Painting “The Congress of Berlin (1878)”

The painting “The Congress of Berlin (1878),” by Prussian court painter Anton von Werner (1843-1915), was unveiled in the Red Town Hall’s Main Hall in 2005. At 6.15 meters wide and 3.6 meters high, the painting shows the final session of the Berlin Congress at the Reich Chancellery on 13 July 1878.

It depicts the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck; the Russian ambassador in London, Count Pyotr Shuvalov; the foreign minister of Austria-Hungary, Gyula Andrássy; the Chancellor of the Russian Empire, Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov; the British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield); and, in the background, British foreign secretary Lord Salisbury standing between the Turkish delegates. The conference, attended by the five major European powers and the Ottoman Empire, led to the establishment of the “Berlin peace” that settled tensions after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877/78 once and for all.

Werner was commissioned to paint the “Congress of Berlin” by the city of Berlin. The city councilors had authorized the government to spend 60,000 marks to honor the “memory of the event that was of such great importance for peace and prosperity.” The reason behind this decision was that due to Emperor Wilhelm I’s injury following an assassination attempt a reception of participants at the Town Hall could not take place as planned.