William II out of gratitude to the rebuilder after the great fire of 1787. The statue, slightly higher than life-size, is the work of Christian Friedrich Tieck. 

With the founding of the GDR, a Karl Marx sculpture was placed on the pedestal. Later, when Soviet troops moved into the Neuruppin barracks, the pedestal, now crowned by a Lenin monument, was moved to a barracks area. After the withdrawal of Soviet forces, the pedestal returned to School Square. 

In 1998, citizens of Neuruppin had a copy of the statue of King Frederick William II made and placed it back on the original pedestal. 

On our way to the parish church, we passed Fontane's birthplace.

The pharmacy still exists, ennobled Fontanehaus. 

Classicist-styled parish church St. Mary. Note the leaning tower hood.

As early as 1806, when the transverse hall church was completed, it became apparent that it was too large for the congregation. Today it serves as a place for meetings and congresses.

Wichmann Linden tree and church St. Trinitatis

The tree is named after Count Wichmann, who went to the famous "Luther Diet" of Worms 1521 in the entourage of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. With the count's death in 1524, the Lindow-Ruppin noble family became extinct.

St. Trinitatis, near the lake, is the refurbished old monastery church of the Dominicans. It is a Gothic-style brick building dating from around 1250 and was spared in the great fire.

Model of the former monastery complex

Originally the church had no tower, only a ridge turret. 

Because of his flight from his father's brutal education, Crown Prince Frederick, accused of high treason, was almost executed in the fortress of Küstrin. On the order of his father, Frederick spent a few years in Neuruppin for military training. He also agreed to a marriage determined by the Soldier King before the latter assigned Rheinsberg Palace to the young couple as their home. 

In his Walks through the March of Brandenburg, Fontane writes about Frederick's stay in Neuruppin: 

All discord with his father seemed forgotten. "Obristlieutenant Fritz," over whose head the sword had hovered not so long ago, was again a "dear son," colonel and chief of a regiment. This regiment, which until then ... had been called the von der Goltz Regiment after its former leader, was now concentrated in Ruppin and Nauen for the greater convenience of the crown prince. It received the name "Regiment Cronprintz." 

Before Frederick came to Neuruppin, the Soldier King issued a rescript in Potsdam on May 24, 1732: Full of fine feeling, he recognizes that what could remind of the November days of 1730 in Küstrin should be spared to the eyes of his son, "The gallows shall be taken out of the city; also the palisades shall be put on the wall, and all loopholes shall be closed. Everything must be ready by June 20. Also, the house close to the Obrist von Wreech's quarters, which the crown prince has chosen for his quarters, is to be properly renovated. The ugly ornamentation of the Neuer Markt is to be removed." 

The city is to present itself in its best dress to the new citizen moving in. So it says in a second order of the following day, "Then the excrement is to be removed from the city immediately, and the houses that have not yet been plastered are to be plastered. The apartment the Cronprintz chooses for his quarters is to be adapted." Wreech's palace, which the crown prince moved into, was located near the city wall, separated from it only by a garden, and had been hastily constructed by joining two neighboring houses. 

Fontane continues: 

As early as 1732, the crown prince inhibited the demolition and thus conserved the remaining ramparts lying landward or northward from the Rheinsberg to the Berlin Gate, which are still standing and overgrown with old armor, oaks, beeches, hazels, etc.; the crown prince also had them planted with many kinds of trees and adorned at their end (at the Berlin Gate) with a beautiful garden, whereby the 'Wall' has become the most pleasant, shaded walk full of nightingales. Here he lives serene, leisurely hours, the forerunner of those famous days of Rheinsberg and Sanssouci. After the heaviness of duty, he is drawn out to his Amalthea* every evening.

*Amalthea, the nymph who fed Jupiter with goat's milk.

The way through the ugly streets of the old city is inconvenient for him, so he has taken care of a little wall gate that leads him directly from the courtyard of his palace to the rampart and, after a short walk under the old oaks into the laughing grounds of his garden.

The Temple

There it blooms and smells; matthiolas and melons are cultured, and on a slightly sloping elevation rises the Temple*, the unification point of the circle of friends, which the crown prince gathers here every evening around him. The basement contains a kitchen, but the Temple is one of those often depicted pavilions that support a flat-vaulted roof on six Corinthian columns. Temples enjoyed special favor as dining rooms in the parks and gardens of that era. 

*Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff visited Ruppin in 1735, laid out the garden, and built the Temple, which carried a statue of Apollo on a dome. 

Bronze model of the present public park (click to enlarge)

Frederick often longed for his "beloved" garrison. In June 1737, for example, he wrote to a friend, "On the 25th, I am going back to Amalthea, my garden in Ruppin. I burn impatiently to see my wine, cherries, and melons again."

Was there too much Frederick? Here is one more:

 

Have you noticed? This is my 1000th blog. 

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