The Isted Lion (or Flensburg Lion) ( or Flensborgløven), or ) is a Danish war monument originally intended as a monument of the Danish victory over German-minded Schleswig-Holstein insurgents in the Battle of Isted (Idstedt) on 25 July 1850, during the First Schleswig War which was a civil war within the Danish Realm, although with troops from Prussia supporting the Schleswig-Holstein insurgents. At its time it was the largest battle in Scandinavian history.
Others perceived it more as a memorial for the Danish dead in the battle.
Originally erected in Flensburg, Schleswig during still Danish rule, it was moved to Berlin by Prussian authorities after Prussian conquests in the Second Schleswig War of 1864 and remained there until 1945. It was returned to Denmark as a gift from the United States Army and was located at Søren Kierkegaards Plads in Copenhagen. In September 2011 it was returned to Flensburg.
History
Flensburg
Following the Danish victory over Schleswig-Holstein in the First War of Schleswig (1848–51), Danish sculptor Herman Wilhelm Bissen was commissioned to create a monument to the ordinary Danish soldier. Although not an actual Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, his monument reflected a similar idea. This monument Landsoldaten (the Foot Soldier) was unveiled in Fredericia in 1858. At the following banquet, it was decided to start a public subscription of funds for a second monument, and one of the options discussed was a statue of General Frederik Rubeck Henrik Bülow, the commander of Fredericia during the German siege of the town. Through the intervention of politician Orla Lehmann, it was decided that the funds would instead be used for a monument commemorating the Battle of Isted. Like the previous monument, this commission was awarded to Bissen.
The lion is derived from the arms of Denmark and Schleswig which contain three and two blue lions, respectively. In order to create a perfect image of a lion, Bissen travelled to Paris to study a lion held in the Jardin des Plantes and created a life-size model before returning to Denmark. Bissen completed his first plaster model in 1860, and the bronze cast was completed by June 1862. The statue's plinth of Bornholm stone was decorated with four round metal reliefs depicting four Danish officers from the war; Generals Gerhard Christoph von Krogh and Friderich Adolph Schleppegrell and Colonels Hans Helgesen and Frederik Læssøe. The finished monument was approximately four meters tall, and carried the following inscription:
Isted den 25. Juli 1850. Det danske Folk reiste dette Minde
(Isted, 25 July 1850. The Danish people set this memorial)
The statue was unveiled on the 12th anniversary of the battle, 25 July 1862, at St Mary's Cemetery in Flensburg, Schleswig's largest city. Among the celebrities attending the ceremony was fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen.
Erecting the monument in Flensburg rather than Copenhagen or Isted, was seen as a provocation by the region's German nationalists who opposed the Danish claim to sovereignty over the area. The decision to let the lion face south reinforced this feeling. Flensburg was divided by national sympathies but had a pro-Danish majority until after the 1864 war.
Berlin
In 1864, war returned to the region, culminating in the German victory in the Battle of Dybbøl. In the following peace settlement, Denmark surrendered both Schleswig and Holstein, leaving the monument on the German side of the new border.
Following the occupation of Flensburg by German forces, German nationalists attacked the monument and tried to topple it. They succeeded in removing the tail and part of the lion's back but failed to destroy the statue due to the intervention of German authorities.
The Prime Minister of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck, ordered the monument to be dismantled, and its parts were originally stored in the courtyard of the Schleswig Estates in Flensburg. In 1867, the lion and the four reliefs were moved to Berlin at the order of Generalfeldmarschall Friedrich Graf von Wrangel.
The reassembled lion was erected in the Zeughaus (Arsenal) in Berlin on February 9, 1868. Following the transformation of the arsenal into a military museum in 1875, the lion was transported to the Cadet Academy in Lichterfelde, and erected there in April 1878. The lion remained there for more than 60 years.