Friedrich II. von Preußen (Berlin-Friedrichshain)

A bronze bust of Frederick the Great stands on a marble column in the heart of the Volkspark Friedrichshain. The park lies in Berlin’s Friedrichshain district, a short walk from the small pond near Friedenstraße. Local citizens first proposed the monument in 1848, collecting money for its construction; among the donors were former court tailor J. S. Freytag and members of the Hohenzollern family. The column rises from a five-step circular platform and bears a colossal marble bust taken from Christian Daniel Rauch’s equestrian statue of the king. The top of the shaft swells into a bell shape, and four carved laurel wreaths encircle its rim. An inscription on the front and back reads: “To Frederick the Great, from his fellow citizens who, by founding this grove, wished to preserve the memory of the great king for posterity; erected as a sign of gratitude by the citizens, J. S. Freytag, 1848.” After surviving the Second World War, the monument was removed in the early 1950s when East Berlin authorities remodelled the park along Soviet lines. Parts of the column were later found buried in rubble and restored between 1998 and 2000. A new bust, modelled on Rauch’s original, now stands once again on the same site, marking the spot where Berliners first gathered to honour their king.