Siegessäule (Victory Column), Berlin

Tuesday, 15th November 2005 by

Update: I'm a numpty. After 556 unique entries, I finally managed to post a sight which James had already posted. I guess it had to happen sooner or later...

This is Berlin's Siegessäule, or in English 'The Victory Column'. The column was built to celebrate the military successes of Prussia over Denmark, and was originally positioned in front of the Reichstag. Hitler decided to move the column in 1938, and added 7.5 metres to its height while he was at it, bringing the column's total height to an impressive 66.89 metres (although the bronze statue of Victoria on top is 8.3 metres alone!) There's a good ground level shot here which gives you a great impression of scale, and the Wikipedia page has a more detailed history.

The column is featured in Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire... Never heard of it? It's the movie they re-made into City of Angels.

Thanks to Markus, Joe Kay, Cindywho, Dominik Freitag Sven Walther, Valentin, Mark Tennant, Martin, Lars, Markus and Ananya Gupta.