Sans Souci sans comma

We spent yesterday in Potsdam, a city southwest of Berlin, strolling through the complex of Prussian palaces built by Fredrick the Great. There is nothing subtle here. The palaces were intended to rival Versailles, and the result is astonishing if not entirely convincing. Behold the first palace, including the music room:

Also, the Chinese tea house:

Sans Souci translates as "without care," which is hilarious, since the whole thing was a meticulous piece of statecraft designed to impress foreign heads of state. On the front of Fredick's palace it is spelled "Sans, Souci." Voltaire lived there for three years as Fredrick's tutor until, apparently, he could stand the king's "excentricities" no longer. It is my personal theory that the excentricity that drove him over the edge was the inexplicably excessive use of commas.

We stayed past closing and had the place to ourselves, and ridiculous or not, when you have them to yourself the grounds are incredible.

Before heading back to Berlin we heard a local troupe perform lieder by Mahler and Schönberg's Transfigured Night in the town church. Feeling very German now.

xoxo Jessie