Sundials in
Berlin and around

Sundials in Potsdam

Sundials often could be found next to observatories or planetaria. Knowing the address of such a building includes probably knowing the place of a sundial.

Sundial at the Einstein tower, Potsdam, fall 1997

The Einstein tower in Potsdam is placed within the science park "Albert Einstein" on the Telegraph hill. This isolated place may be the reason for the fact that one can ask a Potsdam citizen for the way to the Einstein tower without getting a hint. The sundial near the Einstein tower may be even lesser known.

The Einstein tower inhabits a solar observatory and was built 1920/21 by the Architect Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953) in an expressionistic manner. The picture from fall 1997 shows the tower before its restauration. - The sundial belongs architectonical to the older observatory buildings built around 1900.

The 205x256 sized GIFs above are downscaled versions of 512x640 sized JPEGs (119 and 146kB) referenced by the GIFs.

Sundial at the building of the Mühle Potsdam GmbH, Potsdam, fall 1997

On the way to the sundial at the Einstein tower from the train station Potsdam Stadt one may pass the sundial in the Leipziger Str. The GIF above references to a JPEG (72kB), where the surrounding factory buildings and the street are visible. The hill vis-a-vis of the sundial leads to the Brandenburg diet building which one has to pass to get to the science park on the Telegraph hill.

Collage around the sundial in Potsdam Sanssouci, fall 1995

• Sanssouci, Roman Bath, 106943 Bytes Color JPEG, view to the Roman Bath Building in Park Sanssouci, taken near the sundial location (sky edited)
• Sanssouci, Charlottenhof, 86483 Bytes Color JPEG, Charlottenhof Castle seen from Charlottenhof Park (some details removed)
• Sanssouci, Park Charlottenhof, 38437 Bytes Color JPEG, Dome of the New Palais seen from Park Charlottenhof (the obligatory montage cranes are not removed but originally hidden behind the trees)
• Potsdam, Steam Engine House for the operation of the Sanssouci park fountains, 57652 Bytes Color JPEG (also in this picture the nearby plate buildings are not edited but hidden through the direction of view)
• Sanssouci castle , 128366 Bytes Color JPEG, view to "Sans Souci" (french for "without worries") castle with terrasse
• Sanssouci, Krimlindenallee, 96375 Bytes Color JPEG, Sanssouci Orangerie with King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV. monument, seen through the Krimlindenallee (Orangerie sharpened, picture smoothed, some unguilty people removed)
• Sanssouci sundial, 62167 Bytes Color JPEG, Sundial from 1740AD in the garden of Sanssouci castle vis-a-vis of the Roman Bath (the sundial is suffering a bad restauration at the right side in the shadow which is corrected in the picture)
• Potsdam, Arcades, 51391 Bytes Color JPEG, View from the Long Bridge (sky edited, the plane wasn't in the original picture but flying around on that day)
• Potsdam-Sanssouci, New Palais, 49929 Bytes Color JPEG, street side view of the New Palais
• Sanssouci, Archer, 105888 Bytes Color JPEG, statue in Sanssouci park vis-a-vis of the Orangerie and on the same field as the Friedrich-the-Great-Monument
• Sanssouci, galery building and historical windmill, 135239 Bytes Color JPEG
• Sanssouci, Sundial, 31268 Bytes Color JPEG, backside of the sundial within Sanssouci park (within the collage map the real background of the sundial - a lot of rubble and sandhills - is visible, the referenced picture is constructed from the original out of two area selections)
• Potsdam, One Pointer Clock , 82570 Bytes Color JPEG
• Sanssouci, Gardening Buildings, 59915 Bytes Color JPEG, Roman Architecture Communs from the Gardening in the Sanssouci park near the Roman Bath

Historical astronomical Instruments in Potsdam Sanssouci, colored postcard around 1910

The 403x235 GIF87 (86kBytes) above shows a colored postcard from the beginning of the 20th century and is referencing to a 806x470 JPEG (191kBytes) of the same picture of the front yard of the orangery in Potsdam Sanssouci.

An armillarsphere as the object hold by dragons in the left part of the image is a historical instrument for measuring the fixstar positions, but as a side effect its possible to determine the solar time. The armillarsphere and the other instruments in front of the orangery were originated by the Belgic Jesuit father Ferdinant Verbiest (1623-1688) who let build them for the imperial observatory in Beijing by German Jesuits.

The "visit" of the astronomical instruments in Potsdam lasted from 1901 until 1918. They were moved from China to Germany in 1901 after the boxer revolts and back in 1918 after the lost of the 1st World War and all colonies.

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-- jd --