Building NationalismNationalism was built through ideas and action but also in stone. The National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II in Rome and the Battle of the Nations Monument in Leipzig, Germany, are just two of the many buildings, monuments, and statues erected around 1900 to represent the glory of the nation-state and its people. Inaugurated in 1911 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Italian unification and dedicated to Emmanuel II (unified Italy’s first king), the massive neoclassical structure in Rome — nicknamed the “wedding cake” by local wits — features an equestrian statue of Emmanuel above a frieze of the Italian people and an imposing Roman-style colonnade crowned by two triumphal horse-drawn chariots. Inside is a museum dedicated to the history of the Italian military. The Leipzig monument, opened in 1913, pays homage to Prussian victory over Napoleon’s armies on a nearby battlefield in 1813. Made of bulky, dark, and rough-hewn granite, this colossus is anchored by a large statue of the archangel Michael underneath an inscription reading “Gott Mit Uns” (God With Us). Teutonic knights with drawn swords stand watch around the memorial’s crest; inside are somber statues of the Guards of the Dead and a “hall of fame” dedicated to the heroic qualities of the German people. (Monument to Victor Emmanuel II © Paul Thompson/Eye Ubiquitous/Corbis; Leipzig Monument: Ivan Vdovin/JAI/Corbis)> PICTURING THE PASTANALYZING THE IMAGE: The insightful French sociologist Ernest Renan believed that nationalism depended more on an imagined and invented past than on what actually happened in a people’s shared history. How do these two monuments reconstruct the past to engender nationalist pride? What values do the monuments and their decorations celebrate?
CONNECTIONS: Historians continue to ponder the immense popularity of nationalism around 1900 and indeed its ongoing resonance today. Can architecture help spread the popular appeal of the national idea? Are there similar structures in your own neighborhood or region? If so, when were they made and what do they represent? Do they continue to promote national values effectively?