The Goddess of Victory on the Brandenburg Gate

21 December 1806. Napoleon had been a month in Berlin, ruling Prussia by military government. He called sculptor Schadow to the palace Unter den Linden: «The Quadriga is beautiful. I take her with me. It depends on your work; do not resist, and she will be respected.» Schadow was 48, director of the Berlin Academy. He protested once, gave in. Twelve French soldiers climbed the Gate, dismantled the Quadriga in a day. Twelve wooden crates travelled in three weeks to Paris. There she lay in a Louvre shed, not displayed.

3 April 1814. Prussian troops under Blücher were in Paris. General Blücher found the Quadriga in the shed, one crate painted with a «P». He said: «P for Prussia. Home.» The Quadriga travelled back with the troops. On 7 August 1814 she was again on the Brandenburg Gate, with one change: Schinkel had set on Victoria’s sceptre an Iron Cross, symbol of Prussian liberation. Berliners called Victoria «Retour Victoria» from 1814. In WWII she was wholly destroyed by bombs; the casting mould was kept in West Berlin. In 1958 she was recast from the original cast iron and set on the Gate. Since the Wall fell in 1989 the Quadriga has stood symbolically for all Germany. Tradition: «A goddess of victory sometimes travels against her will. But she returns. A city that loses its Victoria is not lost; it waits. Fourteen years if need be.»