Proclamation of the German Empire

File:Die Kaiserproklamation 1871 (Anton von Werner).jpg

Painting for the Berlin Castle, unveiled on 22 March 1877. Oil on canvas, 4.34 x 7.32m, lost during the war. Only as a black-and-white photograph, shortened by about 40cm on the right edge

The Proclamation of the German Empire (18 January 1871) is the title of several history paintings by the German painter Anton von Werner.

On 18 January 1871, Anton von Werner was present at the proclamation of the German Empire in Versailles in his capacity as a painter. In the following years, he produced several versions of the imperial proclamation at greater intervals, two of which were shown in prominent places in Berlin. Only a third version was preserved to Otto von Bismarck's last residence, Friedrichsruh, and is now open to the public. It is the most reproduced picture of the Imperial Proclamation.

Since the three paintings show strong differences, the images are of great documentary and historical dichotomy. Von Werner obviously adapted them to the wishes of his respective clients. The clothes worn by Bismarck in the first painting do not match with the other two paintings. Bismarck is wearing his white parade uniform in the second and third paiting, which places him in the focus of the viewer. In fact, in Versailles, he was wearing a blue gun coat. In addition, he was holding the Order of Pour le Mérite on his white uniform, which he received in 1884. Minister of War Albrecht von Roon, who did not participate in the proclamation of Versailles, was also included in the third version. In the first, second, and third paintings, the Grand Duke of Baden summons the new emperor. The perspective makes it appear that the imperial proclamation was above all a work of the princes and of the military.

Von Werner began working on the picture as one of the most active and influential German artists.

First Painting, 1877

File:Die Kaiserproklamation 1871, Gemälde von 1877.png

On this reproduction of the painting, Werner's self-portrait can be seen on the extreme right margin (with a mustache).

File:Galerie des Glaces du Château de Versailles transformée en ambulance militaire.jpg

The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. A few days after the imperial proclamation, the victors of the Siege of Paris used it as a hospital (contemporary painting).

In 1870, von Werner spent the final phase of the Franco-Prussian War at the headquarters of the Third Army led by Prussian crown prince Frederick William. In January 1871, the latter asked him to travel from Karlsruhe to the "Grand Headquarter" in the Palace of Versailles to "experience something worthy of your brush." Von Werner was only informed of the Proclamation of the German Empire on 18 January. The crown prince had impressed the design of the Palace of Versailles, which presented itself to visitors as a national site of fame in France, furnished with historical paintings. He wanted something similar for Berlin, but, unlike Napoleon Bonaparte, he had not come to the idea that the imminent ceremony would be designed by the painter for posterity. Napoleon had allowed Jacques-Louis David to stage the furnishing and the appearance of the actors in his imperial crown for a historical painting.

The Prussian ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors was short and simple. In the elongated gallery stood, on the window side, Prussian and Bavarian soldiers and on the mirror side, their officers, mixed with some other southern German armies. The King, accompanied by German princes and his entourage, crossed the trellis to the middle, where a field altar was erected. There, a Potsdam military spiritst celebrated a worship service, which the chorus had decided to sing "Nun danket alle Gott" (Now Thank We All Our God). Then, the group went to a flat platform at the end of the gallery, where the princes and William stood in the middle. Bismarck, who stood below and was surrounded by commanders, read the imperial proclamation. Thereupon, the Grand Duke of Baden issued a "Hoch" ("Hurrah") to "His Majesty Emperor William", which those who were in attendance repeated three times. The ceremony was over, while the calls continued among the troops station in the palace and the park.

During the worship, Werner was able to quickly draw the main characters in the immediate vicinity. He later portrayed the princes, the representatives of the Hanseatic cities and numerous officers. During the work, an almost friendly relationship with the Crown Prince came about, as well as the personal relations to Federal Chancellor Bismarck and Emperor William.

Werner had the problem of representing the trellis that formed the soldies with the officers to the gallery and the princes grouped around them. The adjoining oil painting by Victor Bachereau-Reverchon (1842-1885) shows the comparatively narrow space, from whose end the flat gallery for the Emperor had already been removed. It was also important to take the picture of the ceiling paintings that glorify Louis XIV as a conqueror of German lands and cities. As early as January 1871, a conceptual design followed, and later a model, which was approved by the Crown Prince.

The picture was commissioned for the Berlin city palace. Werner determined the image format according to a place he had chosen in the "White Hall", the largest of the château, which was used for public events such as the opening of the Reichstag and the grand court. His visit was the end and highlight of the guided tours through the representative rooms of the castle, where several hundred paying visitors took part every day. The picture was against the window wall, opening the view to Unter den Linden. When William II had the hall redesigned in 1892, the picture only fitted into a 9.5 x 9.7m gap at the western end of the picture gallery, thus losing its effect. After the transformation of the picture gallery into a gobeling gallery by William II in 1914 and the following years of the Weimar Republic and the period of National Socialism, the painting remained like most "parental pictures" of the castle, the eyes of the visitors. Werner's headquarters at the castle were burned during the Second World War on 2 February 1945, during an air raid on Berlin.