1weltkrieg

This is almost certainly Der Eiserne Hindenburg—the Iron Hindenburg—which stood next to the Victory Column in the Tiergarten. (The curved structure poking into the frame on the right would seem to match the base of the column.) This would seem likely to be from the unveiling, which was on 4 September 1915—the New York Times account can be read here. These statues were known as "Nail Men" and were used to raise money for the war: for a certain donation you got a nail of a certain color, which you then hammered into the statue. Unsurprisingly this led to some mocking imitations elsewhere. The statue did not do too well. Apparently even before the war was out bits were being stolen for firewood, and in the early '20s the whole thing was sold off as fuel. According to news sources, an artist managed to save the head, only to have it destroyed by fungus. (Love how the statue has magically grown to 110 feet tall!) Nonetheless, the head was apparently rediscovered in 1938 and placed in Berlin's Lehrter train station, only to be finally destroyed during WWII.

Great story, thanks. LOC, note transcription error on Hindenburg's name.

Thanks for your research severinus. We'll make the correction the next time we update the record.

Ryan (LOC P&P) Just to clarify, despite the nickname, it was indeed made of wood, so the original Bain caption is indeed correct; I just wanted to point out that it was more famously known as the Iron Hindenburg.

LOC, note transcription error on Hindenburg's name.

The correct spelling might be Mining: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining I can't find a noble house von Minning or von Minning (other than a kennel of German shepherds), so it might just denote that little Hans came from Mining, a small town near Braunau in Upper Austria.

Acording to www.akpool.co.uk/postcards/24155901-postcard-gotha-eisene... this statue was erected Sept 26, 1915. According to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etrich_Taube The Taube was a "pre-World War I monoplane aircraft. It was the first mass-produced military plane in Germany." www.pictorialgems.com/1916-Gotha-Taube-Memorial-To-German... shows this picture printed in the Illustrated War News of February 16, 1916

This plane with the birdlike tail (the name translates to English as "dove") was reportedly responsible for bombings in Paris in October, 1914.
query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A07E4DA1438E0...
A Bain photo of the damage:

It looks like the sort of memorial you could pay to drive a nail into. See the leading edge of the wing, and the engine.

Seth Gaines That's correct, the memorial is on a list of "Kriegsnagelungen" (war nailings) (with the same postcard as in swanq's comment), see www.munzel-everling.de/download/Kriegsnagelungen_August_2....

Another example of such a memorial was the "Eiserne Hindenburg" in Berlin Tiergarten

see comments there

""Kriegsnagelungen". I never knew of these, thanks. I wonder if this monument still exists? I can't find any trace of it.