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Erlangen is situated at an altitude of 281 m on the river Regnitz and the stream Schawbach. The village Erlang, which was mentioned in a document of 1002, was located on the left bank of the Regnitz and later became known as Weningenerlang or Kleinerlang (today it is called Alterlangen and is part of the city of Erlangen). The village Großenerlang on the right bank of the river was purchased by Emperor Karl IV in 1361. It received the status of a market town in 1374 and was chartered as a city in 1398. This town later became known as the Altstadt (old town) of Erlangen. After 1400 this town came in possession of the burgraves of Nuremberg, who later obtained the title of margraves of Brandenburg. During the two Margraves' Wars of 1449–1451 and 1552–1554 the Margraves Albrecht Achilles of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Albrecht Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach in vain tried to form a Frankish dukedom which should have included the possessions of the bishopric of Bamberg and the free Imperial city of Nuremberg. In 1528 the Reformation was introduced in Erlangen. When Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Margrave Christian Ernst of Brandenburg-Bayreuth admitted the Huguenots into his country and founded the Neustadt (new town) of Erlangen in 1686. This town, which received the name Christian-Erlang, was laid out in Baroque style according to a regular ground plan. The Altstadt was destroyed by a large fire in 1706 and was rebuilt, also in Baroque style, in parallel to the construction of the Neustadt. In 1708, Christian-Erlang was chartered and became one of the residence towns of the margraviate. In 1743 Margrave Friedrich relocated the university, which he had founded in Bayreuth only one year earlier, to Erlangen. The house of Brandenburg-Ansbach succeeded the line of Brandenburg-Bayreuth in 1769. In 1792 the Brandenburg-Ansbach lands became part of Prussia. In 1807, Erlangen was occupied by French troops and finally became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1810. Altstadt Erlang and Neustadt Christian-Erlang were united to the city of Erlangen in 1812.

The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Obelisk [bottom left picture] was erected in 1897 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the first German Emperor, Wilhelm I. It was the first monument for Wilhelm I in southern Germany. The circle around the marble obelisk soon after was named Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz. In 1942 the metal parts of the monument including 4 bronze reliefs were removed and melted down. The monument was removed in 1946 and the square was renamed Lorlebergplatz in honour of colonel Werner Lorleberg who had delivered the city to the US Army without struggle in 1945 and thus prevented the destruction of the town.

Several glasses of this collection show other monuments for Wilhelm I.

The Kriegerdenkmal (soldiers' monument) [bottom right picture] on the Martin-Luther-Platz was erected in 1890 to commemorate the French-German war of 1870/1871 that had led to the foundation of the German Empire in 1871. The sandstone monument, which shows the Bavarian lion holding the city arms of Erlangen, was removed in 1952 to make way for the increasing traffic. The sculpture of the lion was relocated to the Altstadtmarkt.

The Hugenottenbrunnen (Huguenots' fountain) [right, no.1788] in the park of the margraves' castle was created in 1706 by Elias Räntz, sculptor to the court at Bayreuth. The lower parts of the fountain refer to the Huguenots who were admitted to this country by Margrave Christian Ernst after 1685. The top part shows a statue of Christian Ernst, surmounted by the figure of Fama, the persionification of glory. The total height of the sandstone construction is 12 metres. Originally, 9 fountains gushed water over the construction. Today, there are only 2 simple fountains in the water basin. The park is open to the public since 1849.