Place de la République in Strasbourg was developed from 1883 by German authorities as part of a major urban planning project. Designed by Johann Carl Ott, the architect of Strasbourg, it was completed in 1887 and served as the junction between the historic city and the new city. The square symbolized the advent of new German power and forms one of the only examples of a monumental Berlin-style complex. It includes five prestigious buildings, among them the imperial palace, the Alsace-Lorraine diet palace, the Strasbourg national and university library, and two Ministry of Alsace-Lorraine buildings. Their architecture combines Italian Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical styles, and the ensemble is regarded as one of the finest examples of Wilhelmine architecture. At the center of the square is a circular garden with several century-old trees, including four Ginkgo biloba reportedly gifted to Wilhelm by Emperor Mutsuhito of Japan around 1880. The square has also carried changing political meanings through its monuments and names, including its renaming in 1919 and again in 1940 and 1945.
Nearby Objects
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Monument aux morts 0 m away -
Palais du Rhin 120 m away -
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Palace of the Alsace-Lorraine Diet 160 m away -
Strasbourg Opera House 200 m away
Urban Planning and Architectural Character
Developed from 1883 by German authorities as part of a large urban planning project, Place de la Republique was completed in 1887 and served as the junction between the historic city and the new city. Designed by Johann Carl Ott, the architect of Strasbourg, it symbolized the advent of the new German power. The site was renamed Place de la Republique in 1919, after Alsace-Lorraine returned to France.
The complex includes five prestigious buildings: the imperial palace, the Alsace-Lorraine diet palace, the Strasbourg national and university library, and two Ministry of Alsace-Lorraine buildings. These structures mix Italian Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical styles, and the ensemble forms one of the only examples of a monumental Berlin-style complex. At the center is a circular garden with several remarkable century-old trees, including four Ginkgo biloba.
Monuments, Trees, and Renaming
The site known as Place de la Republique has seen several changes in its planted and commemorative features. Four Ginkgo biloba trees were reportedly gifted to Wilhelm by Emperor Mutsuhito of Japan around 1880, and two beeches were planted between 1883 and 1887, although they were later uprooted during a storm on the night of the 19th. In 1911, an equestrian statue of Wilhelm by Ludwig Manzel was added. After the First World War, the statue disappeared, and in 1919 a captured German biplane was installed on its pedestal. This aircraft was eventually replaced by a war memorial. The place also changed names over time: it was renamed Bismarckplatz in 1940 during the second German annexation and reverted to Place de la Republique in 1945.
Wilhelmine Buildings Around the Square
Place de la Republique is associated with a group of five buildings regarded as among the finest examples of Wilhelmine architecture. These buildings reflect the period of German rule through their style, original functions, and later institutional uses. The Imperial Palace, now the Palais du Rhin, was built between 1883 and 1888 by Hermann Eggert in a German neo-Renaissance style. It was designed to receive the emperor during visits to Strasbourg, and it also symbolizes Strasbourg's annexation to Germany and the major urban renovation that followed. Since 1920, it has housed the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine.
Another major building in the group is the former Alsace-Lorraine Diet Palace, now the Strasbourg National Theater, built between 1888 and 1899 by August Hartel and Skjold Neckelmann. It first hosted sessions of the Alsace-Lorraine Diet, then became the Alsace-Lorraine Landtag parliament in 1911 until the end of World War I. It later accommodated the music conservatory and the Strasbourg National Theater, and has been under the Ministry of Culture since 1972. It is noted as the first national theater established in French provinces.
The group also includes the Grand Est Regional Directorate of Public Finances and the Bas-Rhin Prefecture Hotel. These buildings were former Alsace-Lorraine Ministry buildings known as the ministEre Est and ministEre Ouest. They were constructed in 1902 and 1911, adding to the square's concentration of administrative and representative architecture from the period.
National and University Library
The National and University Library of Strasbourg, built by Hartel and Neckelmann and inaugurated in 1895, is one of the notable buildings associated with Place de la Republique. It is the only French library with both national and university status. The library holds over three million volumes and 8,000 manuscripts, including 700 medieval manuscripts. Its scale and collections make it a major site of memory and a significant cultural institution in the area.
The War Memorial at the Center of the Square
The current monument in the middle of the central garden of Place de la Republique was inaugurated in 1936 by President Albert Lebrun. It replaced an equestrian statue of Emperor Wilhelm, made by Ludwig Manzel in 1911, which was torn down in 1918 and first replaced by a small plane captured from Germans. A first war memorial had already been erected near the place in 1919.
The present work was created by Leon-Ernest Drivier. It consists of a stone group showing a mother holding her two dying children, one German and one French. The children, who had fought each other, draw closer in the face of death. The monument bears an inscription that does not mention the homeland for which the soldiers fell. In this way, it is presented as one of the few French pacifist war memorials, and its features express the pain caused by human losses in the war.
The monument was not touched by the Nazis during World War II. Its position in the center of the garden gives it a prominent place within the square, linking it to the changing political and commemorative history of the site.