The Wilhelm I monument at Hohensyburg near Dortmund, which was unveiled in 1902, is a huge one. The equestrian statue of Wilhelm I stands in front of a 34 metre high tower. The statues of Bismarck, Moltke and the Princes Friedrich Wilhelm and Friedrich Karl originally flanked that of Wilhelm I. In 1935, the Nazis claimed that the monument was in a state of disrepair and used this as an excuse to redesign it to suit their own ideology. The Princes were removed and the swastika and the date of the Nazi seizure of power replaced the listings that had the details of Wilhelm’s life. The Nazi changes were later removed, but the original details were not reinstated when the monument was restored in the 1990s.
No less than 65 equestrian statues of Wilhelm I have been created and erected over the years. Fifty of these statues were destroyed, most of them (31) during WW II, 5 before and 9 after that war and unknown when 5. Of the remaining 15 statues one was sold at an auction in 1981 to a private person and one was reconstructed, leaving 15 equestrian statues of Wilhelm I in public space.
