Jagdschloss Stern, Baroque hunting lodge in Südost, Potsdam, Germany

Jagdschloss Stern is a small red-brick hunting lodge built 1730–1732 in the style of a plain Dutch town house, with a tall curving gable, dark tiled roof and green-framed windows. A carved crest sits above the lower-left window and a square stone plaque near the top of the gable. It stands behind a low hedge and wooden picket fence.

Frederick William I had the lodge built from 1730 to 1732, slightly offset from the centre of a star of sixteen rides laid out from 1726 for par force hunts in the Parforceheide. It was the only new building the frugal king erected for himself besides work at Königs Wusterhausen. Par force hunts ended under Frederick the Great in 1740; French soldiers were quartered here during the Napoleonic occupation, and after 1945 it housed the guard of the British delegation during the Potsdam Conference.

The lodge takes its name from the star-shaped system of sixteen straight rides cut through the Parforceheide from 1726 for par force hunts, in which riders and hounds chased game until it collapsed from exhaustion. The building stands slightly off the centre of that star, between two of its rays.

The lodge is open for guided tours from May through October and requires advance booking. It is best to call ahead to confirm availability and discuss any accessibility needs for your visit.

The brick oven whose remains were excavated between 2006 and 2009 and rebuilt in 2011/2012 stood outside the lodge, not inside it; it belonged to the vanished farm buildings. A barn with a small stable, a wash house with a privy and a well at the centre of the star have also disappeared.