Germania
Details
Painted in 1848 by Philipp Veit, for the front of the plenary hall of Paulskirche.
The woman is known as Germania, and is considered the German national symbol. She represents nationhood and is a key element of the new German nationstate. She is adorned in the German national flag which, before 1848, could not be flown publicly because it implied there was a nation and popular sovereignty beyond the individual monarchs. From 1848, however, the flag represented national unity and a new national identity. Black represented unity, red justice, and gold freedom -- all of which were promised in the 1848 Constitution.
Germania was a product of 1848; produced for its National Assembly and providing a visual representation of the revolutionaries' demands, it is clear that the mid-nineteenth-century understanding of German national identity was forged in the Revolution.
The woman is known as Germania, and is considered the German national symbol. She represents nationhood and is a key element of the new German nationstate. She is adorned in the German national flag which, before 1848, could not be flown publicly because it implied there was a nation and popular sovereignty beyond the individual monarchs. From 1848, however, the flag represented national unity and a new national identity. Black represented unity, red justice, and gold freedom -- all of which were promised in the 1848 Constitution.
Germania was a product of 1848; produced for its National Assembly and providing a visual representation of the revolutionaries' demands, it is clear that the mid-nineteenth-century understanding of German national identity was forged in the Revolution.