(I wonder if this statue was ever created? I can find no reference to it at all. But then again, during WWII 60% of Kaiserslautern was destroyed by allied bombing! How different the world might have been had Frederick lived)
Taken from ‘Little Folks a Magazine for the Young’ of 1890.
‘When the late Emperor Frederick was Crown Prince of Germany he visited an orphan asylum in the town of Kaiserslautern. Noticing an ailing, sad-looking boy amongst the inmates, he took him in his arms and promised to be his god-father. The poor child, rather frightened at first at the affection of a stranger, at length grew very friendly with the Prince, and began to play with the medals and other decorations on the distinguished visitor’s breast. Then some years afterwards Frederick became German Emperor, a post which he filled for only a few months, when he died to the grief of the whole world. The folk of Kaiserslautern resolving to raise a statue to his memory, decided that it should represent the Prince with the baby in his arms tugging at the medals and crosses. Considering how many statues are erected nowadays that possess neither interest nor merit, this one will at all events be interesting. Let us hope it will be meritorious as well.’
TALES FROM AROUND THE VICTORIAN WORLD. 