The story of this place
Rising above the Teutoburg Forest, the Hermannsdenkmal is a 53-metre copper colossus of the chieftain Arminius — Germanised as 'Hermann' — brandishing a seven-metre sword toward the west. Designed by Ernst von Bandel, it took 37 years to complete and was inaugurated in 1875, four years after the unification of Germany, becoming a nationalist symbol of German unity forged against foreign (originally Roman, pointedly French) domination. The sword bears the inscription 'German unity, my strength; my strength, Germany's might.' For a time it was the tallest statue in the Western world. Though its 19th-century nationalism sits uneasily today, it remains a striking monument and a popular viewpoint over the wooded hills.