Berlin Peace Column

The Peace Column on Mehringplatz in Kreuzberg commemorates the 1815 Peace of Paris that ended the Napoleonic Wars. It was built between 1840 and 1843 by architect Christian Gottlieb Cantian in Silesian granite – strict Neoclassicism, surprisingly slender for a victory monument. At its top stands a gilded Victoria by Christian Daniel Rauch, the leading Prussian sculptor of his day. Four allegorical figures around the base represent the main allies against Napoleon: Prussia, Russia, Austria and Britain. The originally circular Belle-Alliance-Platz it stands on was destroyed in the war and rebuilt in the 1970s as the social-housing-rimmed Mehringplatz – only the column survived. Today it sits incongruously among Kreuzberg apartment blocks with traffic noise from Hallesches Tor. Knowing the square's history changes the view: this is the last aristocratic element of a pre-war urban set piece that has otherwise entirely disappeared.