“HALT FASS AM RICH DO KÖLSCHEN BOOR, MAG ET FALLE SOESS OV SOOR” (“Hold fast the realm, farmer of Cologne, may it fall, in good times or bad”) was written above the colossus in large letters in 1915. It was first carved from wood, but it didn’t take long for it to be covered entirely with nails. How did this come to be, and what does each individual nail have to do with widows and orphans?