The paper is to apprehend the causes and characteristics of the boom of public memorial construction in German Kaiserreich under the viewpoint of `battle of symbols`. It focuses on analyzing the social and political characters of groups who led building national memorials and their political intentions, the mode of construction, and the strategies of narrative. It deals with five representative public memorials in that era: the Hermannsdenkmal(1838-l875), the Niederwalddenkmal(1877-1883), the Siegessaule(1864-1873), the Kyffhauserdenkmal(1890-1896), and the Volkerschlachlachtdenkmal(1898-1913). The Hermannsdenkmal in Detmold was built according to plans by the sculptor Ernst von Bandel and commemorates the Cherusci war chief Hermann and the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The construction of the monument was initiated and led mainly by Bildungsburgertum. Accordingly it represents in many aspects the bourgeois values such as liberty and equality between nations. The Siegessaule in Berlin was built to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian Wai, Austro-Prussian War and in the Franco-Prussian War. It was initiated and guided solely by the prussian king Wilhelm. Ii is, therefore, regarded as a typical monarchical monument. The Niederwalddenkmal in Rudesheim was constructed to commemorate the foundation of the German Empire after the end of Franco-Prussian War. It was artistically and politically a compromise between nationalist-liberal and nationalist-monarchical views. The Kyffhauserdenkmal in Frankhausen and the Volkerschlachtdenkmal in Leipzig represent a new type of national monuments in Germany which are distinguished not only by architectural mode, but also by political anticipations of the initiators. They belong to Volksdenkmal which try to idealize the assumed medieval German Volksgemeinschaft.