Copenhagen
Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, Henrik V. Ringsted, a correspondent from the Danish newspaper Politiken, "rediscovered" the monument in Berlin and approached the United States Army about a possible return of the statue. The issue ultimately reached the desk of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, who demanded an official request in order to allow the return of the monument. Such a request was promptly delivered by Danish Foreign Minister John Christmas Møller. Møller said, "The removal of this sepulchral monument, which in this country is considered a national sanctuary, and its erection in a German military academy, caused a resentment which till this very day is still alive in wide circles of the Danish people."
In the autumn of 1945, the paperwork had been completed, and an American army convoy headed for Copenhagen, where it arrived on October 5. On October 20, the lion was officially handed over to King Christian X. In what was considered an interim solution, the lion was placed in a courtyard on the rear side of the Royal Danish Arsenal Museum (Tøjhusmuseet) and placed on a mere wooden plinth.
From 1945 to 1947, a large number of Danish politicians advocated for a re-annexation of Southern Schleswig, and in particular Flensburg – resulting in a fierce political debate. As the debate ended with a confirmation of the existing border, the same politicians ruled out the possibility of returning the statue to a German-ruled town. On a number of occasions, controversy over the monument resurfaced, as a new generation of politicians began advocating for its return to a German-administered Flensburg.
In 1999, construction of a new public square near the museum began, prompted by a relocation of the Danish Royal Library to a neighbouring site. Debate about moving the lion to this more prominent position began, and the Ny-Carlsberg Foundation volunteered to pay for the relocation. The wooden plinth was replaced with a bigger one made of brick, and the statue was reunited with its four reliefs for the first time in more than a century. The finished result was unveiled on the 150th anniversary of the battle, July 25, 2000, by Danish Minister for Culture Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen. In her speech, she expressed the wish that the statue would be returned to Flensburg. In a Parliament debate on November 20, 1998, she had previously stated that the statue should be returned to Flensburg, since that was the wish of the Danish minority there.
A committee in Fredericia, already the home of Bissen's other main work, the statue of the Foot Soldier, was lobbying for moving the monument there.
Read more about this topic: Isted Lion