Availability: Unique – only one known
Sculptor: Walter E. Lemcke (often incorrectly attributed to Wilhelm Lemke)
Location today: Head exists at the Tempelhof airport(see below), body destroyed
History: The eagle was designed be the German architect Ernst Sagebiel, who, in 1935, was commissioned to build the new Tempelhof terminal building for the airport as part of “Germania,” a monumental plan to restructure Berlin under the direction of Hitler’s chief architect Albert Speer.
The large roof eagle was built in 1940 by Walter Lemcke and stood 4.5m tall and weighed over 9 tonnes. It was initially formed in plaster, then cast in iron before being coated in anti-corrosion paint followed by an oil-based paint to appear bronze. It stood upright with open wings and the eagle looked left as it held a globe with a swastika in its claws. The large globe symbolised the international aspect of the airport. Several prototypes were produced in order to find the ideal form and placement. Eventually it was decided to place the eagle sculpture at the head of the main building at Templehof (Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof), thus accentuating the rigorous symmetry of the architecture.
Pre War:
Post War:
When Nazi Germany capitulated to the Allied Forces in 1945, the Russian troops planted their flag between the claws of the Templehof Eagle. Shortly thereafter, the airport was ceded to the United States Army according to the terms of the Yalta Agreement. The Americans did not remove the eagle from the rooftop, but simply transformed the sculpture into an iteration of their own national emblem, the American bald eagle, by covering the swastika with an American coat of arms and painting the head white.
Dismantling:
In 1962 the eagle sculpture was finally removed. It was in a state of decay and new radar equipment had to be installed in its place. Originally it was supposed to be lifted down complete by helicopter, however the structure turned out to be too ramshackle and too heavy to lift. It was instead dismantled and disposed of on the roof – right up to the head. The head of the eagle was removed and presented by the West German government to the US, who sent it to the West Point Military Museum as a trophy. The rest of the body was scrapped.
Today:
As a symbolic gesture of German-American friendship, the head was returned to Berlin in 1985. The airport was closed in 2008 and the head is now located near to the entrance of the nearby Platz der Luftbrücke This led to the area being named “Eagle Square”.
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