HOLD YOUR HORSES: THE KIDNAPPING OF BERLIN'S QUADRIGA
A magnificent photo of the post-WW2 replica of Berlin's Quadriga - the four-span and the goddess normally surveying the city from the top of Brandenburg Gate - here temporarily "parked" in the courtyard of the Neue Marstall.
The group were installed there after the DDR (East German) authorities - which up to this point had worked closely with the BRD (West Germany) to re-create the city's symbol - refused to accept the presence of the Iron Cross and the Eagle on top of Viktoria's spear.
Both were (and quite rightly, too) considered symbols of Prussian militarism. Also the original Quadriga designed by Johann Gottfried Schadow and did not feature any Iron Cross - it was added after the Quadriga’s 1806 abduction through Napoleon and its return from Paris in 1814.
It was also then that the goddess driving the four-span chariot was renamed “Viktoria” (goddess of victory) - its original name, “Eirene”, stood for the goddess of peace.
Instead of installing the Quadriga back on top of the gate - using DDR's most powerful crane called "Ramses" - the East German authorities "kidnapped" the group, which then spent a month where Ralf Goetze took that photo in August 1958. Mind you, the Quadriga was safe there: Marstall is German for "royal stables"
After the offensive elements vanished from the newly moulded four-span, the Quadriga returned to Pariser Platz and on Septmeber 27, 1958 was placed back on its old spot above the plaza.
Mind you, only one original element of the pre-war Quadriga made it until today: one of the horses’ heads which you will find in the collection of the currently renovated Berlin’s City Museum (Stadtmuseum).
