Statue of Otto von Bismarck, Grober Stern, Berlin, Germany (photo)

One of the Statue of war hero Otto von Bismarck stands at Grober Stern in Berlin Germany. Berlin’s Siegessäule - Victory Column - is another of Berlin’s monuments that has reinvented itself through the ages - from symbol of Prussian military victory in the 19th century to a favourite tourist spot today. As US Presidential candidate, Barack Obama chose the Siegessäule as the alternative spot to the Brandenburg Gate for his speech to 200,000 Berliners on July 24, 2008. The 67m high symbol of victory originally stood in front of the Reichstag in the former Königsplatz and today’s Platz der Republik. It was relocated here, in the Tiergarten’s main roundabout by the Nazis in 1938. The Grosser Stern roundabout is a central intersection from which five avenues stretch out to different directions around the compass. According to plans by Albert Speer the architect and visionary of Berlin as the new capital of the German Reich – Germania – intended to enhance the East-West axis running through the Tiergarten. Emperor Wilhelm I (1861-1888) who ruled and increasingly powerful Prussian State with territorial ambitions to unify Germany under Prussia, had appointed Otto von Bismarck – the Iron Chancellor – as Prussian prime minister in 1862. The Emperor presided over the unveiling of the Column of Victory on September 2, 1873 as a monument to Prussia’s victory in the Franco-German war. This ended the so-called Wars of Unification waged against its neighbours Denmark (1864) Austria (1866) and France (1871). The founding of Berlin as capital of Germany followed and the King Wilhelm I of Prussia was crowned Emperor – Kaiser Wilhelm I at Versailles in January 1871. Photographed in 2013