140 
PARK AND CEMETERY, 
FAMOUS MONUMENTS OF BERLIN. 
It is in con- 
sonance with 
Prussia’s war- 
like character 
and with the 
large number 
of battlesfought 
by its people 
that about one- 
half the monu- 
ments and stat- 
ues to be seen 
in Berlin were 
erected in honor 
of great warriors 
or of great rulers 
or events in its 
history. The 
poets, the art- 
ists, the men of 
science occupy 
but a secondary 
place in Prus- 
sian annals, and 
so it is in the 
monument to queen louise. matter of sculp- 
tured memorials of them, though it must be admitted 
that a very few of the very finest monuments are of 
men whose pursuit in life was a peaceful one and 
whose laurels were not won on a field of gore. Of 
some of these latter I shall speak in another letter, 
such as the Gcethe monument, undoubtedly one of 
the choicest masterpieces of German art. 
One of the most original and effective of the 
former kind, however, is the national monument on 
the summit of the Kreuzberg, a hill in the south- 
western part of Berlin affording, on a clear da>, a 
splendid bird’s eye view of the whole city. This 
was erected after a .design by the famous Schinkel, 
in 1821, to commemorate the liberation of Germany 
from the yoke of Napoleon I. A Gothic, flute-like 
pillar rises 73 feet high, crowned on its apex by a 
tall gilt cross, while the pillar itself is of cast iron. 
In 1878 the whole monument was raised, by means 
of hydraulic presses, some 27 feet, and a re- 
doubt-like substructure built of solid masonry, 
having a diameter of 75 feet and surrounded by iron 
railings. It is from the wide platform thus created 
that a circular view in every direction can be had 
of the city lying at one’s feet. The monument 
itself is surmounted by 12 statues in niches, of 
which six represent the directing genius of one of 
the leading battles during 1813-15, after models by 
Rauch, Tieck and Wiedmann. 
Not nearly so popular with the Berlin folks — 
who are of a somewhat democratic, turbulent spirit, 
is the monument in Invalid Park, though that, 
too, is fine, artistically considered. It was erected 
after Brunckow’s design, in 1854, in memory of the 
475 Prussian soldiers who fell fighting the revolution 
of 1848-49 in the streets of Berlin. It is a cast-iron 
column 107 feet high, crowned by an eagle with 
outspread wings. The pedestal below is 36 feet 
wide, and it shows a well executed medallion por- 
trait of Frederick William IV, during whose reign 
the throne was shaken by that very revolution. 
Underneath the eagle is a gallery, to which 199 steps 
lead inside the column, and from which a fine view 
is obtained. 
The so-called Friedensaule or “Peace Column” 
standing in the centre of Belle Alliance Place looks 
much like the Nelson Column on Trafalgar Square, 
London, and lends a very picturesque air to the 
whole fine place in the very heart of Berlin. It 
was erected by von Lauteau as a memento of 
the 25 years of undisturbed peace Prussia and 
Europe had enjoyed from 1815-40, and Frederick 
William III laid the foundation stone himself in 
that year, it being finished in 1843. A slender pil- 
lar of granite, resting on a socle of gray Silesian 
marble is crowned by a Victoria by Rauch. The 
socle is surrounded by a basin into which carved 
lions of stone squirt streams of pellucid water. 
The whole monument has an altitude of 66 feet. 
Grouped around it are marble statues, symbolically 
representing the four nations taking part in the 
battle of Belle Alliance, 1815, Plngland and Hol- 
land being after models by Fischer, and Prussia and 
Hanover by Franz. On the side of the broad stairs 
“Peace” by Albert Wolff, and “History” by 
Hayer, and on the superstructure of the gate the 
“Four Seasons” by Drake and Pohlmann. 
THE BRANDENBURG GATE. 
