The Siegesallee was a broad boulevard

Boulevard

A Boulevard is type of road, usually a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the centre, and roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery...

 in Berlin, Germany. About 750 m in length, it ran northwards through the Tiergarten

Tiergarten

Tiergarten is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin . Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin...

 park from Kemperplatz (an intersection of roads on the southern edge of the park near Potsdamer Platz

Potsdamer Platz

Potsdamer Platz is an important public square and traffic intersection in the centre of Berlin, Germany, lying about one kilometre south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag , and close to the southeast corner of the Tiergarten park...

), to Königsplatz, in which stood the Berlin Victory Column

Berlin Victory Column

The Victory Column is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War and France in the...

, in its original position in front of the Reichstag

Reichstag (building)

The Reichstag building is a historical edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Reichstag, parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Reichstag until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a fire. During the Nazi era, the few meetings of members of the...

 (German Parliament building). Along its length the Siegesallee cut across the Charlottenburger Chausee (today's Straße des 17. Juni

Straße des 17. Juni

The Straße des 17. Juni is a street in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is the western continuation of the Unter den Linden. It runs east-west through the Tiergarten, a large forest park to the west of the city centre. At the eastern end is the Brandenburg Gate and at the western end is...

, the main avenue that runs east-west through the park and leads to the Brandenburg Gate

Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate and one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which...

). First laid out in 1873, the Siegesallee had existed, with this name, for more than two decades before the sculpting of the marble construction that became synonymous with it.

It was on 27 January 1895, the 36th birthday of William II, German Emperor

William II, German Emperor

Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was a grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe...

 (1859–1941), that the Siegesallee took on a whole new meaning with the commissioning by the Emperor of almost 100 white marble statues. Intended as a personal gift to the city, supposedly to make it the envy of the world, the statues were created by the sculptor Reinhold Begas

Reinhold Begas

Reinhold Begas was a German sculptor.Begas was born in Berlin, son of the painter Karl Begas. He received his early education studying under Christian Daniel Rauch and Ludwig Wilhelm Wichmann...

 (1831–1911) and 27 pupils over a period of five years, starting in 1896. Dedicated on 18 December 1901, they consisted firstly of 32 "main" statues, each about 2.75 m tall (4 to 5 m including their pedestals), of former Prussian

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

 royal figures of varying historical importance, in two rows of 16, evenly spaced along either side of the boulevard, while behind each one were two busts of associates or advisors mounted on a low semi-circular wall, making 96 sculptures in all.

The whole construction was widely derided by art critics, and regarded by many Berliners as grossly over-indulgent and a vulgar show of strength. It was dubbed the 'Puppenallee' (Avenue of the Dolls), as well as the Avenue of the Puppets, Plaster Avenue, and other unsavoury titles. Even the Emperor’s own wife Augusta Viktoria

Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein

Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein was the last German Empress and Queen of Prussia. Her full German name was Auguste Victoria Friederike Luise Feodora Jenny von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.She was the eldest daughter of Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess...

 (1858–1921), had reportedly been unhappy about it and had tried to persuade him not to go ahead with it, but all to no avail. The Siegesallee was still a popular place to stroll or relax, however.

The statues remained in place until 1938, when they got in the way of the grand plan by Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 to transform Berlin into the Welthauptstadt Germania

Welthauptstadt Germania

Welthauptstadt Germania refers to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II...

, to be realised by Albert Speer

Albert Speer

Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...

. The avenue was set to disappear under the new North-South Axis

North-South Axis

The North–South Axis is a tram tunnel in Brussels, Belgium, which crosses the city center from North to South starting at the Brussels-North railway station to the Albert premetro station. The first section of this tunnel was first opened on October 4, 1976 between the Brussels-North railway...

, the linchpin of the plan, and so on Speer's direction the entire construction was dismantled and rebuilt in another part of the Tiergarten, along a south-east to north-west running avenue called "Großer Sternallee" that led to the Großer Stern

Großer Stern

The Große Stern is the central square of the Großer Tiergarten park in Berlin, in which is sited the Berlin Victory Column....

 itself (literally "Large Star"), the main intersection of roads in the centre of the Tiergarten, one of the other roads being the Charlottenburger Chausee. In its new location it was given a new name - "Neue Siegesallee" (New Victory Avenue). The Berlin Victory Column was moved also, to the middle of the Großer Stern (and increased in height in the process), where it remains to this day.

Many of the statues were damaged in World War II, while a few were smashed completely. Generally though, the avenue survived, more or less, while all around was a scene of devastation. Most of the Tiergarten's 200,000 trees were shattered by bombs and artillery shells and finally cut down for fuel by desperate Berliners. However, the statues were seen by the Allied powers as a symbol of Imperial Germany, and in 1947 the British Occupation Forces dismantled the Siegesallee’s remains, these apparently being bound for the Teufelsberg

Teufelsberg

The Teufelsberg is a hill in Berlin, Germany, in former West Berlin. It rises about 80 meters above the surrounding Brandenburg plain, more precisely the north of Berlin's Grunewald forest....

 (Devil’s Mountain), the largest of the eight huge rubble mountains around Berlin’s perimeter. State curator Hinnerk Schaper intervened, however, and buried most of the statues in the grounds of the nearby Schloss Bellevue

Schloss Bellevue

Schloss Bellevue is the official residence of the President of Germany since 1994. The palace in the central Tiergarten district of Berlin is situated on the northern edge of the Großer Tiergarten park, on the banks of the Spree river, near the Berlin Victory Column...

, today the official residence of the Federal President of Germany, in the hope that one day, when Germany could be more accepting of monuments to its past, they might resurface. In 1979 they were duly rediscovered and dug up, and many of the survivors were relocated in Berlin’s first sewage pumping station, which had since its closure in 1972 been restored and turned into a museum called the Lapidarium, at Hallesches Ufer, along the north bank of the Landwehrkanal

Landwehrkanal

The Landwehr Canal, or Landwehrkanal in German, is a long canal parallel to the Spree river in Berlin, Germany, built between 1845 and 1850 according to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné...

, near the site of the former Anhalter Bahnhof. In October 2006 however the museum closed and the building put up for sale with a future gastronomic function envisaged for it, and the remained 26 Siegesallee statues and 40 sidebusts (and numerous others housed there) moved in May 2009 to the Spandau Citadel

Spandau Citadel

The Spandau Citadel is a fortress in Berlin, Germany, one of the best-preserved Renaissance military structures of Europe. Built from 1559–94 atop a medieval fort on an island created by the meeting of the Havel and the Spree, it was designed to protect the town of Spandau, which is now...

. Here they will be restored and in 2012 presented as a part of the new permanent exhibition „Enthüllt – Berlin und seine Denkmäler“ (Inaugurated – Berlin and its monuments).

The photograph to the right, taken in December 2003, shows the view looking north from near Kemperplatz, of the original site of the Siegesallee as it is now. All vehicles are prohibited; the broad boulevard of yesteryear has long since vanished. The Siegesallee's first route today is this wide gravel path through the trees, still a popular place to stroll or relax (its later relocation after 1938 is very similar in appearance). It seems that Berlin has turned its back entirely on this aspect of its past; neither path is now called the Siegesallee and the name does not appear on any of the public information signs in the area. The original route seems not to have any name at all nowadays, while the later Neue Siegesallee has reverted to its pre-1938 name "Großer Sternallee." Looking at this scene it is difficult to believe that under Hitler's grand design this quiet woodland way would now be the North-South Axis, 100 m wide and lined with Nazi edifices on a gargantuan scale. A short distance to the left (west), a post-war main road through the Tiergarten has recently been superseded by a tunnel running beneath it.

Where the Siegesallee's original route meets Straße des 17. Juni (the former Charlottenburger Chausee), its erstwhile northern continuation up to Platz der Republik and the Victory Column is blocked by the Soviet War Memorial

Soviet War Memorial (Tiergarten)

The Soviet War Memorial is one of several war memorials in Berlin, capital city of Germany, erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate its war dead, particularly the 80,000 soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945.The memorial is located in the...

 erected in 1945, which neatly straddles its former route. Prior to its relocation, the Victory Column stood directly behind the Soviet memorial's location but with the Siegesallee itself having been destroyed in the way described above by the air raids during the Second World War. The Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, as it was at the time (the 19th Cent.), was however not involved in the Prussian creation of the Second German Empire resulting in particular from victory in the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

, and this particular memorial (located on a Russian cemetery and which was opened in 1945 on the anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

) must be held to to relate more directly to the planned Avenue of Splendour

Welthauptstadt Germania

Welthauptstadt Germania refers to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II...

 or 'North-South axis' to the south with its Arch of Triumph upon which it was intended to record, as stated in Avenue of Splendour

Welthauptstadt Germania

Welthauptstadt Germania refers to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II...

, with or without the permission of any concerned relatives, the names of the numerous German military casualties of the First World War, and thus reversing the entire system of First World War memorials as set up in western Europe.

External links

• List on de-wp List with all Siegesallee-monument-groups and detailed informations (German)