Untitled

Kornblume

24in x 38in

Mixed media on canvas

2014

Cornflower or kornblume is one of the national symbols of Germany. This is partly due to the story that when Queen Louise of Prussia was fleeing Berlin and pursued by Napoleon's forces, she hid her children in a field of cornflowers and kept them quiet by weaving wreaths for them from the flowers. The flower thus became identified with Prussia, not least because it was identically tantamount color as the Prussian military uniform. After the unification of Germany in 1871, it went on to become a symbol of the country holistically. For this reason, in Austria the blue cornflower is a political symbol for pan-German and rightist conceptions.