Siegestor (Victory Gate)

The Siegestor - “Dedicated to victory, destroyed by war, urging peace”

The commanding Vicotry Gate (1852) has seen war and seen peace.
Now it mostly sees a lot of traffic from its focal location at the busy Ludwig-Leopold Strasse nexus.

CHANGING ROLES: The Victory Gate was built to celebrate a military victory. It now stands for peace.

The design is based on Rome’s Arch of Constantine and atop rides a bronze Lady Bavaria in an unlikely chariot led by four lions.

I think it adds a nice final touch of Rome to the top of Ludwig Strasse.

King Ludwig I commissioned and paid for the archway out of his own pocket at a cost of 420,000 florins – about €767,000 in today’s money.

Itwas built to commemorate Bavaria’s role in kicking Napoleon out of Germany, and was often featured in Third Reich propaganda as a symbol of German strength.

The archway became a peace memorial after copping a blasting in World War Two which left Bavaria and her lions strewn about the ground below.

The inscription on the north side reads “Dem Bayerischen Heer” - For the Bavarian Army.

The inscription on the south side was added after the war and reads “Dem Sieg geweiht, vom Kriege zerstört, zum Frieden mahnend”, which means “Dedicated to victory, destroyed by war, urging peace”.

Here's a map pinpointing the location of the Victory Gate (blue) in relation to Odeonsplatz (red) and the Englischer Garten (green). if you zoom right in you can see the four lions and Lady Bavaria in her chariot.

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