In this artwork, how is the The last struggle: 1925–1954 of the History elucidated?
Assuming the monument would never be built, the Pretoria City Council authorized a World War I memorial on Church Square, but then Mayor of Pretoria George Brink responded to an 13 August 1920 protest from Mrs. H. Jooste (of the National Party Women's Auxiliary) by declaring that there would be no monument whatsoever there. The memorial would be put in front of the Union Buildings and the Kruger statue on the square in front of the Pretoria railway station, on the same pedestal that once sat on Church Square and in Prince's Park. Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog unveiled the statue on 10 October 1925, the centennial of Kruger's birth, while surrounded by the flags of the Orange Free State and ZAR in front of a crowd of 25,000. The ceremony was attended by, among others, the Governor-General and his spouse, as well as the entire Cabinet. Hertzog gave the keynote address, but Gen. Smuts and Wolmarans both spoke as well. While Hertzog and Smuts concentrated on the subject's character and deeds, Wolmarans once more emphasized that Station Square could not hold a candle to Church Square, "the heart of Kruger City," as a suitable place for the statue.
Over the years, organizations such as the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge, the S.A. Vrouefederasie (South African Women's Federation]] and the Pretoria Cultural Council petitioned the City Council to move the statue to Church Square. In fact, the Kruger Committee met with over 20,000 members in October 1936 to pressure the mayor, but the council was unmoved. The Cultural Council's Kruger Committee, chiefly tasked with holding the annual Kruger Festival, spun off on its own as the Kruger Society (Afrikaans: Krugergenootskap) with just such a relocation as the ultimate goal. Enlisting the help of other Afrikaner cultural organizations, the society used the centennial reenactment of the Great Trek in 1838 to kick off another advocacy campaign. The city council fielded thousands of letters from various individuals and organizations, including branches of the Transvaal Education Association, the Organizing Committee of the Paardekraal Voortrekker Centennial Festival, the Carriage Reception Committee, and others; even Anglo groups such as the Sons of England, the New Guard, and the Hatfield Ratepayers Association joined the effort. The city council stalled, hoping interest would flag, but on 9 March 1939, the Transvaal Provincial Council unanimously motioned for the city council to solve the matter definitively, and on 29 May, the majority of the latter agreed to relocate the statue at no cost to them.
The chairman of the Kruger Society and the mayor of Pretoria made a joint appeal for citizen donations, earning £4,000 for the relocation. In consultation with Van Wouw, who had never preferred Marks's choice of pedestal, Kruger Society architect J. M. van der Westhuizen planned a new base for the monument. Van Wouw's approval was followed by that of the full society, which proceeded to arrange for an unveiling on Church Square on 10 October 1941, by Mrs. Rachel Isabella Steyn, widow of the last president of the Orange Free State. At this point, the city council declared the new pedestal architecturally out of step with Church Square, a matter probed by two architects (Gordon Leith and Vivian Sydney Rees-Poole) and their colleagues from the Kruger Society. It turned out that the council preferred the southern entrance of the square as a location for the statue, while the society favored the center. Van Wouw took the Kruger Society's position in two firm letters stating:It is my vision for the pedestal, the Boers, and the President's likeness to coexist as one unit, according to architect's plans in consultation with myself, on Church Square where the fountain and fishpond are currently. As a sculptor, I refuse to have the statue I love and care for so much be placed anywhere where its greatness would fall to the wayside. The center of Church Square is the designated place and there it must be built.
In his other letter, Van Wouw claimed that Kruger himself had personally told the artist in the presence of several Volksraad members that it belonged at that location.
Van Wouw's letter came to naught, and the issue was dropped until Gerard Moerdijk, architect of the Voortrekker Monument, suggested placing the statue near the southern entrance to Church Square as the "psychological center" to what he envisioned as a kind of amphitheater, as the pulpit of a church would be. An honorary stele and bell tower would be built behind the statue, with the Boer figures on the sides rather than around the base of the Kruger statue. The Kruger Society approved the plan, while the city council suggested an open national competition to gather architect's designs unifying the plaza around the statue, and asked for the Pretoria Institute for Architecture (PIA) and the Kruger Society's cooperation. Both organizations agreed, the latter on the condition that a majority of the judges would have the final say on the chosen design, but the PIA by-laws prohibited its members from participating in outside competitions.
At this point a new development emerged: Professor William Holford, Baron Holford proposed a plan to city council for the overall development of the capital, including the Kruger statue in Church Square. The impressed council scrapped all previous plans on 28 September 1950, enlisting the Kruger Society to raise the statue on the Square under the conditions of strict adherence to the Holford's plan and council approval of the final product. The cost and time requirements were quite unpopular, and oral agreements were not forthcoming: the Old Pretoria Society voiced its displeasure openly, and even the Kruger Society eventually rejected it.
On 12 June 1951, the Kruger Society decided to abandon Moerdijk's idea of placing the Kruger statue at the southern entrance of Church Square and return to advocating the central location, to which the statue was to be moved by 10 October 1954 (Kruger's birthday), or on 16 December 1954 (the 50th anniversary of Kruger's burial in the Pretoria Old Cemetery on Church Street. Since Kruger dreamed of free passage to the east coast, the society also decided the statue should face eastward from Church Square. Any changes City Council wanted to make could be introduced later, though the central position would stay. After the Council heard from a delegation of the society, the former decided on 20 December 1951 to cancel their previous decisions and unanimously embrace the society's position, on the condition of the council incurring no costs and having final approval rights. Permission was granted to the society on 26 November 1952, once approval was gained from the Administrator of Transvaal Province, to begin the relocation. The council was still bound to Kitchener's prohibition of statues without the Lieutenant-Governor's approval, however, but the society got the federal Cabinet to approve the plans by minutes no. 298 on 9 February 1953, getting the administrator's approval in the meantime.
Donations were once again sought, with an estimated £20,000 needed, but construction began during fundraising, fostered by Governor-General of South Africa Ernest George Jansen, Prime Minister D. F. Malan, all Provincial Administrators (including that of South West Africa), and all their spouses. Both Anglo and Afrikaner individuals, schools, churches, municipalities, businesses, cultural organizations, and other groups pitched in. On 10 October 1953, Malan laid the cornerstone of a new pedestal in front of a crowd of around 15,000, and Dutch Prime Minister Willem Drees attended and addressed the crowd. The Kruger statue was moved from Pretoria Station on 25 June 1954 and placed on 28 June on the pedestal facing north as the society had recently decided. One year after the cornerstone was laid, on 10 October 1954, Malan unveiled the monument, complete with the four sentinels.
amphitheater Boer Voortrekker Monument Governor-General of South Africa Pretoria railway station William Holford, Baron Holford Pretoria Great Trek South Africa Union Buildings National Party Orange Free State Voortrekker Church Square Mayor of Pretoria Gerard Moerdijk Ernest George Jansen pulpit D. F. Malan Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge South West Africa Rachel Isabella Steyn World War I George Brink Gordon Leith Transvaal Provincial Council Boers J. B. M. Hertzog Willem Drees