The Treskow family is an old and prominent German aristocratic family, that descended as a branch of the medieval ("Uradel") House of Tresckow. [1] The family rose to fame in Prussia due to their large landholdings and business ventures, resulting in many streets and boulevards being named after the family today. [2] [3] [4]
The Treskow branch of the medieval House of Tresckow descends from Sigmund Otto Joseph von Treskow (1756–1825) and was formally recognized by King Frederick William II of Prussia in 1797. U.S. President George Washington gave Sigismund Otto Joseph 4000 acres of woods along the Mississippi River in return for providing goods to the Continental Army. Treskow also financed Napoleon Bonaparte's army during the French Revolution, for which he was given the Regent Diamond. [5] [6] The diamond, which is one of the world's largest and was worn by various French kings and emperors in their crowns, is now on display at the Louvre as part of the French Crown Jewels. [7] Napoleon later visited the family at their Owinska and Radojewo palaces and proctected the Treskow family's estates from destruction during his later campaigns. [8] [9]
The descendants of Sigismund Otto Joseph von Treskow formed their own branches of the family, respectively, and acquired additional estates and palaces. Owinska Palace is known to be a remarkable early work of the famous architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, whose most famous works include the Old Museum and Concert Hall in Berlin. European aristocrats, such as Prince Antoni Radziwiłł, Princess Louise of Prussia and King Frederick William IV, came to the family's estate to enjoy the grounds and architecture.
Friedrichsfelde Palace and its surrounding lands were acquired by Carl von Treskow in 1812, who went on to buy nine more surrounding country estates, and was the family's Berlin residence until the Soviet invasion in 1945. [10] The Berlin district of Karlshorst is named after Carl von Treskow, who started its development into a mansion colony in 1825. [11] Sigismund von Treskow, who lived in the palace from 1880, continued the development of the district and the nearby Karlshorst racecourse. Treskowallee, a major avenue in Berlin, was named after Carl von Treskow. [12]
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 25 kilometres southwest of Berlin's city centre. The name of the city and of many of its boroughs are of Slavic origin.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel was a Prussian architect, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both Neoclassical and neo-Gothic buildings. His most famous buildings are found in and around Berlin.
Prince Antoni Henryk Radziwiłł was a Polish and Prussian noble, aristocrat, musician, and politician. Initially a hereditary Duke of Nieśwież and Ołyka, as a scion of the Radziwiłł family he also held the honorific title of a Reichsfürst of the Holy Roman Empire. Between 1815 and 1831 he acted as Duke-Governor of the Grand Duchy of Posen, an autonomous province of the Kingdom of Prussia created out of Greater Polish lands annexed in the Partitions of Poland.
Bellevue Palace, located in Berlin's Tiergarten district, has been the official residence of the president of Germany since 1994. The schloss is situated on the banks of the Spree river, near the Berlin Victory Column, along the northern edge of the Großer Tiergarten park. Its name – the French for "beautiful view" – derives from its scenic prospect over the Spree's course.
Cecilienhof Palace is a palace in Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany, built from 1914 to 1917 in the layout of an English Tudor manor house. Cecilienhof was the last palace built by the House of Hohenzollern that ruled the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire until the end of World War I. It is famous for having been the location of the Potsdam Conference in 1945, in which the leaders of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States made important decisions affecting the shape of post World War II Europe and Asia. Cecilienhof has been part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990.
Schloss Charlottenburg is a Baroque palace in Berlin, located in Charlottenburg, a district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough.
Peter Joseph Lenné was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect. As director general of the Royal Prussian palaces and parks in Potsdam and Berlin, his work shaped the development of 19th-century German garden design in the Neoclassical style. Laid out according to the principles of the English landscape garden, his parks are now World Heritage Sites.
Carl Gotthard Langhans was a Prussian master builder and royal architect. His churches, palaces, grand houses, interiors, city gates and theatres in Silesia, Berlin, Potsdam and elsewhere belong to the earliest examples of Neoclassical architecture in Germany. His best-known work is the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, national symbol of today’s Germany and German reunification in 1989/90.
Tresckow is a German aristocratic family originating from Mark Brandenburg and belonging to the German nobility dating back to the middle ages. A prominent branch of the family is known as Treskow and acquired substantial land and wealth in the 18th and 19th century.
Friedrich August Stüler was an influential Prussian architect and builder. His masterpiece is the Neues Museum in Berlin, as well as the dome of the triumphal arch of the main portal of the Berliner Schloss.
Neuhardenberg is a municipality in the district Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the site of Neuhardenberg Palace, residence of the Prussian statesman Prince Karl August von Hardenberg (1750–1822). The municipal area comprises the villages of Altfriedland, Quappendorf and Wulkow. Neuhardenberg is part of the Amt Seelow-Land.
Martin Carl Philipp Gropius was a German architect.
The Schloss Britz is the former manor-house of the historical Rittergut and village Britz, now a district of Berlin-Neukölln. Today it is the headquarters of the cultural organization Kulturstiftung Schloss Britz and includes authentic reconstructed rooms from around 1880. The house is a museum demonstrating interiors of the Gründerzeit era. The manorial park is also well preserved with its mature trees and its 1890s system of trails. In 1997 the park was honored with the German Gustav Meyer Prize for the accuracy and historic authenticity of the reconstruction.
Albrechtsberg Palace or Albrechtsberg Castle is a Neoclassical stately home above the Elbe river in the Loschwitz district of Dresden. It was erected in 1854 according to plans designed by the Prussian court and landscaping architect Adolf Lohse (1807–1867) at the behest of Prince Albert, younger brother of the Prussian king Frederick William IV.
Babelsberg Park is a 114 hectare park in the northeast of the city of Potsdam, bordering on the Tiefen See lake on the River Havel. The park was first designed by the landscape artist Peter Joseph Lenné and, after him, by Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau and Karl Friedrich Schinkel, by order of the then-prince William I and his wife, Augusta. Located on a hill sloping down to the lake, the park and castle are part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin, which were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List because of their unique architecture and testimony to the development of landscape design.
Babelsberg Palace lies in the eponymous park and quarter of Potsdam, the capital of the German state of Brandenburg, near Berlin. For over 50 years it was the summer residence of Prince William, later German Emperor William I and King of Prussia and his wife, Augusta of the House of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, German Empress and Queen of Prussia. Along with the surrounding park and other parks in the area, the Babelsberg Palace was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1990 for its architectural cohesion and its testimony to the power of the Prussian monarchy.
The Schloss Tegel or Humboldt-Schloss is a country house in Tegel, part of the Reinickendorf district of the German capital Berlin. The brothers Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt spent much of their childhood in a former schloss on the site and on the estate, which extends almost as far as Lake Tegel.
The Friedrichsfelde Palace is a Neoclassical-style building in the centre of the Tierpark Berlin in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. It was property of various noble Prussians and occasionally owned by Prussian Kings. The last owners were the Treskow family, whose landmarked family burial ground is located in the surrounding park. Currently, the palace offers exhibitions about its history and is a place for classical concerts and cultural events.
Treskowallee is a large boulevard in Berlin, Germany. It runs through the boroughs of Lichtenberg and Treptow-Köpenick and is home to many landmark buildings and institutions, such as the Berlin School of Engineering and Economics (HTW) and the Karlshorst horseracing track. Between 2013 and 2015, a neighborhood named Treskow Höfe was developed along the northern end of the avenue. It is named for the Treskow family.
The Treskow family burial ground is a historic landmark in Berlin, Germany. It was established in 1821 by Carl Sigismund von Treskow for his family, a branch of the von Treskow noble family, and is located in the park of Friedrichsfelde Palace in the Friedrichsfelde district.