The palace of Sanssouci can be found in Potsdam, to the south-west of Berlin. Back in 2018, Mrs TGG and I were travelling by train from Prague to Berlin (in one of those proper old school three seats on either side compartments). Two elderly ladies joined us at Dresden. I clearly have a Central European look about me, because a recurring theme of that break was random people walking up and speaking to me in Czech or German. As luck would have it, I did an A-Level in German and the manner in which these ladies spoke was not a million miles from the stilted nature of my old text books.
There followed a surprisingly fluent exchange during which they strongly advised me that we should dedicate one of our scheduled days in Berlin to a trip to Potsdam. As shouts go, this was a very good one. We had an excellent time learning all about the history of this fascinating place, ate what are probably the largest burgers we’ve ever eaten and got to visit the palace at Sanssouci and its magnificent gardens. Whilst the Potsdam bus tour cost us some of our Euros, the train journey from Berlin to Potsdam and back cost us nothing extra as it was included in the scope of our Berlin travel cards that we’d purchased the minute we arrived in the German capital.
It’s the gardens at Sanssouci that form the basis of the board game. Originally released in 2013, I remember playing and enjoying the game at a convention around that time. I didn’t really think any more of it until I saw that there was a re-release of the game launching on Kickstarter in June 2023. I correctly though that nobody in my regular gaming group had a copy, and it’s the sort of easy to learn tile-laying game that sits well with most of us. The basic premise of the game is to re-design the gardens and score the most points for pleasing the nobles with your efforts. This work has been commissioned by the great-nephew and successor to the successor of the Prussian emperor, Frederick The Great, under whose orders the palace was built. The game has made it to the table (as we say) and gone down well.
If you’d like to know more about the game, it’s all here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146816/sanssouci
As an historical footnote, Frederick The Great finally got his wish to be buried at Sanssouci on the 205th anniversary of his death – on 17th August 1991.
Music-wise, the tune here pre-dates the board game, but obviously not the palace. It’s one that I immediately took a shine to when I first heard its parent album back in 2007.
It doesn’t appear to have ever been released as a single anywhere, but it makes the cut as one my five favourite Rufus Wainwright tracks on my master Spotify playlist (where no-one is allowed more than five songs). I just need to get the pub where the games group meets to put this on their playlist for when we next play the game.
TGG
Wasting time in the study 
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