Prussia Columns

The Prussia Columns (German: Preußensäulen) are two monuments, over 15 metres (49 ft) high, that were erected in the years 1854 and 1855 by order of the Prussian king, Frederick William IV on the southeast coast of the German island of Rügen near Neukamp and Groß Stresow. Both villages are today part of the municipality of Putbus.

The monument near Neukamp was inaugurated on 15 October 1854 and the one near Groß Stresow exactly one year later, on the 60th birthday of Frederick William IV. The drums and parts of the pedestal were carved from one of the largest glacial erratics on and around Rügen, the Great Rock near Nardevitz on Rügen's Jasmund peninsula. Most of the rock was destroyed as a result of being quarried for the columns. Nevertheless, it is still impressive today, and sticks 3 metres out of the ground.

The monuments were intended to commemorate the landings of the Brandenburg and later, Prussian troops on the island in the years 1678 and 1715 and to demonstrate Prussia's claim to power over the southern Baltic Sea region. The island of Rügen, which had belonged to Swedish Pomerania since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, was on each occasion briefly wrested from Swedish rule as a result of the invasions, but then returned to Sweden as a result of subsequent peace agreements.