Historische Mühle
The Historic Mill of Sanssouci rises in Potsdam beside Sanssouci Palace, its Dutch-style windmill silhouette standing high above the surrounding landscape. The reconstructed structure follows an eighteenth-century design, with wooden sails extending over 35 metres.
A post mill stood here in the late 1730s, before Sanssouci Palace appeared between 1745 and 1747. Cornelius Wilhelm van der Bosch replaced it with a larger smock mill between 1787 and 1791, based on a Dutch prototype and funded by Frederick William II. Peter Joseph Lenné later shaped the surroundings, while milling continued until 1858 and the site became a visitor attraction by 1861. War destroyed the mill in 1945, and reconstruction during the 1980s produced the replica you see today, using building methods associated with around 1800.
Its best-known story links the sails to Frederick the Great and the miller Johann William Grävenitz. According to legend, the king wanted to buy the mill because its noise disturbed him, but the miller refused and trusted the courts in Berlin.
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myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.