Schwielowsee
Encyclopedia
Schwielowsee is a municipality
Municipalities of Germany
Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...

 in the Potsdam-Mittelmark
Potsdam-Mittelmark
Potsdam-Mittelmark is a Kreis in the western part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring are the district Havelland, the district free cities Brandenburg and Potsdam, the Bundesland Berlin, the district Teltow-Fläming, and the districts Wittenberg, Anhalt-Bitterfeld and Jerichower Land in...

 district, in Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated on the shore of the Schwielowsee
Schwielowsee
Schwielowsee is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Schwielowsee lake, through which the River Havel flows. The municipality was founded on December 31, 2002 in merger of the three villages Caputh, Geltow and Ferch. The...

 lake, through which the River Havel
Havel
The Havel is a river in north-eastern Germany, flowing through the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe river and in length...

 flows. The municipality was founded on December 31, 2002 in merger of the three villages Caputh, Geltow and Ferch. The Caputh Ferry
Caputh Ferry
The Caputh Ferry is a vehicular cable ferry in the municipality of Schwielowsee of the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It crosses the River Havel at its outlet from the Templiner See to the Schwielowsee, and crosses between the villages of Caputh and Geltow....

, a cable ferry
Cable ferry
A cable ferry is guided and in many cases propelled across a river or other larger body of water by cables connected to both shores. They are also called chain ferries, floating bridges, or punts....

 across the Havel, links Caputh and Geltow. In the east Schwielowsee shares border with the City of Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....

, in the west with the town of Werder (Havel)
Werder (Havel)
Werder , is a town in the state of Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Havel river in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, west of the state's capital Potsdam.Werder has a long and rich history and is a nationally recognized Erholungsort – a government designation given to...

.

History

Geltow (together with Potsdam) was first mentioned as Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...

 Geliti within the Hevelli lands in a 993 deed by Emperor Otto III
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto III , a King of Germany, was the fourth ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. He was elected King in 983 on the death of his father Otto II and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 996.-Early reign:...

, who ceded it to his aunt, abbess Matilda of Quedlinburg
Quedlinburg Abbey
Quedlinburg Abbey was a house of secular canonesses in Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was founded in 936 on the initiative of Saint Mathilda, the widow of Henry the Fowler, as his memorial...

. The ford
Ford (crossing)
A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading or in a vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low.The names of many towns...

 in the Havel had been a significant river-crossing since ancient times. Today the Bundesstraße 1
Bundesstraße 1
The Bundesstraße 1 or B1 is a German federal highway running in an east-west direction from the Dutch border near Aachen to the Polish border at Küstrin-Kietz on the Oder River.-Route description:...

federal highway crosses the river at the Baumgartenbrücke.

Caputh

Caputh got a railway station in 1904. Since early 20th century it was appraised as a remote residencial area by wealthy urban people.
  • Caputh Palace, built in 1662 by Philip de Chiese, quartermaster general
    Quartermaster general
    A Quartermaster general is the staff officer in charge of supplies for a whole army.- The United Kingdom :In the United Kingdom, the Quartermaster-General to the Forces is one of the most senior generals in the British Army...

     of Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg
    Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg
    |align=right|Frederick William was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia – and thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia – from 1640 until his death. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is popularly known as the "Great Elector" because of his military and political prowess...

    . In 1671 Frederick William gave the palace to his second wife Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
    Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
    The House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg , known as the House of Glücksburg for short, is a German ducal house, junior branches of which include the royal houses of Denmark and Norway, the deposed royal house of Greece, and the heir to the thrones of the Commonwealth realms The House...

    . Notable is the Tile Hall (Fliesensaal) of 1720 with about 7,500 pieces of Delftware
    Delftware
    Delftware, or Delft pottery, denotes blue and white pottery made in and around Delft in the Netherlands and the tin-glazed pottery made in the Netherlands from the 16th century....

     tiles, placed by order of King Frederick William I of Prussia
    Frederick William I of Prussia
    Frederick William I of the House of Hohenzollern, was the King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death...

    . The park was designed by Peter Joseph Lenné
    Peter Joseph Lenné
    Peter Joseph Lenné was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect from Bonn who worked in the German classicist style.-Childhood and development:...

     in 1820.

  • The Caputh village church is a work by Friedrich August Stüler
    Friedrich August Stüler
    Friedrich August Stüler was an influential Prussian architect and builder. His masterwork is the Neues Museum in Berlin, as well as the dome of the triumphal arch of the main portal of the Berliner Stadtschloss.-Life:...

    . Built in a basilica
    Basilica
    The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

     form, it was consecrated
    Consecration
    Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...

     in 1852 in the presence of King Frederick William IV of Prussia
    Frederick William IV of Prussia
    |align=right|Upon his accession, he toned down the reactionary policies enacted by his father, easing press censorship and promising to enact a constitution at some point, but he refused to enact a popular legislative assembly, preferring to work with the aristocracy through "united committees" of...

    .

  • Summer house of Albert Einstein
    Albert Einstein
    Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...

     in Caputh, built in 1929. Einstein, though a non swimmer, was a passionate recreational sailor
    Sailor
    A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...

     on the lake, but was only able to use his retreat until the Nazi
    Nazism
    Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

     takeover in 1933. After German reunification
    German reunification
    German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

     and the restitution
    Restitution
    The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery. It is to be contrasted with the law of compensation, which is the law of loss-based recovery. Obligations to make restitution and obligations to pay compensation are each a type of legal response to events in the real world. When a court...

     to the Einstein family, the house is now a property of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
    Hebrew University of Jerusalem
    The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...

    .

Geltow

Geltow was always passed by a lot of strangers on the main road. Like Caputh it has a railway station since 1904. The village church of Geltow was built according to plans of the unlucky Emperor Frederick III
Frederick III, German Emperor
Frederick III was German Emperor and King of Prussia for 99 days in 1888, the Year of the Three Emperors. Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Karl known informally as Fritz, was the only son of Emperor William I and was raised in his family's tradition of military service...

 after the model of the church of Terlan
Terlan
Terlan is a comune in South Tyrol in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 50 km north of the city of Trento and about 9 km northwest of the city of Bolzano.-Geography:...

o in Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...

, with glazed
Ceramic glaze
Glaze is a layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fired to fuse to a ceramic object to color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof it.-Use:...

 roof tiles and a spire
Spire
A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....

 outside the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

. It was consecrated in 1887. Friedrich's last visit on June 6, 1888 was perpetuated by Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist writer.-Youth:Fontane was born in Neuruppin into a Huguenot family. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an apothecary, his father's profession. He became an...

in his poem Kaiser Friedrich III. Letzte Fahrt.

Caputh and Geltow are connected by one of the busiest ferries of river Havel and by a railway bridge with a sidewalk,

Ferch

The fishermens' village of ferch on the southwestern end of lake Schwielowsee kept its rural character into late 20th century, though it was visited by lots of weekend tourists by boat since late 19th century. And a colony of painters settled there, too.
  • The village church of Ferch has been built in 1635. Galleries allow assemblies of a numerous congregation in the small building. The wooden barrel-vault has the structure of a boat.
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