Germaniadenkmal in Dresden

The Germaniadenkmal once stood in the centre of Dresden’s Altmarkt. It was a neobaroque monument built in 1880 to honour the 31 000 Saxons who fought in the Franco-Prussian War and the 99 Dresden soldiers who died there. The sculptor Robert Henze created a 6.20-metre-high Germania in Carrara marble, flanked by four allegorical figures carved in Florence. The monument cost 186 500 Marks and was unveiled on 1 September 1880 before King Albert of Saxony. Rosa Heysing, a local singer, posed for the face of Germania, who holds a laurel-wreathed imperial flag and rests her left hand on an eagle-topped shield. Bronze plaques on the pedestal listed the names of the fallen Dresden men. After the Second World War the city removed the Germania in 1946, though the Soviet authorities had wanted it preserved. Only the head and two other fragments survived, later donated to the city museum. The bronze name plaques were saved and placed in the garrison church’s porch, where they remain today.