It is mostly men who are depicted on the Victory Column, whether as masters or soldiers, as priests or as doctors, as city mayors or as workers - it is they who 'write history'. Yet women also appear: as allegorical figures they virtually dominate the scene. Atop the national monument stands a gilded Victoria, as a golden angel she is by far the most visible sign of the memorial. The mosaic frieze begins with the figure of a woman, Germania, and ends with the new Germania, the newly formed Empire. On the relief panels at the base level, we see women from real life, or at least how the sculptors would have pictured women in military situations.