National Kaiser Wilhelm Monument

It stood in front of the Berlin Palace from 1897 to 1950, when both structures were demolished by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) government.

The first competition, in which the architect Bruno Schmitz with the draft "Imperial Forum" was chosen,[1] did not bring the desired results.

As might be expected, Begas won the competition and contracted sculptor Wilhelm von Rümann and his students to assist with creating the statues for the memorial design.

In June 1894, construction began with the demolition of the houses that lined the street between the canal and Eosander Portal of the Berlin Palace.

During a ten-day centennial celebration held for the 100th anniversary of Wilhelm I's birth, the monument was inaugurated on the late Emperor's birthday, 22 March 1897.

On the granite steps of the substructure on the north was a colossal statue of War and to the south one of Peace, created by Eugen Boermel.

This alluded to the compositional appeal of the central figure in a semicircle, which was similar to Briton Rivière‘s recent painting Daniel's Answer to the King.

The southern corner pavilion was crowned by the bronze quadriga of Bavaria, the work of Karl Hans Bernewitz.

The counterpart on the northern corner pavilion, the four horse quadriga representing Borussia, created by John Goetz.

In the underground vaults of the pedestal, street artists are known to leave their works, which can be visited at irregular intervals at one's own risk on descending a steep ladder into a revision shaft.