ABSTRACT
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had been to Berlin only once, in 1778. War between Prussia and Austria was imminent, and Duke Carl August had asked Goethe to accompany him to the Prussian capital. Berlin could not have been more different: it was a noisy city getting ready for war. Goethe visited palaces and military buildings in Berlin and Potsdam and was invited to dinner by Prince Henry, the brother of King Frederick II of Prussia, who was away in Silesia. When Frederick II died in 1786, Berlin had 150,000 inhabitants. After London, Paris and St Petersburg, Berlin had become the fourth largest capital in Europe. As Napoleon's army retreated from Russia during 1813, it was first defeated in August at Grossbeeren, near Berlin, and then, at the Volkerschlacht at Leipzig. Frederick William III, following the tradition of the Prussian kings before him, sought to have his memory preserved by linking his name to grand, representative buildings in Berlin and Potsdam.
