The Bismarck Monument (german: Bismarck-Denkmal) in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

is a memorial sculpture located in the

St. Pauli St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. ...

quarter dedicated to Otto von Bismarck. It is one of 240 memorials to Bismarck worldwide and is the largest and probably best-known of these

Bismarck tower A Bismarck tower (german: Bismarckturm) is a specific type of monument built according to a more or less standard model across Germany to honour its first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck (d. 1898). A total of 234 of these towers were inventoried ...

s. The monument stands near the jetties of Hamburg port on the Elbhöhe, today a local recreation area. The architect was Johann Emil Schaudt; the sculptor was

Hugo Lederer Professor Hugo Lederer (16 November 1871, in Znaim – 1 August 1940, in Berlin) was an Austro-Hungarian-born German sculptor. Lederer studied in Dresden under sculptor John Schilling from 1890, then briefly under Christian Behrens. His great ...

History

The site of the monument was previously occupied by the ''Elbpavillon'' restaurant which was removed in 1901. Mayor

Johann Georg Mönckeberg Johann Georg Mönckeberg (born 22 August 1839 in Hamburg, died 27 March 1908 in Hamburg) was a Hamburg politician, who served as First Mayor of Hamburg in 1890, 1893, 1896, 1899, 1902, 1904–1905, and 1908. He studied law at Heidelberg Universit ...

established a citizens' commission to erect the monument at the site. The Bismarck Monument cost 500,000 Goldmarks to erect, and it was completed in 1906. The building of the monument was documented by the photographer

Wilhelm Weimar Johann Wilhelm Weimar, known as Wilhelm Weimar, (3 December 1857 – 25 June 1917) was a German museum scientist, draftsman, typographer and photographer. Early life Weimar was born in Wertheim and studied there at the local Gymnasium until 187 ...

, who worked for the Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe.

Architecture

The monument is approximately high, weighs , and is the world's largest Bismarck monument. The designers created a large network of catacombs beneath the monument. In the years 1939 to 1940, they became an air-raid shelter, offering protection for up to 650 people. The architect's intent for the catacombs remain unknown, however, as they, and the whole interior of the monument, are no longer accessible for safety reasons. In the 1970s, a soldier who had served in the British army during the occupation in Germany discovered a tunnel beneath the Bismarck memorial which led to a Nazi hideout while in Hamburg. He contacted the Daily Mirror newspaper which, in turn, contacted the

Burgermeister Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, literally "master of the town, master of the borough, master of the fortress, master of the citizens") is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief m ...

in Hamburg. After viewing the tunnel that the soldier had described, authorities decided to seal it.

References

Literature

*Jörg Schilling: ''Distanz halten - Das Hamburger Bismarckdenkmal und die Monumentalität der Moderne'', Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2006,

External links

{{Commons category, Bismarck-Denkmal (Hamburg)
Photo: Interior views of the Bismarck monumentHistorical aerial photo of the Bismarck monument
Bismarck family Buildings and structures in Hamburg-Mitte Tourist attractions in Hamburg