The deed is colossal!
Bismarck that was young Siegfried’s stroke.
Hail to thee, Walhalla comrade!”
Later the company joined in singing the national song, “Deutschland, Deutschland, über Alles.”
Before turning from the beautiful temple of honour, the statuary groups on the northern and southern pediments should be examined. That on the north end represents Armin (or Herman) with his Germans fighting the Romans, while that on the south, symbolizing the regaining of German liberty after the battle of Leipzig in 1813, shows “Germania” seated and attended by male and female figures representing the Germanic states and the rivers Rhine and Moselle.
Beautiful as is the view from the front of the Walhalla, it must be said that the place is more impressive if approached from the back than by the great flights of massy stone steps which occupy a goodly part of the hillside from the front. The extent and arrangement of these in alternate twin flights, now bifurcating and now meeting, detract somewhat from the impressiveness of the whole as seen from the river front. But the whole thing represents a grand idea grandly realized, and it is easy to believe that from whatever part of the German empire visitors come, they realize here the unity of their race and the greatness of their destiny. To render boldly a few anonymous lines quoted in the “Beschreibung der Walhalla”—the little souvenir guide to be bought there—
Germania’s furthest sons,
Your valiant fathers yearn
That the blood in your veins
May mount higher, quicker flow,