The Coronation of William I at Königsberg in 1861

Painted in 1861 and held in the Alte Nationalgalerie, 'The Coronation of William I at Königsberg in 1861' documents the coronation of Wilhelm I as King of Prussia in the Cathedral of Königsberg on 18 January 1861 — exactly ten years before he would be proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles. Menzel was present at the coronation as an eyewitness and made sketches and studies directly from the event, giving this painting the character of contemporary reportage alongside historical commemoration. The coronation ceremony in the Gothic cathedral combined Prussian Protestant tradition with the theatrical spectacle of dynastic ceremony, and Menzel's documentation of it would later be read in light of the imperial proclamation of 1871. The Königsberg coronation was the last royal coronation of the Prussian kings; future events would be imperial proclamations rather than coronations in the traditional sense.

The coronation interior with its Gothic cathedral architecture creates a soaring vertical framework within which the ceremony's participants are distributed. Menzel renders the combination of religious architecture, candlelight, and assembled court with the tonal observation of an eyewitness.