back to overview

160 years ago, Germany did not yet exist as a state. There was only a “German Confederation”, made up of the Austrian Empire, the kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Hanover, several principalities, and the four cities of Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfurt and Lübeck. In all, 41 independent states belonged to this “German Confederation”.

In all these countries, there were people who supported a peaceful union. Prussia, however, was mainly seeking dominance. It saw the Austrian Empire—which at the time also included what are now the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and northern Italy, among other places—as a powerful rival.

The most important statesman in Prussia was Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck. After three wars, he succeeded in persuading the other princes to establish the “German Empire.” In 1864, Denmark was forced to give up its possessions in what is now Schleswig-Holstein. Austria was defeated in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.

After another war against France in 1870–71, the German princes finally founded the united “German Empire”. This took place in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France. The King of Prussia was proclaimed emperor.

The Victory Column was built in Berlin to commemorate these three wars. It originally consisted of a plinth and three sections, commemorating the three victorious wars later known as the Wars of German Unification. A fourth section was added in 1938/39, and the column was moved to its present location at the Großer Stern in the Tiergarten district. A sculpture of the Roman goddess Victoria stands atop the sections. The monument is 67 metres tall in total. In Berlin, people often jokingly call Victoria “Goldelse”.