Pillar of peace

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Peace column on Belle-Alliance-Platz , around 1900

The Peace Column in Berlin is a columned monument that stands on Mehringplatz in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg . It was built in 1840–1843 according to the design of the master builder Christian Gottlieb Cantian on behalf of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. Erected in memory of the Wars of Liberation .

Location and surroundings

The peace column is located on Mehringplatz, which was called Belle-Alliance-Platz in memory of the Battle of Waterloo since 1815 . The square is one of the three geometric Berlin squares that were created in the course of the western expansion of Friedrichstadt and Dorotheenstadt under Friedrich Wilhelm I (1730–1740) and each formed the end of an important street. In the case of the circular roundabout , the original name of the square, this was Friedrichstrasse . When it was built between 1840 and 1843, the Peace Column stood in an exposed location in terms of urban development .

architecture

The Peace Column can be seen as a memorial to the Wars of Liberation . The memorial monument in the special form of the column monument has its models in antiquity. The Peace Column is based on the type of Greek consecration columns, which were consecrated to the gods for the victories over the Persians. In the middle of a round fountain basin, a rectangular base made of Silesian marble, which supports the Corinthian column, rises on a five-tier substructure . Its approximately seven meter high shaft is made of dark, polished granite . The base and capital are made of white Carian marble. The column is crowned by a monumental Victoria , which seems to float towards the city above the capital adorned with an eagle with a palm tree and an extended wreath. The Victoria is an enlarged cast of Christian Daniel Rauch's second Viktoria in Charlottenburg , the model of which was created between 1837 and 1839 based on a small antique bronze statue found in Pompeii in 1823 .

History of origin

Friedrich Wilhelm III commissioned the building of the Peace Column. in 1840. 25 years after the end of the wars of liberation, the Peace Column was to commemorate this period of peace. Design, planning and execution of the monument was carried out by building officer Christian Gottlieb Cantian , who, with the erection of the column, also raised the flood-endangered square and its surroundings with a corresponding underground sewer system. The necessary flushing of the canals prompted Cantian to connect the planned victory monument with a public fountain. The day of the inauguration was August 3, 1843, the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Großbeeren , during which a new occupation of Berlin by French troops was prevented.

Web links

Commons : Peace Column  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Jutta von Simson: The Berlin column monuments . In: Willmuth Arenhövel (Hrsg.): Berlin and the ancient world. Architecture, applied arts, painting, sculpture, theater and science from the 16th century to the present day . Berlin 1979, pp. 204-208.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Laurenz Demps: Berlin-Wilhelmstrasse. A topography of Prussian-German power . 4th edition. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 3-86153-597-1 , p. 23-28 .
  2. ↑ a b Florian Müller-Klug: The Berlin "Peace Column" as a memorial for the Wars of Liberation. In: Clio Berlin Blog. September 6, 2016, accessed May 4, 2017 .
  3. ^ Jutta von Simson: The Berlin column monuments . In: Willmuth Arenhövel (Hrsg.): Berlin and the ancient world. Architecture, applied arts, painting, sculpture, theater and science from the 16th century to the present day . Berlin 1979, p. 206 .
  4. ↑ a b Jutta von Simson: The Berlin column monuments . In: Willmuth Arenhövel (Hrsg.): Berlin and the ancient world. Architecture, applied arts, painting, sculpture, theater and science from the 16th century to the present day . Berlin 1979, p. 205 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 56.4 "  N , 13 ° 23 ′ 30.1"  E