Emperor William Monument

A large number of monuments were erected in Germany in honour of Emperor William I (known in German as Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal). As early as 1867 the Berlin sculptor, Friedrich Drake, had created the first equestrian statue, that portrayed William I as the King of Prussia. To date the Prussian Monument Institute (Preußische Denkmal-Institut) has recorded:

that were created and erected between 1888 and 1918 in the German-speaking region. In addition there are numerous William I monuments on which the emperor is portrayed in a relief medallion or which commemorates the emperor in a dedicatory inscription. During the "imperial era" 28 Emperor William I towers were also built.

They are most commonly known in English sources as Emperor William monuments or Kaiser Wilhelm monuments.

A distinction must be made between two groups of monuments:

Even before the imperial period it was customary in Prussia not to erect monuments to living monarchs. Moreover, before official monuments of members of the royal house, i.e. Prussia, could be built, a so-called 'sovereign approval' had to be sought. As a result, almost all Emperor William monuments appeared only after the death of Emperor William I in 1888. There are very few monuments to the last German Emperor, William II, for the reasons mentioned above. The only two equestrian statues are in Cologne (a free-standing monument on the Hohenzollern Bridge) and in Wuppertal's Elberfeld district (a 3/4 scale relief).

Emperor William monuments were mainly built in Prussia and in larger cities outside of Prussia, usually on the initiative of private individuals. The organization of finance, tendering, planning and unveiling was carried out by memorial committees that were dissolved after completion of the monument.

The best known surviving Emperor William monuments today are the 81-metre-high Kyffhäuser Monument (1890-1896), The Emperor William Monument at Porta Westfalica, unveiled in 1896, and the monument at the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz erected in 1897. All three were designed by Berlin architect, Bruno Schmitz.

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