The Siegesallee (, ''Victory Avenue'') was a broad
boulevard
A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway.
Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls.
In American usage, boulevards may ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. In 1895,
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and List of monarchs of Prussia, King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication on 9 ...
ordered and financed the expansion of an existing avenue, to be adorned with a variety of marble statues. Work was completed in 1901.
About 750m in length, it ran northwards through the
Tiergarten park from
Kemperplatz (a road junction on the southern edge of the park near
Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corne ...
), to the former site of the
Victory Column
A victory column, or monumental column or triumphal column, is a monument in the form of a column, erected in memory of a victorious battle, war, or revolution. The column typically stands on a base and is crowned with a victory symbol, such as a ...
at the
Königsplatz, close to the Reichstag. Along its length the Siegesallee cut across the Charlottenburger Chaussee (today's
Straße des 17. Juni
The Straße des 17. Juni (, en, 17th of June Street), is a street in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. Its name refers to the 1953 East German uprising, 17 June 1953 uprising in East Germany. It is the western continuation of the boule ...
, the main avenue that runs east–west through the park and leads to the
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate (german: Brandenburger Tor ) is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after restoring the Orangist power by suppressing the Dutch popular unrest. One ...
).
The marble monuments and the neobaroque ensemble were ridiculed even by its contemporaries. Berlin folklore dubbed the Kaiser ''Denkmalwilly'' (Monument Billy) for his excessive historicism. Moves to have the statues demolished were thwarted after the end of the monarchy in 1919.
The Siegessäule and the figures were moved by the Nazi government to the
Großer Stern
Der Große Stern (''The Great Star'') is the central square of the Großer Tiergarten park in Berlin; the Berlin Victory Column
The Victory Column (german: , from ''Sieg'' ‘victory’ + '' Säule'' ‘column’) is a monument in Berlin, G ...
in 1939 to allow for larger military parades.
Some of the monuments were lost in the aftermath of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The allied forces (the area later belonged to the British sector) had the avenue erased and the area replanted. In a symbolic act, the
Soviet War Memorial (Tiergarten)
The Soviet War Memorial (german: link=no, Sowjetisches Kriegerdenkmal) is one of several war memorials in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate its war dead, particularly the 80,000 soldiers of the Soviet ...
was deliberately built in its path immediately after the end of the war. The remaining figures were repaired in the
Spandau Citadel
The Spandau Citadel (german: Zitadelle Spandau) is a fortress in Berlin, Germany, one of the best-preserved Renaissance military structures of Europe. Built from 1559–94 atop a medieval fort on an island near the meeting of the Havel and ...
and some form part of the permanent exhibition ''Enthüllt – Berlin und seine Denkmäler'' which opened in April 2016. The avenue was reconstructed as a footpath in 2006.
History
Contemporary reaction
It was on 27 January 1895, the 36th birthday of
William II, German Emperor
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empi ...
(1859–1941), that the Siegesallee took on a whole new meaning with the commissioning by the Emperor of 96 white marble statues. Intended as a personal gift to the city, supposedly to make it the envy of the world, the statues were created by 27 sculptors under the direction of
Reinhold Begas
Reinhold Begas (15 July 1831 – 3 August 1911) was a German sculptor.
Biography
Begas was born in Berlin, son of the painter Carl Joseph Begas. He received his early education (1846–1851) studying under Christian Daniel Rauch and Ludwig ...
over a period of five years, starting in 1896. Dedicated on 18 December 1901, they consisted firstly of 32 "main" statues, each about 2.75m tall (4 to 5m including their pedestals), of former
Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
royal figures of varying historical importance, in two rows of 16, evenly spaced along either side of the boulevard, while behind each one were two busts of associates or advisors mounted on a low semi-circular wall, making 96 sculptures in all.
The whole construction was widely derided by art critics, and regarded by many Berliners as grossly over-indulgent and a vulgar show of strength. It was dubbed the ″Puppenallee″ (Avenue of the Dolls), as well as the Avenue of the Puppets, Plaster Avenue, and other unsavoury titles. Even the Emperor's own wife
Augusta Viktoria (1858–1921), had reportedly been unhappy about it and had tried to persuade him not to go ahead with it, but to no avail. Just one woman was depicted,
Elisabeth of Bavaria
Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898.
Elisabeth was ...
(″Schöne Else″ or Beautiful Beth) praying on her knees before her husband. The lack of women was noted by contemporaries.
![Aufsatz Siegesallee](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Aufsatz_Siegesallee.JPG)
Some of the protests turned on the fact that Italian artisans in Berlin did the actual sculpting while artists of the Berliner Bildhauerschule just provided models in plaster or clay. Wilhelm's opening speech, the infamous ''Rinnsteinrede'', portrayed Modernism and Impressionism as a descent of art into the gutter (''Rinnstein'').
Karl Scheffler wrote a devastating criticism in 1907, comparing the Siegesallee to an overly patriotic out-of-tune amateur brassband concerto. The Siegesallee was still a popular place to stroll or relax, however.
The figures were used to teach the history of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...
to pupils. A series of essays by the pupils of a prestigious school, the
Joachimsthalsches Gymnasium
The Joachimsthal Gymnasium (German ''Joachimsthalsches'' or ''Joachimsthaler Gymnasium''), was a princely high school (German ''Fürstenschule'') for gifted boys, founded in 1607 in Joachimsthal, Brandenburg. In 1636, during the Thirty Years' War ...
, reached the Kaiser. On behalf of Professor Otto Schroeder, the pupils had to interpret the
contrapposto
''Contrapposto'' () is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the a ...
—the leg position of the marble leaders, and from that deduce their personalities. The Kaiser gave better marks than the teacher and provided some ironic notes. The whole affair was made public in 1960 by an East German writer,
Rudolf Herrnstadt under a pseudonym.
After the monarchy
In 1918 and 1919, among other occasions,
Hans Paasche
Hans Paasche (3 April 1881, in Rostock – 21 May 1920, in Waldfrieden, Neumark) was a German politician and pacifist. He was the son of the Reichstag vice president Hermann Paasche and Lisi Paasche, and was married to Gabriele (Ellen) Witting. ...
asked to have the statues destroyed. The soldiers' and workers' council of Berlin decided to keep them.
Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky (; 9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel.
Tucholsky was on ...
had written a poem, asking to keep the figures silent, as ''monuments of a great era.''
The statues remained in place until 1938, when they got in the way of the grand plan by
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
to transform Berlin into the
Welthauptstadt Germania
Welthauptstadt Germania () or World Capital Germania was the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Nazi Germany after the planned victory in World War II. It wa ...
, to be realised by
Albert Speer
Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, he ...
. The avenue was set to disappear under the new
North-South Axis, the linchpin of the plan, and so on Speer's direction the entire construction was dismantled and rebuilt in another part of the Tiergarten, along a south-east to north-west running avenue called ″Großer Sternallee″ that led to the
Großer Stern
Der Große Stern (''The Great Star'') is the central square of the Großer Tiergarten park in Berlin; the Berlin Victory Column
The Victory Column (german: , from ''Sieg'' ‘victory’ + '' Säule'' ‘column’) is a monument in Berlin, G ...
(literally ″Large Star″) itself, the main intersection of roads in the centre of the Tiergarten, one of the other roads being the Charlottenburger Chaussee. In its new location it was given a new name — ″Neue Siegesallee″ (New Victory Avenue). The Victory Column was also moved, to the middle of the Großer Stern (and increased in height in the process), where it remains to this day.
Many of the statues were damaged in World War II, while a few were smashed completely. Generally though, the avenue survived, more or less, while all around was a scene of devastation. Most of the Tiergarten's 200,000 trees were shattered by bombs and artillery shells and finally cut down for fuel by desperate Berliners. In the 1948 movie The Ballad of Berlin "Berliner Ballade" (film), Otto Normalverbraucher (″Otto Average-Consumer″), played by
Gert Fröbe
Karl Gerhart "Gert" Fröbe (; 25 February 1913 – 5 September 1988) was a German actor. He was best known in English-speaking countries for his work as Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film '' Goldfinger'', as Peachum in ''The Threepenny Oper ...
, as a former German soldier returning to civilian life, gives an ironic salute to the figures.''
However, the statues were seen by the Allied powers as a symbol of Imperial Germany, and in 1947 the British Occupation Forces
dismantled the Siegesallee remains, these apparently being bound for the
Teufelsberg
Teufelsberg (; German for ''Devil's Mountain'') is a non-natural hill in Berlin, Germany, in the Grunewald locality of former West Berlin. It rises about above the surrounding Teltow plateau and above the sea level, in the north of Berlin's Gr ...
(Devil's Mountain), the largest of the eight huge rubble mountains around Berlin's perimeter.
State curator Hinnerk Schaper intervened, however, and buried most of the statues in the grounds of the nearby
Schloss Bellevue
Bellevue Palace (german: Schloss Bellevue, ), located in Berlin's Tiergarten district, has been the official residence of the President of Germany since 1994. The schloss is situated on the banks of the Spree river, near the Berlin Victory Col ...
, today the official residence of the
Federal President of Germany
The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...
, in the hope that one day, when Germany could be more accepting of monuments to its past, they might resurface. In 1979 they were rediscovered and disinterred, and many of the survivors were relocated to a museum called the Lapidarium, at Hallesches Ufer, on the north bank of the
Landwehrkanal
The Landwehr Canal (german: Landwehrkanal), is a canal parallel to the Spree river in Berlin, Germany, built between 1845 and 1850 to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné. It connects the upper part of the Spree at the eastern harbour () in Friedric ...
, near the site of the former
Anhalter Bahnhof. The museum had formerly been Berlin's first sewage pumping station. In October 2006, however, the museum closed. The building was put up for sale, and the remaining 26 Siegesallee statues and 40 sidebusts (and numerous others housed there) were moved in May 2009 to the
Spandau Citadel
The Spandau Citadel (german: Zitadelle Spandau) is a fortress in Berlin, Germany, one of the best-preserved Renaissance military structures of Europe. Built from 1559–94 atop a medieval fort on an island near the meeting of the Havel and ...
.
Sculptors who worked on the project
*
Max Baumbach
Max Baumbach (28 November 1859, Wurzen – 4 October 1915, Berlin) was a German sculptor.
Life
He studied at the Prussian Academy of Arts under Fritz Schaper and Karl Begas. In 1885, he began presenting his own exhibitions throughout Germany ...
*
Karl Begas
Karl Begas (23 November 1845 in Berlin – 21 February 1916 in Köthen (Anhalt), Köthen) was a German sculptor. To distinguish him from his father, he is often referred to as "the younger".
Life
His father was the history painter Carl Jo ...
*
Reinhold Begas
Reinhold Begas (15 July 1831 – 3 August 1911) was a German sculptor.
Biography
Begas was born in Berlin, son of the painter Carl Joseph Begas. He received his early education (1846–1851) studying under Christian Daniel Rauch and Ludwig ...
*
Eugen Boermel
Eugen Boermel, also spelled Börmel (27 March 1858 – 24 January 1932)
In: ''Bezirkslexikon'' of the Luisenstä ...
*
Johannes Boese
Johannes Boese (27 December 1856, Ostrog (near Ratibor) - 20 April 1917, Berlin), also spelled Böse, was a German sculptor and art professor.
Life and work
Boese was originally trained as a wood carver, then attended the vocational school i ...
*
Peter Breuer
Peter Christian Breuer (19 May 1856, Cologne – 1 May 1930, Berlin) was a German sculptor.
He was a professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts (later, the Academy of Arts, Berlin) and was considered to be one of the pioneers of modern sculpture ...
*
Adolf Brütt
Adolf Brütt (10 May 1855 in Husum – 6 November 1939 in Bad Berka)[Husum Tourismus ...](_blank)
*
Alexander Calandrelli
*
Ludwig Cauer
Ludwig Cauer (28 May 1866, Bad Kreuznach - 27 December 1947, Bad Kreuznach) was a German sculptor.
Life
He was born into a family of sculptors who operated a workshop founded by his grandfather Emil Cauer the Elder. After Emil's death in 1867 ...
*
Gustav Eberlein
*
Reinhold Felderhoff
Reinhold Carl Thusmann Felderhoff (25 February 1865 – 18 December 1919) was a German sculptor.
Life
Felderhoff was born in Elbing, West Prussia (Elbląg, Poland). He entered the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1880 and studied there under ...
*
Fritz Gerth
*
Johannes Götz
Johannes Gottfried Götz (4 October 1865 in Fürth – 11 September 1934 in Potsdam) was a German sculptor.
Life
He was the son of a carpenter. After attending the Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg, in 1884 he went to Berlin to study sculptu ...
*
Ernst Herter
Ernst Gustav Herter (14 May 1846, Berlin – 19 December 1917, Berlin) was a German sculptor. He specialized in creating statues of mythological figures.
Life and work
Herter studied at the Academy of Arts in Berlin and later also as apprent ...
*
August Kraus
August Friedrich Johann Kraus (9 July 1868, Ruhrort - 8 February 1934, Berlin) was a German sculptor.
Life
He was the son of a coachman. In 1877, the family moved to Baden-Baden where he became an apprentice to a headstone sculptor. His family ...
*
Otto Lessing
*
Harro Magnussen
Harro Magnussen (14 May 1861 – 3 November 1908) was a German sculptor.
Life
Magnussen was born in Hamm, Hamburg, Hamm, and received his first lessons in drawing, modelling and carving wood from his father, the painter Christian Carl Mag ...
*
Albert Manthe
Albert August Karl Manthe (18 August 1847, in Angermünde – 4 February 1929, in Berlin) was a German sculptor.
He studied at the Prussian Academy of Art under August Julius Streichenberg, Hermann Schievelbein and Hugo Hagen. After some furthe ...
*
Ludwig Manzel
Karl Ludwig Manzel (3 June 1858, Neu Kosenow – 20 June 1936, Berlin) was a German sculptor, painter and graphic artist.
Life
His father was a tailor and his mother was a midwife. The family moved twice, first to Boldekow then, in 1867, to An ...
*
Norbert Pfretzschner
*
Fritz Schaper
Fritz (Friedrich) Schaper (31 July 1841, Alsleben – 29 November 1919, Berlin) was a German sculptor.
Life
He was orphaned at an early age, and was sent to Halle to receive instruction at the Francke Foundations. After being apprenticed as a ...
*
Emil von Schlitz
*
Walter Schott
Walter Schott (18 September 1861, Ilsenburg - 2 September 1938, Berlin) was a German sculptor and art professor.
Life
His father, , was a well-known metallurgist who was the manager and inspector at the smelters of Count Heinrich zu Stolberg-W ...
*
Rudolf Siemering
Rudolph Siemering (10 August 1835, Königsberg - 23 January 1905, Berlin) was a German sculptor, known for his works in both Germany and the United States.
Biography
He attended the art academy in Königsberg and then became the pupil of Gustav ...
*
Cuno von Uechtritz-Steinkirch
*
Max Unger
Maxwell McCandless Unger (born April 14, 1986) is a former American football center (American football), center who played in the National Football League for 10 seasons. He played college football at Oregon Ducks football, Oregon and was draft ...
*
Joseph Uphues
*
Martin Wolff
See also
*
Wilhelminism
The Wilhelmine Period () comprises the period of German history between 1890 and 1918, embracing the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II in the German Empire from the resignation of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck until the end of World War I and Wilhelm's a ...
Further reading
* Helmut Caspar (ed.): ''Die Beine der Hohenzollern, interpretiert an Standbildern der Siegesallee in Primaneraufsätzen aus dem Jahre 1901, versehen mit Randbemerkungen Seiner Majestät Kaiser Wilhelm II.''. Berlin Edition, Berlin 2001, .
* ''Die Berliner Moderne 1885–1914''. Hrsg. Jürgen Schütte, Peter Sprengel, Reclam Verlag, Ditzingen 2000, UB 8359, .
* Jan von Flocken: ''Die Siegesallee. Auf den Spuren der brandenburgisch-preußischen Geschichte''. Kai Homilius Verlag, Berlin 2001, .
* Richard George (Ed..): ''Hie gut Brandenburg alleweg! Geschichts- und Kulturbilder aus der Vergangenheit der Mark und aus Alt-Berlin bis zum Tode des Großen Kurfürsten''. Verlag von W. Pauli's Nachf., Berlin 1900
* Uta Lehnert: ''Der Kaiser und die Siegesallee. Réclame Royale''. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1998, .
* Otto Nagel: ''H. Zille''. Veröffentlichung der Deutschen Akademie der Künste. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1970.
* Max Osborn: ''Berlin''. Mit 179 Abbildungen. In der Reihe: Berühmte Kunststätten Band 43, Verlag von E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1909.
* ''Die Siegesallee, Amtlicher Führer durch die Standbildgruppen.'' Mit Situationsplan und einem Vorwort von Kaiser Wilhelm II. Text von Koser unter Mitwirkung von Sternfeld. Herausgegeben auf Veranlassung des Königlichen Unterrichtsministeriums, Berlin, Oldenbourg um 1900.
* Cornelius Steckner: ''Die Sparsamkeit der Alten. Kultureller und technologischer Wandel zwischen 1871 und 1914 in seiner Auswirkung auf die Formgebung des Bildhauers Adolf Brütt.'' Verlag Peter D. Lang, Frankfurt/M und Bern, 1981, S. 47–52,
* Cornelius Steckner: ''Der Bildhauer Adolf Brütt.'' Schleswig-Holstein. Berlin. Weimar. Autobiografie und Werkverzeichnis. (Schriften der Schleswig-Holsteinischen Landesbibliothek. Hrsg. Dieter Lohmeier. Band 9), Westholsteinische Verlagsanstalt Boyens & Co., Heide 1989. (S. 182–191; S. 172–176).
* Peter Hahn & Jürgen Stich, ''Friedenau-Geschichte & Geschichten'', Oase Verlag, 2015, .
References
External links
*
List on de-wp List with all Siegesallee-monument-groups and detailed information (German)
{{Coord, 52, 30, 51, N, 13, 22, 15, E, region:DE-BE_type:landmark, display=title
Streets in Berlin
Monuments and memorials in Berlin