THE TURKISH SURPRISE
Today in Berlin: June 4, 1797
On this day in 1797 Turkish envoy, Ali Aziz Efendi, representing the powerful Osman Empire, arrived in Berlin on an official state visit. He was the third Turkish envoy to have reached Prussian capital but the first one to actually stay in the city.
The illustrious guest and his pose entered Berlin through Frankfurter Tor in the east of city. The original Frankfurter Tor was a municipal gate that marked the entrance to Berlin not - as you’d be excused to believe - on today’s Frankfurter Tor but further towards Alexanderplatz, near today’s U-Bahnhof Weberwiese. They were duly greeted by cheering locals. However, there was one tiny problem: the king, Friedrich Wilhelm II, knew nothing about the guest. Due to a…
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