Friday, February 22, 2013

Berlin Victory Column

The Victory Column or Siegessaule was designed by Heinrich Strack and inaugurated in 1873.


The columned rotunda around the base contains a 800 square foot frieze of Salviati mosaics from 1874-75 designed by Anton von Werner.


The mosaics commemorate the events of Janaury 18, 1871 when King Wilhelm I of Prussia was made Emperor of a united Germany in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.


Germania - representing the Holy Roman Empire - confronting Napoleon





 A handshake representing the symbolic union of north and south German states.



Otto von Bismarck reading the proclamation of the German Empire.



Detail of a trumpeter


Germania sitting on the throne of the Empire, accepting the crown on Kaiser Wilhelm's behalf.

Sources:
olilau83's flickr Photostream
Thomas Wolf on Wikimedia Commons
Wikipedia
will.pimblett's flickr Photostream
medebb3's flickr Photostream
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collector's Club, 2008. 50.

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