Berolina statue at Alexanderplatz

The Berolina statue at Alexanderplatz was a large female monument representing Berlin, positioned near Tietz’s department store with one hand extended. Its removal amid construction at the square gives the emblem a double significance: it stands for the city, yet is itself swept aside as the city is rebuilt.

Identity and Appearance

Berolina is the Latin name for Berlin, and successive female statues of Berolina were erected in the city as symbols of it. The statue at Alexanderplatz was sculpted by Emil Hundriese. The novel recalls it as an enormous woman, standing in front of Tietz’s department store with one hand stretched out—a public figure whose scale and gesture made the city’s personification part of the everyday streetscape.

Removal and Urban Change

The statue has been dragged away from its former position. The account places this displacement amid the works at Alexanderplatz: a storey-high pile driver pounds the tram rails into the ground, while planks cover the construction site. The hammering turns redevelopment into a forceful spectacle for passers-by; against that scene, the absent monument registers a more lasting change than the repeated blows of machinery.

The narration speculates that the statue may be melted down and made into medals, but presents this as a possibility rather than a confirmed fate. The image is pointed: a civic symbol, once raised above the square, might be reduced to material for new objects. The passage does not say what happened to the statue after its removal.

Narrative Significance

The statue’s disappearance makes urban modernization visible through a single familiar landmark. The pile driver’s mechanical rhythm and the relocation of the monumental figure belong to the same altered streetscape, where public space is being dismantled and remade. Berolina consequently embodies both Berlin’s civic identity and its vulnerability to redevelopment: the city’s symbol cannot remain untouched by the transformation of the city it represents.