Departure of King Wilhelm I for the Army, July 31, 1870

On 31 July 1870 the painter Menzel walked straight into this scene as he returned to Berlin. King Wilhelm I of Prussia was riding down the avenue Unter den Linden in an open carriage, on his way to the train and to the war just begun against France, the war that would turn Prussia into the German Empire within months. The crowd cheers and hats go up. Beside the king his wife Augusta presses a handkerchief to her face. Menzel painted it the following year, once the war was won, and yet he set a small Red Cross flag near the exact centre of the picture, a quiet nod to the wounded. In the foreground, back to the parade, a man in a pale hat sketches on a pad, thought to be Menzel putting himself into the crowd.