The bust sitting on the ledge it will soon be thrown into.

The bust of Kaiser Wilhelm the first placed in Victoria park in 1897.  It is the basis of much speculation and rumour throughout the Kitchener Region.  

Just days after World War One was declared, three young Berlin men (Fred Bolton, Alan Smith and John Ferguson) toppled the bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I from the Friedensfest Denkmal (Peace Memorial) in Victoria Park and dumped it into the lake in order to disassociate themselves from being German at the start of the war. It was recovered the next morning by three teens (brothers Clayton and Gordon Maier & Otto Knechtel) and given to the Concordia Society for safekeeping in its closed meeting hall. The bust later was stolen by a drunk mob and dragged though the streets, here it ended up after that was a mystery. To this day, no one knows for sure where it is.

Any longtime resident of Kitchener has heard stories like:

"My uncles friend's father had the head in his garage in the 70's..."

and "I know a guy who said he melted it down into a fireplace surround..."

Artists like Andrew Hunter have used the speculation as a jump off point for projects; he proposed renaming Kitchener Waterloo to Kaiser Wilhelm.  Why not, the letters match!