Self-guided Sightseeing Tour #1 in Potsdam, Germany

Legend

Churches & Art
Nature
Water & Wind
Historical
Heritage & Space
Tourism
Paid Tours & Activities

Tour Facts

Number of sights 26 sights
Distance 5.2 km
Ascend 91 m
Descend 92 m

Experience Potsdam in Germany in a whole new way with our self-guided sightseeing tour. This site not only offers you practical information and insider tips, but also a rich variety of activities and sights you shouldn't miss. Whether you love art and culture, want to explore historical sites or simply want to experience the vibrant atmosphere of a lively city - you'll find everything you need for your personal adventure here.

Activities in PotsdamIndividual Sights in Potsdam

Sight 1: Seerose

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Seerose Axel Mauruszat / CC BY 2.0 de

The Seerose Potsdam is a waterfront pavilion in Potsdam, Germany. The eight-fold curved roof structure in the form of a leaf rosette is a hypar shell construction and was designed by civil engineer Ulrich Müther. The building was placed under monument protection by the Brandenburg State Monuments Office on 21 December 2004. The architectural style of the water lily is assigned to organic architecture.

Wikipedia: Seerose Potsdam (DE), Heritage Website

421 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 2: Predigerwitwenhaus

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The Predigerwitwenhaus is a listed building in the northern city center of Potsdam, Breite Straße 14 [formerly 25].

Wikipedia: Predigerwitwenhaus (Potsdam) (DE), Heritage Website

124 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 3: Hiller-Brandtsche Häuser

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Hiller-Brandt houses are the buildings completed in 1769 at Breite Straße 8 to 12 in Potsdam. King Frederick II had the two town houses rebuilt with a uniform façade according to plans by Georg Christian Unger and expanded by a barracks. The building is named after its users, the merchant Johann Friedrich Hiller and the master tailor Johann Gebhardt Brandt. Since the renovation, the listed building has housed rental and owner-occupied apartments since 2013.

Wikipedia: Hiller-Brandtsche Häuser (DE), Heritage Website

158 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 4: Garnisonkirche

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Garnisonkirche

The Garrison Church was a Protestant church in the historic centre of Potsdam. Built by order of King Frederick William I of Prussia according to plans by Philipp Gerlach from 1730 to 1735, it was considered as a major work of Prussian Baroque architecture. With a height of almost 90 metres, it was Potsdam's tallest building and shaped its cityscape. In addition, the Garrison Church was part of the city's famous "Three Churches View" together with the St. Nicholas Church and the Holy Spirit Church. After it was damaged during the British bombing in World War II, the East German authorities demolished the church in 1968. After the German reunification, the Garrison Church is currently being rebuilt as a centre for remembrance and reconciliation.

Wikipedia: Garrison Church (Potsdam) (EN), Facebook, Website

351 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 5: Haus der Brandenburgisch-Preußischen Geschichte

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Haus der Brandenburgisch-Preußischen Geschichte Klabauter2 / CC BY-SA 3.0

The Brandenburg Museum for Future, Present and History, until 2024 House of Brandenburg-Prussian History, is a museum on the Neuer Markt in Potsdam, which is located there in the carriage horse stable. It sees itself as an open forum for active engagement with Brandenburg and Prussian history.

Wikipedia: Haus der Brandenburgisch-Preußischen Geschichte (DE), Website

30 meters / 0 minutes

Sight 6: Brandenburg Museum

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The carriage horse stable is an architectural monument on the Neuer Markt in Potsdam. It was built in the years 1787–1789 by Andreas Ludwig Krüger in the style of classicism. The former stable for the carriage horses of the city palace ensemble has been home to the House of Brandenburg-Prussian History since 2003.

Wikipedia: Kutschpferdestall (DE), Heritage Website

221 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 7: Brockessches Haus

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The Brockessche Haus, also referred to as the Brockessches or Brock'sches Palais in recent publications, is a listed residential and manufactory building in the city centre of Potsdam. It was built in 1776 according to the design of Carl von Gontard on the street Am Kanal with subsidies from Frederick II for the glass cutter Johann Christoph Brockes. After numerous changes of ownership and a longer vacancy, the palace was completely restored by the end of 2016 in accordance with the requirements of a listed building and has since served as a residential building.

Wikipedia: Brockessches Haus (DE), Heritage Website

284 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 8: Deserteurdenkmal

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Deserteurdenkmal

The marble sculpture Monument to the Unknown Deserter was created in 1989 at the instigation of the "Bonn Peace Plenum" by the Turkish sculptor Mehmet Aksoy, who was living in Berlin at the time.

Wikipedia: Deserteurdenkmal (Bonn/Potsdam) (DE), Website

88 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 9: Platz der Einheit

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The Platz der Einheit is one of the oldest squares in Potsdam, along with Bassinplatz and the Plantage. Laid out under the Soldier King Friedrich Wilhelm I, the square is bordered by the Wilhelmgalerie in the north, residential buildings in the east, the street Am Kanal in the south and the Friedrich-Ebert-Straße in the west. It is an important public transport hub.

Wikipedia: Platz der Einheit (Potsdam) (DE)

408 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 10: St. Nikolaikirche

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St. Nicholas Church in Potsdam is a Lutheran church under the Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia of the Evangelical Church in Germany on the Old Market Square in Potsdam. The central plan building in the Classicist style and dedicated to Saint Nicholas was built to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the years 1830 to 1837. The tambour of the 77-metre-high church that towers above the roofs of the city was built later, from 1843 to 1850. Its construction was taken over by Ludwig Persius and, from 1845, Friedrich August Stüler.

Wikipedia: St. Nicholas Church, Potsdam (EN), Website, Heritage Website

81 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 11: Obelisk

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0 meters / 0 minutes

Sight 12: Alter Markt

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The Old Market Square is a centrally located square in downtown Potsdam which forms the historical centre of the city. The square consists of the area around St. Nicholas' Church. Today the term refers in particular to the area directly in front of the church. It is bordered by several prestigious historical buildings. The square has been the site of much architectural reconstruction work in recent years which has restored much historic building fabric that was lost in World War Two.

Wikipedia: Old Market Square, Potsdam (EN), Heritage Website

72 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 13: Altes Rathaus

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The Old Town Hall in Potsdam is located there on the Alter Markt in the vicinity of the Nikolaikirche, the Museum Barberini and opposite the City Palace. It was built between 1753 and 1755 according to ideas and on behalf of Frederick the Great and according to plans by the master builders Johann Boumann and Christian Ludwig Hildebrandt. As with other buildings in Potsdam, Italian Baroque architecture served as a model.

Wikipedia: Altes Rathaus (Potsdam) (DE), Heritage Website

74 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 14: Potsdam Museum

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The Potsdam Museum – Forum for Art and History, founded at the beginning of the 20th century, has one of the largest collections of art, cultural and regional history in the state of Brandenburg with over 250,000 objects. The collection reflects the civic commitment and passion for collecting of the founding years. The diverse collections include cultural-historical and military-historical areas as well as works of artistic creation.

Wikipedia: Potsdam Museum (DE), Facebook, Website, Youtube

47 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 15: Knobelsdorff-Haus

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The Knobelsdorffhaus is a town house at Alter Markt 9, formerly Brauerstraße 10, in the immediate vicinity of the Old Town Hall on the east side of the Alter Markt in Potsdam. Together with the Old Town Hall and the glass passageway, it forms the Potsdam Museum in place of the destroyed Windelband House.

Wikipedia: Knobelsdorffhaus (DE), Heritage Website

71 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 16: Museum Barberini

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The Museum Barberini is an art museum in Potsdam opened in 2017. Its exhibitions range from the so-called Old Masters to contemporary art, with an emphasis on impressionist painting. Centered around works from the collection of its founder and patron Hasso Plattner, the Barberini presents three temporary exhibitions per year, featuring loans from international museums and private collections. Academic conferences serve to prepare these exhibitions. At the same time, shorter gallery displays – the so-called “art histories” – put works from the collection into constantly shifting contexts. The museum aims to offer a diverse programme of events and educational activities as well as digital offers like the Barberini App and the 4K Smart Wall in the museum.

Wikipedia: Museum Barberini (EN), Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Website, Youtube

141 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 17: Fortunaportal

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The Fortuna Portal on the Old Market Square in Potsdam, opposite the Church of St. Nikolai, was designed by the Dutch architect Jean de Bodt in 1701 as the entrance gate to the Potsdam City Palace and inaugurated in 1701 on the occasion of the self-coronation of Elector Frederick III as King Frederick I of Prussia. Since then, the construction of the Fortuna Portal has been regarded as the beginning of classical Potsdam architecture.

Wikipedia: Fortunaportal (DE)

150 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 18: Ringerkolonnade

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The Potsdam City Palace is a building in Potsdam, Germany, located on the Old Market Square, next to the St. Nicholas' Church (Nikolaikirche). It was the second official residence of the margraves and electors of Brandenburg, later kings in Prussia, kings of Prussia and German emperors.

Wikipedia: City Palace, Potsdam (EN)

188 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 19: Marstall

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The Marstall is an architectural monument on Breite Straße in Potsdam. Built in 1685 by Johann Arnold Nering in the Baroque style as an orangery, it has been rebuilt and expanded several times in the course of history. The former riding horse stable of the city palace is the oldest surviving building in the city and has been home to the Potsdam Film Museum since 1981.

Wikipedia: Marstall (Potsdamer Stadtschloss) (DE), Heritage Website

23 meters / 0 minutes

Sight 20: Filmmuseum Potsdam

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Filmmuseum Potsdam Florian S. / CC BY-SA 3.0

The Filmmuseum Potsdam was founded in 1981 as the "Film Museum of the GDR", making it the oldest film museum with its own collection and exhibitions in Germany and receiving its current name in 1990. It has been under the sponsorship of the state of Brandenburg since 1991 and is part of the Film University Babelsberg. At the centre of the collections and the permanent exhibition are the world's oldest film studio in Babelsberg, its film productions and the artists who worked there on films by Bioscop, Ufa, DEFA and Studio Babelsberg. Temporary exhibitions, family exhibitions and foyer exhibitions on German and international film and media topics complement the exhibition programme. The Film Museum operates a museum shop and a cinema with several screenings daily, silent film screenings are accompanied by music on the historic Welte cinema organ.

Wikipedia: Filmmuseum Potsdam (DE), Website

127 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 21: Casino Potsdam

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Casino Potsdam

The houses at Schloßstraße 13 and 14 in Potsdam are protected buildings as architectural monuments.

Wikipedia: Schloßstraße 13 und 14 (Potsdam) (DE), Website

339 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 22: Neuer Lustgarten

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Neuer Lustgarten

The Lustgarten was the oldest garden in Potsdam. Its former area is framed by Breite Straße with the Marstall in the north, the Havel in the east, the railway embankment in the south and the Ministry of the Interior in the west. Created as a baroque garden for the city palace under the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm and half transformed into a parade ground under King Frederick William I, the rest was redesigned by Frederick II and in 1829 by Peter Joseph Lenné. After the Second World War, the damaged Lustgarten was built over with the Ernst Thälmann Stadium and later with the Interhotel Potsdam. On the occasion of the Federal Garden Show in 2001, after the demolition of the stadium without replacement, the largely sealed New Lustgarten was created as an event area.

Wikipedia: Lustgarten (Potsdam) (DE)

370 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 23: Bittschriftenlinde

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Bittschriftenlinde

The petition linden tree stood in Potsdam in Humboldtstraße, at the southern corner of the City Palace. It was the most famous tree in the city. On the site of the original tree there is now a second lime tree, which is also called the petition lime tree.

Wikipedia: Bittschriftenlinde (DE)

158 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 24: Der Jahrhundertschritt

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Der Jahrhundertschritt Jürgen Langguth / Copyrighted free use

The Step of the Century is a bronze sculpture that was created by Wolfgang Mattheuer in 1984. It is considered one of the most important works of art in the GDR at the time of the division of Germany and is a parable of the turmoil of the 20th century.

Wikipedia: The Step of the Century (EN)

668 meters / 8 minutes

Sight 25: Nuthepark

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The Nuthepark is a near-natural landscape park in Potsdam. The park stretches along the east bank of the Havel south and north of the mouth of the Nuthe, starting in the south at Potsdam Central Station to Babelsberg Park. It was newly created between 1998 and 2001 in the course of preparations for the Federal Garden Show 2001 on a fallow site. To connect the two parts, the Nuthe is spanned by a pedestrian and cyclist bridge shortly before the mouth. The green spaces newly created in 2020 by the Investment Bank of the State of Brandenburg are to merge with the areas of the Nuthepark in the future.

Wikipedia: Nuthepark (DE)

636 meters / 8 minutes

Sight 26: NANO – Wissenschaft begreifen

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The Extavium, the so-called hands-on world, is a scientific, didactic institution with an exhibition in Potsdam.

Wikipedia: Extavium (DE), Facebook, Instagram, Website, Youtube

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Disclaimer Please be aware of your surroundings and do not enter private property. We are not liable for any damages that occur during the tours.

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