Equestrian Statue of Frederick the Great

After having been temporarily transferred to the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, the 13.5 m/44ft high statue of Frederick the Great by C. D. Rauch (1851) was re-erected here in the middle of Berlin's Unter den Linden, between Humboldt University and the State Library, in 1980. The statue, one of Rauch's masterpieces, depicts the king riding on his favorite horse, Condé, wearing his coronation robes, three-cornered hat and topboots and holding a stick. On four large tablets on the lower part of the base are the names of 60 of the leading men from Frederick's reign. Above these are life-size figures of generals, on the west side men of politics, art and science, with cavalry commanders at the corners including Prince Henry of Prussia, Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick and Generals Friedrick Wilhelm von Saydlitz and Hans Joachim von Ziethen. Above these again are bas-reliefs of scenes from Frederick's life and allegorical figures.