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German Culture 1914, Pitt Street

A bizarre relic of the Great War, tucked away in a backstreet in Bonnington, Leith. The inscription above the scene reads, "The Valour Of German Culture, 1914". It depicts women in diaphanous dresses being assaulted by soldiers - presumably an allusion to The Rape Of The Sabine Women - only here the victims are Belgian civilians and the perpetrators brutal Prussian 'Huns'. It is believed that the building was a slaughterhouse when the figures were sculpted. Even to the untrained eye, the work, which has been damaged, is crude and amateurishly executed. Nevertheless, it testifies to the strength of anti-German feeling on the outbreak of the war. Countering the German boast of their superior 'Kultur' was a major theme in official propaganda of the time and the 'Belgian atrocities' were seen as its refutation. Oddly enough, a bomb fell on this very street during Edinburgh's only Zeppelin raid in April 1916.

NT2676 : German Culture 1914 detail