The New Berlin Monument?

After Kaiser Wilhelm I died (the 'good Kaiser' as described by some Germans)....Germans got all hyped up in Berlin and wanted a massive statue to be dedicated to the Kaiser.

After six years of talking about this and going over options....they picked a plan and started in 1894.  By 1897, the statue was finished.  The cost?  A massive sum at the time of roughly four million Marks.  Reason for the high cost?  It was a larger than life type monument.  Location?  It stood opposite the Eosanderportal on the western side of the Berlin Stadtschloss.

The massive statue sat there for a number of years....and then suffered some minor damage in 1918....with crowd causing a riot.  No one talks much over what was done.  Some repairs occurred, and the monument actually survived. WW II.  At some point....being in the East Germany side of Berlin and controlled by DDR.....the monument was dismantled.   The base stood there....just nothing on top of it.

After the Wall came down.....a fair amount of talk occurred about putting a monument back up.  The thing was.....no one within the VIP or political crowd....wanted a statue.

So, they held a contest and this design has come up....the Einheitswippe.  It's supposed to mean 'citizens in motion'.  When you look at the shape of this....when enough people walk to one side....it will cause that end to go down and the opposite end to lift.

The cost factor?  Some people (depending on who you read from)....will put the price at a minimum of 20-million Euro.

Some others speculate that the movement part of this, and the typical screwed-up nature of German structures....will end up with cracks or a unsafe condition (remember, it moves).

Some people question the necessity of something like this when so many Germans (15-percent are living below the welfare level).

The city bosses?  They are fairly fired up over the project and today let it be known that the project is going ahead....with a budget of 15-million.

The problem I see is that it's a magnet for political statements.  I could see some crazy political cause getting 300 people to show up and balance the platform on one end.....with 50 people on the other end, and have a picture taken to make a political statement.

Putting up some Kaiser Wilhelm statue again? No....forget that.  Virtually everything about the 1800s in Berlin is non-trendy right now.

The odds of some screwed up project....taking ten years to finish?  It's best not to bring this up.