Windmill in Autumn

This mill is located some 100 m West of Sanssoucci Palace. It is a reconstruction of a windmill in Dutch style. The real Dutch windmill was destroyed by a fire in 1945 when a Russian tank standing between the palace and the windmill was hit by a bazooka and exploded.

The reconstruction was finished in 1993. The original Dutch windmill was built from 1787 to 1791. Before that an even older windmill – built from 1737 to 1739 – stood at that location. And that oldest mill is the origin of a few legends.

The first windmill already stood on that particular spot even before Sanssoucci Palace was built by the Prussian King Friedrich II. One of the legends says, that the king felt disturbed by the rattling of the mill. So he had the miller appear before him because he wanted to buy the mill to tear it down. The miller refused to sell the mill. The king asked the miller: “He knows that I can take his mill without paying a single shilling?” The miller answered: “Yes, your majesty – were it not for the chamber court in Berlin.”

A nice legend – although untrue. The king actually quite liked mills – there were several ones around his park. It was the miller who complained that the new palace would block the wind that was necessary for his mill. The king ordered an expertise and even supported the building of an additional new mill.

Europe / Germany

Lat: 52° 24' 14.469" N
Long: 13° 2' 8.334" E

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Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

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