The bust of Field Marshal Leonhardt von Blumenthal is the left of the two assistant busts of the former monument to Emperor Frederick III. It is dedicated to the Emperor’s long-time advisor and one of his closest confidants, who distinguished himself with his strategic skills, particularly in the so-called wars of unification. In his diary, published in 1902, he reports on his time as Chief of the Crown Prince’s General Staff in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, during which he consistently spoke out against Chancellor Otto von Bismarck’s desire to take Paris by bombardment, despite fierce resistance. He was present at the proclamation of the German Empire in the Palace of Versailles.

The fact that, like Frederick III, he was married to an Englishwoman certainly contributed to their mutual esteem. Four of the eight streets in Berlin are still named after him today.

The two bronze sculptures “Striding Horses” were commissioned by architect Albert Speer for Adolf Hitler’s New Reich Chancellery in Berlin-Mitte and made by Josef Thorak. With their unnaturally large and muscular design, the horses fit into the propagandistic Nazi architecture: they symbolize obedience, loyalty, masculinity and readiness to fight. After 1945, the sculptures set off on an extraordinary journey – from the workshops of sculptor Arno Breker, via a Soviet barracks site and finally, after being smuggled across the inner-German border, to a Nazi art collector in West Germany. After the “Striding Horses” turned up there and were seized by the criminal authorities, they were brought to the Spandau Citadel. Here they complement the display depot and the permanent exhibition “Unveiled. Berlin and its monuments”, adding to the discussion about ‘toxic’ remembrance culture. 

The Märzfeld in Nuremberg

On the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg, Albert Speer wanted to build a place for Wehrmacht show maneuvers – the so-called March Field. The name was inspired by Mars, the god of war, and the reintroduction of compulsory military service in March 1935. Spectator stands surrounded by towers and a group of colossal figures were to be erected on the huge area, in the gigantomaniacal architectural style of the National Socialists. The “Walking Horses” were commissioned as part of this group in 1938 – the bronze sculptures were therefore smaller models for this construction project. With their monumental style, they fitted perfectly into the planned group and framed the goddess of victory and warrior figures. The fact that a horse rider was planned next to each of the sculptures can still be seen in the bronze horses by the horse’s posture and its open mouth. The March Field and the planned group of sculptures were never completed.

The bust of August Wilhelm von Hofmann flanked the monument to Empress Friedrich III at the Brandenburg Gate. It honours the pioneering chemist in the research field of organic chemistry. His modern research theory created essential prerequisites for the development of the industrial production of aniline dyes, which were mainly used in textile dyeing. Empress Frederick III, who was very interested in science, had already attended his lectures as a princess in London – as had Karl Marx. She had him elevated to the nobility in 1888 and remained on friendly terms with him throughout his life.
At her father’s request, Hofmann went to London after studying in Giessen and completing his habilitation in Bonn in 1845. There he researched and taught at the Royal School of Mines for almost 20 years. His research findings were highly regarded, won several awards and were presented at the World Exhibition in 1862, among other places. Although he was one of the most respected chemists in England, he returned to Germany in 1863 and a year later established the First Chemical Institute in Georgenstraße at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin. In 1906, after the opening of a new institute building in Hannoversche Straße, the Museum of Oceanography moved there. In 1867, he founded the German Chemical Society with well-known chemists such as Bayer and Schering. As in England, his lectures and experiments attracted numerous students. On the day of his death, he was still supervising one of his almost 300 doctoral students.

Anna von Helmholtz, the physicist’s wife, wrote to a friend after his death: “He was so poetically inclined that he wrote a sonnet to his wife every morning and presented it to her while kneeling at her bedside”.

Until 1980, the artist’s studio was located on the property at Leuchtenburgstraße 18, in whose garden the two related figures “Faun” and “N***” stood. They were presumably decorative commissions, but it is not known for which location and by whom. The date of origin can also only be estimated: The stylistic mixture of Art Nouveau and Expressionism suggests a date between 1910 and 1925. Since 1985, the sculptures have served as a reminder of Hasemann’s studio, which was demolished after his death in 1979.

It was not until 2000, after cleaning, that they also received the eponymous signs. The bronze plaque now also featured the N-word, which, in addition to the depiction of the Black Woman – naked, exaggerated and in connection with a half-animal mythical creature – which was perceived as racist, has repeatedly led to complaints since 2018.

In 2020, applications to district politicians to remove the statue from public spaces were finally successful. While preparations were already underway to move it to Spandau Citadel, it was decapitated and graffitied in June 2020. Until 2022, there were great difficulties in actually implementing the removal. Among others, the Spandau AfD tried to influence the contextualization. Without any reliable facts, it demanded an exhibition of the destroyed artwork as evidence of left-wing activist vandalism. As the perpetrators and their political views are unknown, this was a purely populist motion that was rejected by a majority of the Spandau district council. In November 2022, the transport to the citadel and the display depot finally took place.

The two marble heads came to light in 2020 during garden work at the Kunsthaus Dahlem in the former state studio of Arno Breker (1900-1991). One of the heads, presumably intended as a façade decoration, depicts a dying warrior, similar to the works by Andreas Schlüter (c. 1640-1714) in the Zeughaus-Lichthof of the Deutsches Historisches Museum. The second work, known as Romanichel, is part of a series of portraits of a Roma boy whom Breker met in Paris at the end of the 1920s. In his memoirs, the sculptor describes how the boy knocked on his door looking for work and how he was immediately fascinated by his face. He made several portraits of him, at that time still in a rather impressionistic style. In 1940, Breker took up the motif of the beautiful “gypsy boy” again, in a highly stylized classicist manner in marble, much larger than life. At the same time the first major deportations of Sinti and Roma to concentration camps began. According to an expert opinion, however, the artworks cannot be clearly attributed to Breker himself or to any of his sculptor students.

The reason for its undiscovered “hiding place” underground for 75 years has also not yet been resolved. Built between 1939 and 1942 “at the special request of the Führer”, Breker’s studio was first used as an office by the Soviet and then the US military administration in 1945. They had Breker’s remaining works removed to an art collection point. Why and by whom the two marble heads were buried in the sand – whether out of disgust for Nazi art, to fill bomb craters or to protect them – remains a mystery for the time being.

The marble bust of Adolf Hitler, weighing around 300 kg, came to light under the remains of buildings during construction work in Berlin-Mitte, around 2.50 m below the current ground level. The signature of the artist Josef Limburg (1874-1955) is still clearly visible on the bust. The excavation pit is at a point where the building complex was severely damaged by bomb hits during Allied air raids. The buildings were finally reduced to rubble because one of the main battle lines of the so-called “citadel” (inner defence line around the government district) ran here.

It is not known how the sculpture came to be here. But it is assumed that the Hitler bust was part of the interior of the administrative buildings there: At the end of the 19th century, as Berlin developed into a metropolis, a closed complex was built here, housing the main customs office, the provincial tax directorate and large parts of the financial administration. In 1941, the latter took over the task of administering and disposing of the expropriated property of Jews who had been persecuted and murdered by the state.

Limburg, who actually specialized in religious sculptures, sought commissions from the National Socialist government. It is likely that the bust of Hitler exhibited here was also a marble sculpture ordered for these administrative buildings and was not thrown into the rubble pit afterwards.

The monument, originally topped by an eagle, is one of numerous memorials to the fallen in Spandau and Berlin. It was erected to commemorate the fallen of the 5th Guards Regiment on Foot from the First World War. The pillar is adorned with an Iron Cross and the years 1914-1918. The memorial was dedicated on May 6, 1923 on the Askanierring in Berlin-Spandau – initiated by Spandau regimental associations. The Berlin architect Heinrich Wolff (1880-1944) designed the memorial column. The eagle, which eventually completed the monument, was not originally intended for the monument. It had been created years earlier by the sculptor Christian Behrens (1852-1905). The authorities had chosen this somewhat remote location due to possible “political irritability”, and they only agreed to the eagle being placed on a higher pedestal. The monument was moved to Hohenzollernring in 1961 for traffic reasons. Today it only consists of parts of the base, as in 1991 unknown persons toppled the eagle from its pedestal – presumably as a protest against the Second Gulf War.

Since then, the fragments of the eagle have been stored at the Parks Department in Tiefwerder and were brought back in 2015 in preparation for the exhibition “Unveiled. Berlin and its monuments” at the Citadel in 2015.