The company passed through the Cathedral, and entered the Museum, which is a very handsome edifice. Its art collections are hardly excelled in Europe. Besides vast galleries of painting and sculpture, it contains antiquities from the north, and from Egypt, and curiosities from distant lands, which are among the finest in the world; but the students were more interested in the historical collection than in anything else, particularly the relics of Frederick the Great. Among the latter are the cast of him taken after death, the bullet with which he was wounded at Rossbach, a wax figure of him, clothed in the uniform he wore on the day of his death, his books, cane, and a flute. A dress of the Great Elector, his pipes, and a glass case containing the stars, orders, and decorations of Napoleon, taken at Waterloo by the Prussians, in the carriage now at Madame Tussaud's exhibition in London, are also to be seen in this Museum. The beautiful frescoes in the grand hall were carefully examined, and their allegorical meaning explained.
The party went through the Arsenal, and then visited the Aquarium, a private exhibition. The various apartments were in the shape of grottoes of artificial rocks, in which the tanks were ingeniously arranged. The animals were fishes, reptiles, and birds, of which there was an endless variety; and the students generally were more pleased with this exhibition than with anything else they saw in Berlin.
After dinner, a portion of the party went out to Charlottenberg in the horse car. The town contains a palace built by Frederick I. The gardens are prettily laid out, but almost the only attraction of the place is the monument of Queen Louisa, the most beautiful and amiable princess of her day. She was the wife of Frederick William III., and the mother of the present king. The monument is the reclining form of the queen in marble, on a sarcophagus. It is the work of Rauch, the great sculptor, and is universally appreciated. By its side is a similar monument to the king, her husband. They are contained within a Doric temple.
Some of the party who did not visit Charlottenberg went to the Town Hall, under which is a vast beer hall and restaurant, where they had an opportunity to see the manners of the Germans. The same students went to the Jewish synagogue, a large building in Oriental style, holding four thousand people, which cost a million dollars. It contains a gallery for the women, and has a lofty dome. On the backs of the settees were the names of persons who had purchased seats at a thousand thalers each. It is said that those who built this synagogue realize a handsome percentage on their investment from the letting of seats. The Bourse is a handsome building, the interior of which is seventy feet high, with a gallery for visitors extending across the middle, over a partition which divides the grain and the stock exchanges.
The next day the entire company went to Potsdam, which may be called the city of palaces, for there are not less than five royal residences in the town. It is eighteen miles from Berlin, and was the favorite summer-home of Frederick the Great, as it is of the present king. Carriages of all sorts and kinds were gathered for the use of the party, and they drove to Babelsberg, which is several miles from the railroad station. As they approached their destination, they crossed the River Havel, which here widens in a broad lake. The carriages were left at the entrance of the grounds, and a walk through a pleasant grove brought the tourists to a lovely lawn, bordering on the river, and presenting one of the most beautiful landscapes to be found in any country. This region is diversified by gentle elevations, on one of which stands the castle or chateau of the present king. The estate is his private property, and he pays all the expenses of keeping it, even to the soldiers who are sometimes on duty there. The castle is built on the side of a hill, with an entrance from the lawn, though the principal one is on the other side, one story higher. The party entered at the rear, and came into small apartments, cosily furnished. The skins and heads of several deer, killed by the king, are displayed here. Up one flight the rooms are larger, but they are entirely different from those usually found in palaces. They are elegantly but simply furnished, and contain a great variety of objects of art, with small paintings of the best artists: indeed, everything about them indicates the highest taste and refinement. The queen's rooms are very cosy and home-like. Up stairs are the apartments of the Grand Duchess of Baden, the king's daughter, and of the crown prince. His majesty's bed-room is exceedingly plain, having a narrow bed with chintz curtains. On the wall over the bed hangs a water-color picture, given him by the queen at their silver wedding. Near this chamber is the king's working room; and the students gazed curiously at the books open on the table, the pens with which his majesty wrote, and various other articles he used. In the room are chairs for the ministers when he holds a council here. The view from the windows of the lawn, the lake, and the grove is very fine. Babelsberg, for quiet beauty and taste, cannot be surpassed.
The students did not enter the Marble Palace on the banks of the lake. In the water are several miniature vessels and a little steamer, all of them for the amusement and instruction of the little folks. Passing the Russian village, which contains eleven houses like those to be found in Russia, belonging to the better class in the country, built by a party sent here by Nicholas, the sight-seers arrived at the gardens of Sans Souci. They are rather stiffly laid out, with plenty of fountains, statues, fish-ponds, and other ornaments. On a hill, with a very long flight of steps leading down to the principal avenue of the garden, is the Palace of Sans Souci,—"without care,"—built by Frederick the Great in 1745. At the end of the terrace are the graves of his favorite dogs, and of the horse he rode in many of his battles. In his will he directed that he should be buried among them, but his request was not heeded. In the palace the room where he breathed his last is shown. A clock, which he always wound up himself, stopped at the instant of his death, and still indicates the time—twenty minutes past two.
On the hill near the palace is the historic windmill of Sans Souci, separated from it only by a road. Frederick the Great wished to extend his grounds in the direction of the mill, but the miller refused to sell it. In a lawsuit with the owner the king was defeated, and submitted to the decision. He was so well pleased with Prussian justice, that he pulled down the original mill, which was a very small one, and erected for the miller the present one, on a much larger scale. In the reign of Frederick William IV., the miller who owned it, doubtless a descendant of the one who defeated the monarch at law, became embarrassed, and offered to sell it; but the king settled on him a sum sufficient to extricate him from his difficulties, declaring that the mill was a national monument, and belonged to Prussian history.
Not far from the mill is the orangery of the palace, and the Raphael Saloon. The New Palace is the one built by Frederick the Great at the close of the Seven Years' War, to prove that his funds were not exhausted. It contains seventy-two apartments, many of them very gaudy. Some have walls and floors of fantastic marble mosaics. There is a hall whose walls are all composed of shells, and in one various kinds of minerals are inlaid on the sides. Some relics of the great monarch are shown. In the library is a copy of his works, with notes and criticisms by Voltaire, whom Frederick admired and invited to his palace. The New Palace is now one of the residences of the crown prince, Frederick, who married the Princess Royal of England. In the Antique Temple, near it, is a statue of Queen Louisa, the work of Rauch, who labored fifteen years upon it, and it is regarded as even superior to the one on her tomb.
From this palace the company went to the Garrison Church, where, under the marble pulpit, above ground, is the tomb of Frederick the Great and Frederick William I. The sexton opens the tomb, and visitors are permitted to gaze upon the coffins of the two monarchs. That of the great king is a large and perfectly plain metallic coffin. His sword formerly lay upon it, but was stolen by Napoleon, who visited the tomb. On each side of the pulpit hang the eagles and standards taken from the French by the Prussians, and their presence seems to be a just retaliation for the theft.
The old Royal Palace, or Residenz, commenced in 1660, is a very large building, with interminable suites of rooms, some of them occasionally used at the present time. Within it are shown several articles belonging to Frederick the Great, as one of his flutes, some music composed by him, and his old boots. His little dining-room contains a table, in which is a slide, to enable him to dispense with the attendance of a servant. The apartment is provided with double doors, so that he could entertain a friend without being over-heard.