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.
Only one was installed after the First World War: in Lübeck. The municipality of that city had commissioned the statue prior to the war, but before it could be delivered, the conflict began and all the bronze was needed for the war industry. After the war, Germany became a republic and no one was erecting statues of a Kaiser anymore. The government of Lübeck had long forgotten about the order they had placed years before, until in 1921, the grandiose statue by Louis Tuaillon was delivered, much to their surprise.
