Angel of Peace

This guide to the Angel of Peace in Munich opens in 1981, when workers lowering the golden goddess for a routine inspection watched something go badly wrong, leaving the column empty for two years. It traces her original raising at the end of the 1890s, modeled on a newly unearthed ancient Greek statue of Nike, and the irony of a war goddess recast to mark twenty five years without one, after Germany's war with France. Look up at the olive branch in one hand and the small figure of wisdom and warfare in the other, then check the four mosaics ringing her base, facing war, victory, peace and culture.