Page 67
History.
BERLIN.
47
embraced the Reformed faith. This splendour-loving prince and his
successor John George (1571-98) began the alteration and extension
of the palace in the Renaissance style.
To Frederick William, the 'Great Elector'(1640-88), the found¬
er of the modern Prussian state, Berlin is chiefly indebted for
its modern importance. He incorporated the settlement of Fried-
richs-Werder with Berlin-Kolln, fortified the city on the Dutch
system (1658-83), and founded the new town, which he named Doro-
theenstadt in honour of his second wife. The forest which extended
on this side of the town nearly as far as the Spree was now removed,
and on its site was planted a double avenue of lime-trees, on each
side of which gradually sprang up the handsome modern street
named Unter den Linden (p. 55). Owing to the introduction of
foreign settlers, particularly of French Protestant refugees (after
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685), the population of
the town increased to 20,000. It now became the seat of an inde¬
pendent industrial activity, while the Court zealously promoted
artistic enterprise and strove to embellish the town, chiefly with
the aid of Dutch architects. The nucleus of the royal library and
art-collections was also formed at this period.
Frederick III. (1688-1713), who became King Frederick I. in
1701, erected the Friedrichstadt, constituted Berlin a royal resid¬
ence, and united the administration of the five quarters of the city.
In 1694 he founded the Academy of Art, and in 1700 the Academy of
Science (p. 57), the first president of the latter being the celebrated
Leibnitz; while in the province of architecture he was fortunate
in obtaining the services of Andreas Schliiter (b. at Hamburg in
1664, d. at St. Petersburg in 1714), the greatest artist of his period.
First employed as a sculptor on the Lange Briicke, in the Royal
Palace (p. 65), and on the Arsenal (p. 60), begun by J. A. Nering
(d. 1695), Schliiter afterwards erected the Palace of Charlot-
tenbnrg (p. 182), and in 1699 began the reconstruction of the
Royal Palace, which was not completed until long after his
death. He was also the sculptor of the Equestrian Statue of the
Great Elector (p. 70) in 1703. In 1710 the population, which had
been steadily augmented by French and Walloon immigrants,
was 61,000.
Under the patriarchal government of Frederick William I.
(1713-40) the city made no less substantial, though less striking
progress. This monarch completed the royal palace, enlarged the
Friedrichstadt and the Dorotheenstadt, began to pull down the fort¬
ifications, and added the N. and E. suburbs to the town, enclosing
them with the customs-wall mentioned on p. 46. All these operations,
however, were conducted in so economical a spirit, that the build¬
ings are generally insignificant in appearance. In 1740 the popu¬
lation had increased to 91,000, including 2000 Bohemian Protestants.