2 Days in Mainz - St.Goar – Oberwesel # 3

Building Germania took six years

High on the hills above Rüdesheim stands one of Germany’s most famous monuments, Germania. Dubbed the “Prussian Maddonna,” the 31-ton lady with the 20 ft. waist is over 100 years old. She symbolizes the first re-unification of Germany and the revival of its empire.

The monument is over 123 ft. high and about 120 ft. wide, although with the adjacent stairways, terraces and wall, the total area extends to about 560 ft.

The sculpture work is outstanding and 35 ft. long and over 8 ft. high is the largest bronze relief made in Europe in the last century.

The middle of the sub-base shows the figures of nearly 200 people, all life-size! The monument took six years to build and cost today’s equivalent of about € 700,000. It was prompted by the unification of Germany following war with France in 1870 and 1871. Until then, Germany was a divided country but victory over France brought the German states together and King William I of Prussia was proclaimed emperor in January, 1871.

But there was less unity when it was decided to build a memorial. Arguments arose over where and how Various place were put forward, including Berlin and Frankfurt, but finally convincing arguments were advanced for Niederwald, above Rüdesheim.

The emperor went up on horseback to the Niederwald and was immediately fascinated by the view, and there and then ordered the national monument to be built on the spot. Expert then argued about the design for years but finally that submitted by a Dresden sculptor, Johannes Schilling, was chosen. The architecture was designed by Karl Weissbach, also from Dresden.

More years went by as public appeals for funds failed to meet targets and in the Reichstag had to foot the bill. Eventually inauguration day arrived, and princes, generals, and many other civic leaders, as well as the designers and craftsmen gatthered at the memorial.

Thousands lined the approach roads to greet the emperor who first reviewed a fleet of staemboats on the Rhine. But as he was driven up to the monument, with salute guns firing and bands playing, the Emperor was unware of an attemt on his life.

Anarchist August Reinsdorf, a 34-year-od typesetter, wanted to kill the emperor and other nobility but fell ill on the day, and so two accomplices, Reinsdorf and Kuchler, dynamited the approach road.

But humidity that day foiled the detonation, and so the conspirators hurled the dynamite at the hall where the emperor was attending a banquet whit his top guests. But the explosion did only superficial damage and no one was killed. All the conspirators were soon caught and Reinsdorf and Kuchler were executed.