Although we did not have a ton of time to explore and absorb the grounds at Branitz, the most obvious landscape center to the park were Puckler's earthen pyramids. The pyramids served as tombs for Puckler and his wife, as well as monuments to his status and accomplishments. Puckler was, in life and in death, a total showman. For example, he pushed to be chemically dissolved before his burial to ensure that he was not decomposed by 'natural' means. He was transported by boat across a manufactured lake a la the River Styx as he passed into his final resting place. He was not shy about showing off, but if I attempt to to add a silver lining to his self-centeredness, I suppose it would be in how he pushed the boundaries of infrastrucutral knowledge and craft. While constructing his pyramids (of which there are three), several major revisions needed to take place, forcing the builders to explore construction methods not yet undertaken. 

At Branitz, the famous tree-transplanting carriage was visible from the entrance path, and represents another form of infrastrucutral development that Puckler's ostentatiousness made necessary. Puckler, wanting only the largest trees from nurseries as far as the British Isles, needed to find a way to effectively transplant them. In Muskau, the branches of his purple beech were so large that they broke windowpanes throughout the town while it was being brought in. Although this level of gradiosity might have made Puckler himself a self-indulgent hack, it is also true that he provided precedents, both in life and death, on how to design and execute monumental works.