Friedensengel: The Golden Angel of Peace
Why is it significant?
Climb the steps beside the fountain and the cascades, and stop on the terrace beneath the column. High above you, a golden angel spreads her wings over the city, glowing even on a grey day. Below, Prinzregentenstraße runs straight as a ruler across the river and into the old town.
Key Facts
| Place | Friedensengel: The Golden Angel of Peace |
|---|---|
| Address | Prinzregentenstraße, 81675 München, Germany |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.14130, 11.59700 |
| Part of Walk | River and Meadow: Munich's Isar, the Angel of Peace & the English Garden |
| Generated | Generated |
Climb the steps beside the fountain and the cascades, and stop on the terrace beneath the column. High above you, a golden angel spreads her wings over the city, glowing even on a grey day. Below, Prinzregentenstraße runs straight as a ruler across the river and into the old town.
Munich people simply call it the Friedensengel, the Angel of Peace. It was unveiled in 1899 to celebrate twenty-five years of peace after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871. Bavaria had fought on the Prussian side, and out of that war came the new German Empire.
And that is the quiet paradox of this place. An angel of peace, yes... but the peace it celebrates was the peace of the victors, sealed with a war that left deep bitterness in France. Look closely at the golden mosaics in the hall below the column: allegories of war, victory and peace, gleaming like a promise. Less than twenty years after the unveiling, the First World War began.
Still, it is hard not to love the place. The column rises from a small temple-like hall, and from the terrace the view sweeps down over the trees of the riverbank to the bridge and the roofs beyond. On summer evenings people sit on the steps with a drink and watch the sunset turn the angel to fire. Couples come here for photos, joggers come here to suffer, climbing the stairs again and again.
Look down the slope and notice how carefully the whole ensemble was planned with the landscape: the fountain, the stairs, the bridge and the avenue form one axis, so that the river becomes part of the architecture. Munich builders at the turn of the century used the Isar like a stage set. Now walk down the stairs, cross the bridge over the river, and stop on the meadow on the far bank to look back at the angel.