Place de la République

An important junction between the historical and the newer parts of the city

After Strasbourg was annexed to the Second Reich of the Hohenzollern dynasty in 1871, the city took on the mantle of a capital, with the construction of a new sector (Neustadt), adjoining the historical town.

New buildings sprang up within the cities of the Reichsland, serving both monumental and functional purposes. Strasbourg, with its newly-found rank of capital, underwent unprecedentedly rapid growth, with the tripling of its surface area. The underlying political ambition of the works was to hasten the city’s integration into the Reich through the might of its architecture. Bismarck, who was Wilhem I’s Chancellor, wanted to erect a showcase for the glories of the Empire, while removing all traces of the devastating bombardments of 1870.

The new development culminated in a via triumphalis, a broad, straight avenue (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse – now avenue Schoelcher and avenue de la Liberté), running from the Imperial Palace to the new university campus.

Place de la République the political and strategic centre of the new Strasbour

Kaiserplatz (now place de la République) was the cornerstone of the new Strasbourg, a genuine political and strategic centre taking in the Imperial Palace, in itself a monumental hymn to German might, the Diet of Alsace-Lorraine and 2 ministries, as well as a university library. After Strasbourg returned to French rule, the statue in the garden in the middle of the square of a horse-mounted Wilhem I, was taken down and replaced by a monument to those on both sides who died in the First World War. The garden is dotted with Ginkgos biloba trees given to Wilhelm II by the Emperor of Japan.