Postcard Niederwalddenkmal Rüdesheim Rhine, Germania statue, Karl Fischer Eltville

German postcard from the early twentieth century showing a hand-coloured photolithograph of the Niederwalddenkmal near Rüdesheim on the Rhine in Hesse. The image shows the monumental national monument from a vantage point at the bottom of the broad staircase leading up to the platform. Central on the pedestal, the ten-metre-tall bronze statue of Germania, the female personification of Germany, holding in her right hand the recovered imperial crown raised high and in her left the imperial sword. Beneath Germania, the winged bronze allegories of Peace and War are visible, and below the large bronze main relief "Die Wacht am Rhein" with the German troops from the war of 1870-1871. Above, the light clouded sky in soft colouring. The caption "Nationaldenkmal bei Rüdesheim a. Rh." appears in green Fraktur lettering at the top and bottom of the card. Published by Karl Fischer in Eltville on the Rhine, catalogue number 41, with divided back in green lines. The verso is unwritten and unposted. The card is in good condition.

The Niederwalddenkmal was erected between 1871 and 1883 to designs by the Dresden sculptor Johannes Schilling to commemorate the reunification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia after the Franco-German War of 1870-1871. The monument stands on a forward spur of the Niederwald hill above the Rhine, between Rüdesheim and Aßmannshausen, and looks symbolically over the river in the direction of France. The colossal Germania figure was cast in bronze in Munich and inaugurated on 28 September 1883 in the presence of Emperor Wilhelm I. The large bronze main relief "Die Wacht am Rhein", named after the patriotic song of the same name, shows the German emperor and his generals in figures two and a half metres tall. During the German Empire the monument became an important pilgrimage site for patriotic ceremonies; in 1883 it was the scene of a failed anarchist attack, which further strengthened its charge in German national mythology. Today the Niederwald area forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Oberes Mittelrheintal. The publisher Karl Fischer in Eltville, the principal wine town of the Rheingau, specialised in postcards of the Rhine landscape and its monuments.