Ludwigsmonument

The Ludwigsmonument stands in the middle of Luisenplatz and is the thing everyone in Darmstadt navigates by. The column, crowned with a bronze figure of Grand Duke Ludwig I, was unveiled in 1844 in honour of the man who gave the Grand Duchy of Hesse one of the earliest constitutions among the German states, in 1820. Ever since, the Langer Ludwig, or simply the Lui, has stood for the centre of town. Streets and tram lines fan out around the base, and people do not arrange to meet at the monument, they meet under the Lui. The column is about 40 metres high and hollow. A spiral staircase of 172 steps runs up the inside to a narrow gallery around the statue's feet, opened to the public on the first Saturday of the month from April to October and during Heinerfest. From up there the view takes in the Residenzschloss, the Staatstheater and Mathildenhöhe with the Wedding Tower, and on clear days the ridge of the Odenwald. The design borrows from ancient triumphal columns and puts them to nineteenth century use: civil rights, modernisation and a city sure of itself. The monument came through the air raids of 1944 and kept standing while everything around it changed, which is a large part of why it means what it does. The ground at its base still works as a stage for markets, festivals and demonstrations.

Nobody in Darmstadt says they will meet at the monument. They say unter dem Lui, under the Lui, and everyone knows where that is. Climb the 172 steps inside the column and you end up almost at eye level with the Grand Duke who signed the constitution of 1820. That the Lui survived the bombing of 1944 is why it became a landmark in both senses of the word.