Potsdam: An island of visions

“Arts and sciences go hand in hand. We are grateful for this, as they are the benefactors of mankind... All Enlightened sovereigns have paid homage to the learned, whose erudite works edify the mind. It has become evident in these current times, that if a government in Europe fails to encourage the arts and sciences, it will within a short period of time fall behind its neighbours and be held back a century.”

Frederick the Great, 1772

What would Potsdam be without Frederick the Great, without his desire to make something of that “awful hole of a place” on the river Havel? What would become of the city, without his enlightened ideas and by contemplating “Sanssouci”? What would Potsdam be without his proverbial tolerance? What would Potsdam be without the residents of Babelsberg, whose vision created another little Hollywood in the middle of the Brandenburg Marches? What would Potsdam be without the thirst for knowledge of its scientists? Today the heirs of Einstein’s, still continue to tackle crucial questions and solve them. Questions, which move the world. Where would Potsdam finally be without its citizens who all pitched in after reunification? Who were forward looking enough to realise, that their dilapidated heritage, was magnificent and worth preserving. It is thanks to them that the palaces and gardens exist, the city’s gates and villas shine with a new splendour, that the Pfingstberg has got back its Belvedere and the Old Market its Fortunaportal.
Why did software developers like Hasso Plattner come to Potsdam of all places? Why did they found their think tanks here? Why did Volkswagen’s designers come here? Why is it, that here in Potsdam, future German automobile designs are being developed?

They were all unified by a vision, the idea of what the world would look like one day. Here in Potsdam you can think ahead. This was so in Frederick’s times, in Einstein’s, as well as today. It is probably the combination of the landscape together with the character of the people. It may also be due to the achievements resulting from inherited circumstances which have led to this mixture of Prussian courage, optimism and Italian savoir-vivre. Potsdam creates visions. It is from visions that the city and its citizens gather fresh energy. It is from the knowledge of visionary actions of the past, that they take courage for the future. Potsdam views the year 2010 by looking back, but keeping sight of the future.
These visions make Potsdam the ideal European Capital of Culture. For only in places where ideas are created, there is culture. Only in those places, can new ideas come into existence and mature.
European culture needs visions, Potsdam creates visions. This is what makes the city unique. This is why Potsdam is the ideal European Capital of Culture.