Join CKS supporters and friends on our new Travel Program to glorious sites and exceptional events worldwide
Join us in September 2012 for the celebrations surrounding the 300th anniversary of the birth of Frederick the Great in Germany. Discover Dresden and Meissen en-route to Berlin, with its fabulous palaces and the glorious Potsdam Palace, the German Versailles, where doors will be opened exceptionally to our group.
Visit sites of cultural interest in many corners of the world with our own Vice-President Olivier Bernier, author and nationally celebrated senior lecturer on art and history. CKS trips are both fun and educational.
CKS groups are organized by Academic Arrangements Abroad to its high standards of comfort in accommodations and travel. Get to know one another in our small groups limited to 25 travelers.
This exciting new program is a generous contribution of Olivier Bernier’s talent and long experience in support of CKS. They will include a modest contribution to our work in the trip’s cost
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Neues Palais Potsdam
TRAVEL WITH OLIVIER BERNIER IN 2012
September 15-24, 2012
In the world of Fredrick the Great, Berlin and Dresden
View spectacular treasures in Dresden prior to driving (with a stop in Bauhaus Dessau) to Berlin. Join the festivities in Potsdam, celebrating the tercentenary of the birth of Fredrick the Great.
Fredrick the Great
Frederick the Great, King of Prussia was not only the greatest general of his age, he was also one of its smartest and most enthusiastic collectors. Italian masters and contemporary French paintings are the core of his collection, which includes Watteau’s most important masterpieces as well as the works of Lancret, Pater and Boucher. He also commissioned dozens of gold snuffboxes inlaid with precious stones which sometimes follow abstract patterns, and sometimes delineate a Chinese landscape. Furniture inlaid with ivory was made for his palaces; he founded the Royal Porcelain Manufacture in Berlin; and as Voltaire’s friend, and a patron of the Enlightenment, he played a key role in the political evolution of Europe. This year, Frederick’s eighteenth century will come back to vivid life in the major exhibition at Potsdam’s Neues Palais.
We will also visit Sans Souci, his favorite residence, and the dazzling museums of Berlin. Dresden, too, was conquered by Frederick, and we will begin our trip with visits to its superbly restored museums. In both cities, we will enjoy the best of the eighteenth century in Central Europe.
Download the Fredrick the Great Brochure for further information from Academic Arrangements Abroad.
OLIVIER BERNIER
Olivier Bernier
Olivier Bernier, vice-president of the Center for Khmer Studies, will lead this fascinating journey into the past. Olivier was born in the U.S. of French parents and was educated in Paris, at Harvard, and the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University.
He is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including Fireworks at Dusk: Paris in the Thirties; Words of Fire, Deeds of Blood: The Mob, the Monarchy, and the French Revolution; and Louis XIV: A Royal Life. He has also taught art history and is widely acclaimed for his lectures at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
ITINERARY
Neues Palais (New Palace) Potsdam
At the western end of the main promenade in Sanssouci Park, known as the Hauptallee, rises a monumental palace building, the New Palace, whose high tambour, or drummed cupola, is recognizable from quite a distance. This colossal, architectural complex clearly served an official, representative function, in sharp contrast to the intimate, and rather modest, vineyard palace.
The interior is filled with luxurious ceremonial halls, magnificent galleries and richly designed private suites. The New Palace is also home to works of art and decorative objects from the 18th century in their original surroundings as well as the Sanssouci Palace theatre which is located in the southern wing.
Sans Souci Potsdam
Sanssouci is the name of the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in Potsdam, near Berlin. It is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more intimate German rococo style and is smaller than its French baroque counterpart, it is notable for the numerous temples and follies in its park.
No other palace is more closely connected with the personality of Frederick the Great than Sanssouci. The name Sanssouci – “without care” – should be understood as the aspiration and leitmotif of the king, because it is here that he most preferred to withdraw from the world with his dogs. In the end, Frederick the Great’s summer residence was both a favorite place and an important sanctuary for him in difficult times.
Gemeldegalerie Belin Watteau
The Gemäldegalerie presides over one of the world’s finest collections of European art from the 13th to 18th century. Founded in 1830, the collection was systematically added to and perfected, to include masterpieces by artists from every period up to the 18th century, including van Eyck, Bruegel, Dürer, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Rubens, Vermeer and Rembrandt. For a video introduction to the museum click here
The Grünes Gewölbe
The Green Vaults in Dresden is a unique historic museum that contains the largest collection of treasures in Europe. Founded by Augustus the Strong in 1723, it features a rich variety of exhibits from the Baroque to Classicism. It is named after the formerly malachite green painted column bases and capitals of the initial rooms. The Grünes Gewölbe is located on the first and second floors of the western section of the Dresden castle. It is now part of the Dresden State Art Collections.
TO TAKE PART IN THIS HISTORIC TOUR PLEASE CONTACT:
Andrea Swanson, Tour Coordinator
Academic Arrangements Abroad
1040 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10018
EMAIL: andrea@arrangementsabroad.com
