gotha

This is not a Gotha G.III. It is the Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV, one of the Riesenflugzeuge (Giant aircraft) built by Zeppelin's Staaken facility outside of Berlin or by one of the license-builders (Aviatik, etc.) It is shown after being stripped by Allied souvenir hunters after the Armistice allowed them onto abandoned airfields in former German territory. This aircraft was larger than a B-17 and had 5 260+ horsepower engines.

Aviatik IMG Thanks!

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.

This is not a Gotha G.III. It is the Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV, one of the Riesenflugzeuge (Giant aircraft) built by Zeppelin's Staaken facility outside of Berlin or by one of the license-builders (Aviatik, etc.) It is shown after being stripped by Allied souvenir hunters after the Armistice allowed them onto abandoned airfields in former German territory. This aircraft was larger than a B-17 and had 5 260+ horsepower engines.