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A large number of monuments were erected in Germany in honour of

Emperor William I Wilhelm I (Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 1861 and German Emperor from 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the first head of state of a united Germany. ...

(known in German as ''Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal''). As early as 1867 the Berlin sculptor,

Friedrich Drake Friedrich Drake (23 June 1805 – 6 April 1882) was a German Sculpture, sculptor and Medalist, medallist, best known for his huge memorial statues. Biography He was the son of a mechanic and served an apprenticeship as a Turning, turner in Mi ...

, had created the first

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a ...

, that portrayed William I as the

King of Prussia The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order, a Roman C ...

. To date the Prussian Monument Institute (''Preußische Denkmal-Institut'') has recorded: * 63 equestrian statues * 231 standing statues * 5 seated statues and * 126 busts that were created and erected between 1888 and 1918 in the German-speaking region. In addition there are numerous William I monuments on which the emperor is portrayed in a relief medallion or which commemorates the emperor in a dedicatory inscription. During the " imperial era" 28 Emperor William I towers were also built. They are most commonly known in English sources as Emperor William monuments or Kaiser Wilhelm monuments.

History

A distinction must be made between two groups of monuments: * those erected in honour of

William I William I may refer to: Kings * William the Conqueror (–1087), also known as William I, King of England * William I of Sicily (died 1166) * William I of Scotland (died 1214), known as William the Lion * William I of the Netherlands and Luxembour ...

of Prussia (22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888), who was proclaimed

German Emperor The German Emperor (, ) was the official title of the head of state and Hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A specifically chosen term, it was introduced with the 1 January 1871 constitution and lasted until the abdicati ...

during the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

of 1870/71 in the

Hall of Mirrors The Hall of Mirrors () is a grand Baroque architecture, Baroque style gallery and one of the most emblematic rooms in the royal Palace of Versailles near Paris, France. The grandiose ensemble of the hall and its adjoining salons was intended to ...

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

on the initiative of Bismarck, and * those in honour of his grandson, William II (27 January 1859; – 4 June 1941), who had to abdicate at the end of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in November 1918. Even before the imperial period it was customary in Prussia not to erect monuments to living monarchs. Moreover, before official monuments of members of the royal house, i.e.

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, could be built, a so-called 'sovereign approval' had to be sought. As a result, almost all Emperor William monuments appeared only after the death of Emperor William I in 1888. There are very few monuments to the last German Emperor, William II, for the reasons mentioned above. The only two

s are in Cologne (a free-standing monument on the

Hohenzollern Bridge The Hohenzollern Bridge () is a bridge crossing the river Rhine in the German city of Cologne (German: ''Köln''). It crosses the Rhine at kilometre 688.5. Originally, the bridge was both a railway and road bridge. However, after its destruc ...

) and in Wuppertal's

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the Germany, German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was ...

district (a 3/4 scale relief). Emperor William monuments were mainly built in

and in larger cities outside of Prussia, usually on the initiative of private individuals. The organization of finance, tendering, planning and unveiling was carried out by memorial committees that were dissolved after completion of the monument. The best known surviving Emperor William monuments today are the 81-metre-high

Kyffhäuser Monument The Kyffhäuser Monument (), also known as Barbarossa Monument (), is an Emperor William monuments, Emperor William monument in the Kyffhäuser mountain range in the Germany, German state of Thuringia. It was erected from 1890 to 1896 atop the ...

(1890-1896), The Emperor William Monument at

Porta Westfalica Porta Westfalica () is a town in the district of Minden-Lübbecke, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name "''Porta Westfalica''" is Latin and means "gate to Westphalia". Coming from the north, the gorge is the entry to the region of West ...

, unveiled in 1896, and the monument at the

Deutsches Eck The Deutsches Eck (, "German Corner") is the name of a promontory in Koblenz, Germany, where the Moselle, Mosel river joins the Rhine. Named after a local commandry of the Teutonic Order, it became known for a monumental equestrian statue of Wil ...

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

erected in 1897. All three were designed by Berlin architect,

Bruno Schmitz Bruno Schmitz (21 November 1858 – 27 April 1916) was a German architect best known for his monuments in the early 20th century. He worked closely with sculptors such as Emil Hundrieser, Nikolaus Geiger and Franz Metzner for integrated architect ...

. The Emperor William National Monument in front of

Berlin Palace The Berlin Palace (), formerly known as the Royal Palace (), is a large building adjacent to Berlin Cathedral and the Museum Island in the Mitte area of Berlin. It was the main residence of the Electors of Brandenburg, Kings of Prussia and Ge ...

was unveiled in 1897. It was removed in 1950. The first (still surviving) monument to William I, which portrays him as

on horseback, stands at the bridgehead of Cologne's

(right bank, i.e. on the Deutz side). The only monument showing Emperor William I in civilian clothes, stands in the spa park at

Bad Ems Bad Ems () is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Rhein-Lahn rural district and is well known as a spa on the river Lahn. Bad Ems was the seat of Bad Ems collective municipality, which has been merged i ...

. It was unveiled on 7 May 1893 and portrays the monarch as people saw him when he was visiting the spa in the town. One of the 231 statues of Emperor William I was unveiled in 1894 in Wiesbaden. The monument, with a height of 6.8 metres, had been created by Dresden sculptor, Johannes Schilling, and bore the inscription "The grateful city of Wiesbaden" on its base. The last official monument was the equestrian statue "for"

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

: the authorization and contract award were issued in 1914; although the die was ready for casting, no bronze was available because of the First World War. So the statue was only completed in 1919.

Gallery

File:Rheda-Wiedenbrück Kriegerdenkmal Wilhelm I.jpg, William I atop Rheda-Wiedenbrück's three wars' memorial File:Kyffhaeuser Wilhelm.JPG, Statue of William I as part of the

File:Deutsches Eck Koblenz Kaiser Wilhelm I.jpg, The monument at the

("German Corner") in Koblenz File:Nationaldenkmal Kaiser Wilhelms I. Gesamtansicht.jpg, Emperor William National Monument in Berlin, 1901. It was removed in 1950. File:Kaiser-wilhelm-denkmal-hamburg-planten-un-blomen.jpg, Schilling's version,

Planten un Blomen Planten un Blomen () is an urban park with a size of in the inner-city of Hamburg, Germany. The name ''Planten un Blomen'' is Low German for "Plants and Flowers". History After the destruction of Hamburg's old city fortifications in the early 1 ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

History

Gallery

See also