Germania (Philipp Veit)

The "Germania" by Philipp Veit in the Städel Art Institute

Germania is a painting created by Philipp Veit in the years 1834 to 1836. The Germania is a woman representing Germany. The painting is one of two portraits of a large wall painting "Introduction of the Arts in Germany by Christianity". The other side image shows the Italia. The fresco with a size of 285 × 192 cm is on display at the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt am Main.

Veit belonged to the circle of artists of the Nazarenes, a conservative Catholic group. She looked back gloriously at the German Middle Ages. The Germania is therefore not necessarily to be seen as a national allegory, as the incarnation of the then current national state debate. Rather, it stands for the medieval imperialism, the secular protection of the arts. The Italia symbolizes the papacy as the spiritual protection power.

The picture stands for a then "current, romantic-retrospective national consciousness", says Rainer Schoch. The coats of arms of the electors and the beaten golden bull point to the medieval German constitution. In addition to the Imperial sword of Charlemagne and the coat of arms with the double eagle, the Reichskrone is also a sign for the Old Kingdom, which was destroyed in 1806. Germania sits in front of an oak trunk in a romantic Rhinelandschaft, the (unfinished) Cologne Cathedral stands for the spiritual, the castles for the secular power.

Philipp Veit is often credited with another "Germania" painting: the picture that hung in the years 1848 and 1849 in the Frankfurt Paulskirche when the German National Assembly met there. This Germania in the Paulskirche could be from other painters, but it was apparently influenced by the former Germania. Edit sourcetext

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