Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great

image author: Gisela Pape

The equestrian statue of Frederick the Great stands once again at its historical place in the middle of the road Unter den Linden. It forms the official entrée to the Forum Fridericianum. The gaze of the bronzed Old Fritz faces the Prince-Heinrich-Palace, today's Humboldt-University.

Frederick the Great planned at that time his Forum Fridericianum Unter den Linden as centre for culture. These buildings and the ones constructed by his successors form today Berlin's historical heart.

The 13,5m high monument, built 1842-1851 after a design by Christian Daniel Rauch, was ceremonially unveiled on the 31st of May 1851 on the occasion of the 111th anniversary of the throne ascension of Friederick II. This equestrian monument is one of the most important equestrian statues of the 19th century. The "Old Fritz" is here depicted as rider on his favourite horse in historical uniform with tricorn and cane.

image author: Gisela Pape

 Above the inscription zone at the main tablets of the multi-storey pedestal field-marshals, civil servants, scholars and artists are being depicted, in front the king's generals, in the back the contemporary Prussian poets and thinkers with Lessing and Kant. On relief-tablets at the upper part of the pedestal virtues and scenes form the life of Frederick the Great are being portrayed. 

image author: Gisela Pape

   It consists mainly of individual bronze parts, which were original put together by means of plug, screw and twist connections. The statue landed in DDR-times dismantled into single parts at the Potsdamer Palace Park of Sanssouci. Only with the glorification of Friedrich's life as well as the return to Berlin's Prussian traditions by the DDR-leadership did the statue return in 1980 to Unter die Linden. The statue was restored in 1997 at Ross' Restoration workshop1997 and corrosions damage at the pedestal removed. The  Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz (German Foundation for Monumental Protection) participated with 1 million Mark at the restoration work.

 Public Transport Connections:

S1, S2, S25 Unter den Linden,
S1, S2, S3, S5, S7, S9, S25 Friedrichstraße  
 U2 - Hausvogteiplatz, Friedrichstraße, U6 - Französische Straße
 Am Kupfergraben
100, 147, 157, 200, 257, 348, TXL, N5 

 

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