Eagle column (Berlin)

Eagle column shortly before the destruction in 1950, in the background the blown up city palace

The eagle column was a granite column by the German sculptors Albert Wolff and Christian Gottlieb Cantian and the French sculptor Christophe Fratin . It had stood on the western corner of the Berlin Palace since 1846 , where it was reminiscent of the location of the former mint tower . When it was destroyed in 1950, only its capital remained , which is now exhibited in the courtyard of the Pergamon Museum.

Berlin Palace and Lustgarten Terrace around 1900, the eagle column in the foreground on the left

History and description

The pleasure garden terrace was completed in front of the north facade of the Berlin Palace in 1846 . It consisted of a smaller eastern part with the horse tamers and a larger western part with the eagle column. The approximately eight meter high column was the joint work of three artists. Albert Wolff created the base and the capital from bronze, Christian Gottlieb Cantian created the shaft from granite and the French sculptor Christophe Fratin created the crowning figure. It represented a gilded eagle with outspread wings, perched on a boulder with a snake in its fangs. After the eagle column survived World War II without damage, it was destroyed when the castle was blown up in 1950. Only its capital remained, which is now exhibited in the courtyard of the Pergamon Museum. The last master builder of the palace, Albert Geyer, described the eagle column as a “happy conclusion” to the pleasure garden terrace.

In connection with the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace as a Humboldt Forum, a return of the Eagle Column is being discussed. The CDU Berlin is committed to a return of the monuments to the palace area.

Trivia

With a height of around eight meters, the eagle column reached up to the floor of the palace where Friedrich Wilhelm I held the tobacco college in the mid-18th century and Emperor Napoleon I resided in 1806. Its shaft was carved from the same margrave stone as the granite bowl in the Lustgarten, the portico of the mausoleum in the Charlottenburg Palace Park and the shaft of the peace column on Belle-Alliance-Platz.

See also

• Horse tamer (Berlin)
• Orange princes (Berlin)

literature

• Albert Geyer: The history of the palace in Berlin (1443-1918) . Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-89479-628-0

Web links

• The eagle column (PDF; 2.4 MB), Gesellschaft Berliner Schloss eV

Individual evidence

1. ^ Albert Geyer: The history of the palace in Berlin (1443-1918). Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-89479-628-0 , pp. 75 .
2. ↑ Ulrich Paul: Open spaces Humboldt Forum: A mixture of history and modernity . In: Berliner Zeitung . ( berliner-zeitung.de [accessed on April 28, 2018]).
3. ^ Strong Berlin - The government program of the CDU Berlin 2016–2021. P. 45