Berolina
Berolina is the female personificationTemplate:Refn of Berlin and the allegorical female figure symbolizing the city. One of the best-known portraits of Berolina is the statue that once stood in Alexanderplatz.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
StatueEdit
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In 1871, emperor William I ordered an Template:Convert Berolina statue in Belle-Alliance-Platz (today's Mehringplatz), to glorify the homecoming victorious troops of the Franco-Prussian War.<ref name=a>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Another statue was designed in 1889 by the sculptors Template:Ill (1846–1911) and Michel Lock (1848–1898) as a decorative element for the state visit of King Umberto I of Italy.<ref name=a /> The Berolina figure was produced in plaster and was placed on Potsdamer Platz. The statue of Template:Convert showed a woman with a crown of oak leaves. The inspiration allegedly was from a painting in the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} city hall that featured cobbler's daughter Anna Sasse.
Later, in 1895, the gypsum figure by Hundrieser was copper-melted and unveiled in Alexanderplatz on December 17. Weighing five tonnes, it was placed in front of the site where Hermann Tietz erected his department store in 1904.
The statue was damaged in the barricade fights of the German Revolution of 1918–19. It had to be removed during the construction of the U5 underground line in 1927, but was set up again in 1933. The nearby {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, built in 1929–32 according to plans by Peter Behrens, was named after the statue. Finally dismantled on 26 August 1942, it was probably melted down in 1944 for war purposes.<ref name=a /> A model is preserved at the Märkisches Museum.
In 2000, an association named {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ('Recreation and Maintenance of Berolina eV') was created with the aim to rebuild the statue.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
NameEdit
Many Berliner companies are named "Berolina". A leading German film studio of the 1950s was called Berolina Film. In the past, there were several radio and television broadcasts in which references were made to the city's personification. Today, it is the popular name of central Berlin Police radio. A housing cooperative also bears the Berolina name.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1980s, the "Berolina" music awards were organized, sponsored by the TV networks ARD, ZDF and ORF, and hosted on television by Thomas Gottschalk on 27 August 1987 with a total of 15 musicians and bands.<ref name=a />
Several songs, poems, and plays are named "Berolina"; as for example, works by Kurt Tucholsky,<ref>Template:In lang Berolina by Kurt Tucholsky</ref> Günter Neumann, Ulli Herzog, and Alexander von Bentheim.
The Main belt asteroid 422 Berolina, is also named after the city.
PhotogalleryEdit
- 1889 Berolina.jpg
Berolina in Potsdamer Platz, 1889
- Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R75280, Berlin, "Berolina" am Alexanderplatz.jpg
Berolina in Alexanderplatz, 1900
- Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J03164, Berlin, Abtragen der Berolina-Statue.jpg
The statue in 1942
- Berlin, Hausvogteiplatz, Tanzende Berolina von Axel Anklam.jpg
Dancing Berolina, sculpture of Axel Anklam, in Hausvogteiplatz (2004)
See alsoEdit
- Bavaria, personification of the Land of Bavaria
- Berlino, mascot for the 2009 World Championships in athletics
- Berolina (train), which ran between Warsaw and Berlin
- Deutscher Michel, personification of German people
- Flag and Coat of Arms of Berlin
- Germania, national personification of Germany
- Hammonia, personification of Hamburg