Germania (St. Paul's Church, Frankfurt am Main)

[2] "Germania] stands on a stone pedestal high above a shadowy hilly landscape, illuminated in gold by the rising sun of a new age.

She wears a red ermine-covered ruler's robe with the double-headed eagle in the breast shield, over it a wide, blue-lined gold brocade cloak.

The shimmering German tricolour forms the foil for the youthful blond head of Germania crowned with oak leaves.

(Rainer Schoch)[3]"With shattered fetters, holding the black-red-gold flag in her left hand, she embodies the nation's awakening to freedom and self-confidence, and in the motif of the bare sword, but entwined with an olive branch, which Germania holds in her right hand, love of peace is combined with a fortitude that does not yet display the provocative, even militant streak of later Germania images."

According to the son of Eduard von Steinle, a painter friend of Veit's from the Nazarene circle, his father had created the picture for St Paul's Church in a few days.

Friedrich Siegmund Jucho was the "custodian of the estate" of the National Assembly and the saviour of the constitutional document.

Eduard von Steinle and his friends in the artist circle Deutsches Haus painted several Germania pictures in 1848.

The art historian Rainer Schoch considers a joint production possible in which Veit, Steinle and other artists of the Deutsches Haus were involved.

The Federal Liquidation Commission handed over the painting of Germania and other objects to the German National Museum (Germanisches Nationalmuseum) in Nuremberg in 1867.

The museum displayed the painting once again in September 1870, on the occasion of the victories of the German troops in the Franco-Prussian War.

Broken chains: being free Breastplate with eagle: strength Crown of oak leaves: heroism Olive Branch around the sword: willingness to make peace Tricolour: flag of liberal-nationalists in 1848 Rays of sun from back: beginning of new era