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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIt was the\npleasure palace of Kaiser \u201cEmperor\u201d Frederick the Great and it featured\nbeautiful Rococo style architecture and a magnificent Palace Garden and\nvineyard that Frederick the Great had planted, terraced by the stairs. On April\n14th,<\/sup> 1745, the foundation stone was laid for today\u2019s world-famous\nSans souci Palace. Sans souci is a masterpiece ensemble of architecture,\nsculpture and garden art. Frederick the Great was the Emperor of Prussia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the\nsummer of 1943. I was 16 years old and was allowed by my mother to take the\ntrain one more time to visit my dear Aunt Frieda and Uncle Christopher in\nCalau, outside Cotbus, south of Berlin. The bombing situation got to be too\ndangerous for me to undertake this journey by train. It was a great target for\nthe B-17 bombers. I often spent my summer vacations there, while growing up. My\nUncle Christopher was a breeder of fine horses, and I loved horses and riding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My train\ntook me to Berlin and my father, stationed there, picked me up and before I\nwould continue my journey to Calau I spent the day with my father. First, after\narriving in Potsdam my papa took me for an awesome lunch to a restaurant called\n\u201cCaf\u00e9 Repin\u201d near the picture gallery and Sans souci palace. A beautiful buffet\nwas laid out in this charming and very elegant Caf\u00e9, of all kinds of seafood\nsalads or seafood, grilled dishes with green or fruit salads. A very aromatic French\npress coffee and an endless list of wonderful desserts on a dessert menu. We\nhad a two-hour lunch and while we enjoyed this awesome food, we loved our time\ntogether. When the afternoon sun disappeared, it was time for me to return to\nthe train station to continue my journey to Calau, where Franz, Christopher\u2019s\ndriver awaited me with his horse-drawn carriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The drive\nfrom the Calau train station to the estate brought us through a serene forest, passing\nby an idyllic lake with wild geese enjoying the clear, clean water, and we arrived\nat Aunt Frieda\u2019s estate. Franz took care of my luggage and after big hugs from\nmy aunt and uncle we went into the house. Aunt Frieda and her husband were\nbreeding and raising beautiful horses. It was a marvelous place to spend some\nweeks during summers. There was a pond for swimming, a wonderful meadow in\nwhich to play in or just sit, relax and daydream of one\u2019s future, what it might\nyet hold for a 16-year-old girl. Or wander through the poppy fields, picking a\nbouquet of poppies for my aunt, only to have all the pretty red petals fall off\nbefore I would get to the house. What beautiful sight to behold, as far as the\neye can see, beautiful red poppies moving in the summer\u2019s breeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Sunday\nafternoon I would await anxiously Aunt Frieda\u2019s specialty for teatime. A\ndelicious pastry my aunt called \u201cKalte Schnauze\u201d cold snout. It was built in a\nloaf pan with alternating layers of lady fingers and chocolate ganache. Put\ninto the refrigerator overnight and sliced into thin slices and served with\nwhip cream. I would love it and the guests would love it. Later that year I\nwrote to my aunt and asked her for the recipe of this wonderful dessert. Soon a\npackage arrived, and in it was a beautiful tin with the \u201creal thing\u201d a\nwonderful cold snout and with it, the recipe. I still to this day know the\nrecipe and have made it many times for my dear husband Hal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was my\nlast visit to my favorite place with my favorite aunt and uncle. Bombing\nattacks on trains in that part of Germany were very frequent and my dear mama\nthought it too dangerous for travelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The war\nended and made an end to this life-long relationship. When the Russian hordes came\nthrough that pristine area in 1945 on their way to Berlin, all these beautiful\nestates were pilfered and burned to the ground and the families who lived there\nwere murdered.\n\nUncle Christopher and Aunt Frieda\u2019s son lost his\nlife already in Africa at the battle of El Alamein. His parents gave their\nlives in 1945, the end of WWII. \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sans Souci Palace in Potsdam It was the pleasure palace of Kaiser \u201cEmperor\u201d Frederick the Great and it featured beautiful Rococo style architecture and a magnificent Palace Garden and vineyard that Frederick the Great had planted, terraced by the stairs. On April 14th, 1745, the foundation stone was laid for today\u2019s world-famous Sans souci Palace. … <\/p>\n