3-043-862 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Military Triumph at Berlin: captured French eagles passing under the Brandenburg Gate, 1871. 'The triumphal entry into Berlin...of the choicest troops of the German army, and representatives of all engaged in the late war...was a grand military and national festivity...The noble avenue called Unter den Linden...was lined with French cannon and pillars, exhibiting the official war telegrams, connected by festoons and garlands of fresh flowers...the line of captured artillery was broken by triumphal arches, equally simple and tasteful in style...The colossal proportions of the Brandenburg Gate were enlivened with an abundance of green garlands, and round the sombre grey of the massive columns were twined the fir and the oak...The weather was bright and pleasant. An immense multitude of citizens and visitors from different parts of Germany, and from other countries, thronged the sides of the [streets]...The body of troops which entered Berlin that day numbered about 42,000, consisting of the Prussian Royal Guards, and picked deputations from all the regiments of the German Federal and Allied armies, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, which took three hours and a half to march past...bearing the spoils of war - the eagles and the colours'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.