Potsdam

Potsdam is the capital and largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of Berlin, and lies embedded in a hilly morainic landscape dotted with many lakes, around 20 of which are located within Potsdam's city limits. It lies some southwest of Berlin's city centre. The name of the city and of many of its boroughs are of Slavic origin.
Potsdam was a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Emperor until 1918. Its planning embodied ideas of the Age of Enlightenment: through a careful balance of architecture and landscape, Potsdam was intended as "a picturesque, pastoral dream" which would remind its residents of their relationship with nature and reason.
The city, which is over 1,000 years old, is widely known for its palaces, its lakes, and its overall historical and cultural significance. Landmarks include the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, Germany's largest World Heritage Site, as well as other palaces such as the Orangery Palace, the New Palace, Cecilienhof Palace, and Charlottenhof Palace. Potsdam was also the location of the significant Potsdam Conference in 1945, the conference where the three heads of government of the USSR, the US, and the UK decided on the division of Germany following its surrender, a conference which defined Germany's history for the following 45 years.
Babelsberg, in the south-eastern part of Potsdam, was already by the 1930s the home of a major film production studio and it has enjoyed success as an important centre of European film production since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Filmstudio Babelsberg, founded in 1912, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world.
Potsdam developed into a centre of science in Germany in the 19th century. Today, there are three public colleges, the University of Potsdam, and more than 30 research institutes in the city.

Geography

The area was formed from a series of large moraines left after the last glacial period. Today, only one quarter of the city is built up, the rest remaining as green space.
There are about 20 lakes and rivers in and around Potsdam, such as the Havel, the Griebnitzsee, Templiner See, Tiefer See, Jungfernsee, Teltowkanal, Heiliger See, and Sacrower See. The highest point is the Kleiner Ravensberg.

Subdivisions

Potsdam is divided into seven historic city Stadtteile and nine new Ortsteile, which joined the city in 2003. The appearance of the city boroughs is quite different. Those in the north and in the centre consist mainly of historical buildings, the south of the city is dominated by larger areas of newer buildings.
The city of Potsdam is divided into 32 Stadtteile, which are divided further into 84 statistical Bezirke.
Today, one distinguishes between the older parts of the city – these are the city center, the western and northern suburbs, Bornim, Bornstedt, Nedlitz, Potsdam South, Babelsberg, Drewitz, Stern and Kirchsteigfeld – and those communities incorporated after 1990 which have since 2003 become Ortsteile – these are Eiche, Fahrland, Golm, Groß Glienicke, Grube, Marquardt, Neu Fahrland, Satzkorn and Uetz-Paaren. The new Ortsteile are located mainly in the north of the city. For the history of all incorporations, see the relevant section on incorporation and spin-offs.
Structure with statistical numbering:

1 Potsdam Nord
* 11 Bornim
* 12 Nedlitz
* 13 Bornstedt
* 14 Sacrow
* 15 Eiche
* 16 Grube
* 17 Golm
2 Nördliche Vorstädte
* 21 Nauener Vorstadt
* 22 Jägervorstadt
* 23 Berliner Vorstadt
3 Westliche Vorstädte
* 31 Brandenburger Vorstadt
* 32 Potsdam West
4 Innenstadt
* 41 Historische Innenstadt
* 43 Zentrum Ost und Nuthepark
* 44 Hauptbahnhof und Brauhausberg Nord
5 Babelsberg
* 51 Klein Glienicke
* 52 Babelsberg Nord
* 53 Babelsberg Süd
6 Potsdam Süd
* 61 Templiner Vorstadt
* 62 Teltower Vorstadt
* 63 Schlaatz
* 64 Waldstadt I und Industriegelände
* 65 Waldstadt II
7 Potsdam Südost
* 71 Stern
* 72 Drewitz
* 73 Kirchsteigfeld
8 Nördliche Ortsteile
* 81 Uetz-Paaren
* 82 Marquardt
* 83 Satzkorn
* 84 Fahrland
* 85 Neu Fahrland
* 86 Groß Glienicke

At the end of 2019, a change was made to the administrative structure:

Borough 41 has been renamed: previously Nördliche Innenstadt, now Historische Innenstadt.
Borough 42 ' has been divided into two boroughs, 43 ' and 44 '. The number 42 was thus repealed.
Some very sparsely populated urban boroughs have been disbanded:
* Borough 33 ' was incorporated into borough 32 '.
* Borough 66 ' was incorporated into borough 64. The borough was then renamed Waldstadt I und Industriegelände.
* Borough 67 ' was incorporated into borough 61 '.
Climate

Officially the climate is oceanic - more degraded by being far from the coast and to the east, but using the 1961–1990 normal and the 0 °C isotherm the city has a humid continental climate, which also shows a slight influence of the continent different from the climates predominantly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Low averages below freezing for almost all winter causing snows that are frequent and winters are cold, but not as stringent as inland locations or with greater influence from the same. Summer is also relatively warm with temperatures between 23 and 24 °C, the heat waves being influenced by the UHI of Potsdam.
The average winter high temperature is, with a low of. Snow is common in the winter. Spring and autumn are short. Summers are mild, with a high of and a low of.
The Potsdam weather station has recorded the following extreme values:

Its highest temperature was on 20 July 2022.
Its lowest temperature was on 11 February 1929.
Its greatest annual precipitation was in 2007.
Its least annual precipitation was in 2018.
The longest annual sunshine was 2,246.7 hours in 2018.
The shortest annual sunshine was 1,355.3 hours in 1903.
Etymology

The name "Potsdam" originally seems to have been Poztupimi. A common theory is that it derives from an old West Slavonic term meaning "beneath the oaks", i.e., the corrupted pod dubmi/dubimi. However, some question this explanation.

History

Pre- and early history

The area around Potsdam shows signs of occupancy since the Bronze Age and was part of Magna Germania as described by Tacitus. After the great migrations of the Germanic peoples, Slavs moved in and Potsdam was probably founded after the 7th century as a settlement of the Hevelli tribe centred on a castle. It was first mentioned in a document in 993 as Poztupimi, when Emperor Otto III gifted the territory to the Quedlinburg Abbey, then led by his aunt Matilda. By 1317, it was mentioned as a small town. It gained its town charter in 1345. In 1573, it was still a small market town of 2,000 inhabitants.

Early modern era

Potsdam lost nearly half of its population due to the Thirty Years' War.
A continuous Hohenzollern possession since 1415, Potsdam became prominent, when it was chosen in 1660 as the hunting residence of Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg, the core of the powerful state that later became the Kingdom of Prussia. It also housed Prussian barracks.
After the Edict of Potsdam in 1685, Potsdam became a centre of European immigration. Its religious freedom attracted people from France, Russia, the Netherlands and Bohemia. The edict accelerated population growth and economic recovery.
Later, the city became a full residence of the Prussian royal family. The buildings of the royal residences were built mainly during the reign of Frederick the Great. One of these is the Sanssouci Palace, famed for its formal gardens and Rococo interiors. Other royal residences include the New Palace and the Orangery.
In 1815, at the formation of the Province of Brandenburg, Potsdam became the provincial capital until 1918, except for a period between 1827 and 1843 when Berlin was the provincial capital. The province comprised two governorates named after their capitals Potsdam and Frankfurt.

Governorate of Potsdam

Between 1815 and 1945, the city of Potsdam served as capital of the . The Regierungsbezirk encompassed the former districts of Uckermark, the Mark of Priegnitz, and the greater part of the Middle March. It was situated between Mecklenburg and the Province of Pomerania on the north, and the Province of Saxony on the south and west. Towards the north west the governorate was bounded by the rivers Elbe and the Havel, and on the north east by the Oder. The south eastern boundary was to the neighbouring governorate of Frankfurt. About 500,000 inhabitants lived in the Potsdam governorate, which covered an area of about, divided into thirteen rural districts, partially named after their capitals:
The traditional towns in the governorate were small, however, in the course of the industrial labour migration some reached the rank of urban districts. The principal towns were Brandenburg upon Havel, Köpenick, Potsdam, Prenzlau, Spandau and Ruppin. Until 1875 Berlin also was a town within the governorate. After its disentanglement a number of its suburbs outside Berlin's municipal borders grew to towns, many forming urban Bezirke within the governorate of Potsdam such as Charlottenburg, Lichtenberg, Rixdorf, and Schöneberg. The urban Bezirke were :

Berlin	Brandenburg/Havel	Charlottenburg	Eberswalde
Lichtenberg	Schöneberg	Deutsch-Wilmersdorf	Rixdorf
Potsdam	Rathenow	Spandau	Wittenberge