Bismarck Memorial, Bronze and granite memorial in Großer Tiergarten, Germany.
The Bismarck Memorial is a 15-metre-high, 20-metre-wide bronze and granite monument at the north edge of the Großer Stern in the Großer Tiergarten. On a polished red granite pedestal stands a 6.6-metre bronze figure of Otto von Bismarck in the uniform of the Halberstadt cuirassiers, his left hand gripping the hilt of a Pallasch sword. Below, four bronze figures surround the base: a kneeling Atlas carrying a globe, Siegfried forging a sword, a sibyl reading a book while riding a sphinx, and a crowned woman subduing a leopard.
Reinhold Begas won the commission after a competition with over 90 entrants and built the monument on Königsplatz in front of the Reichstag between 1897 and 1901; it was unveiled on 16 June 1901. In 1938 it was moved to the north edge of the Großer Stern as part of Albert Speer's north-south axis plan for "Welthauptstadt Germania", together with the Siegessäule and the monuments to Roon and Moltke. The move reduced the steps of the base from seven to three and brought the side figures about a metre closer to the main pedestal.
The four bronze figures around the pedestal explain Bismarck through allegory: Atlas kneeling with the globe, Siegfried forging the sword, a sibyl on a sphinx reading the book of history, and a crowned woman pressing down a leopard. The leopard is an early work by August Gaul, a pupil of Reinhold Begas. The rear of the pedestal reads "Dem ersten Reichskanzler das Deutsche Volk 1901".
The monument stands at the northern edge of the Großer Stern, the large roundabout at the centre of the Große Tiergarten, where five avenues converge. Visitors reach it on foot from the surrounding park paths; the roundabout itself carries road traffic, so approach via the crossings and footways. The stepped stone platform is outdoors and open at all times.
The six bronze reliefs on the base were removed during the 1958–1960 restoration and never reattached; red granite slabs now fill their place, and the Berlin heritage office does not know where the reliefs are. Photographs survive for a possible reconstruction.
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