Monument to the Battle of the Nations

About

The Monument to the Battle of the Nations (German: Völkerschlachtdenkmal) is a monument in Leipzig, Germany, to the 1813 Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations. Paid for mostly by donations and the city of Leipzig, it was completed in 1913 for the 100th anniversary of the battle at a cost of six million gold marks. The monument commemorates the defeat of Napoleon's French army at Leipzig, a crucial step towards the end of hostilities in the War of the Sixth Coalition. The coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden were led by Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg. There were Germans fighting on both sides, as Napoleon's troops also included conscripted Germans from the left bank of the Rhine annexed by France, as well as troops from his German allies of the Confederation of the Rhine. The structure is 91 metres (299 ft) tall. It contains over 500 steps to a viewing platform at the top, from which there are views across the city and environs. The structure makes extensive use of concrete, and the facings are of granite. It is widely regarded as one of the best examples of Wilhelmine architecture. The monument is said to...

The War of the Sixth Coalition and the Battle of Leipzig

Following the French Revolution, France had waged a number of wars against its European neighbours. Napoleon Bonaparte had taken control of the country, first as Consul from 1799, and reigned as Emperor of the French under the title Napoleon I since 1804. Over the course of the hostilities, the Holy Roman Empire had ceased to exist following the abdication of Emperor Francis II, bowing to Napoleon's pressure, including the foundation of the Confederation of the Rhine from various former members of the Empire.

The War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 had ended with another defeat for the joint forces of the Austrian Empire, United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal against the French and their German allies. Following Napoleon's unsuccessful invasion of Russia in 1812, Prussia joined the countries already at war with France to begin the War of the Sixth Coalition in March 1813. During the early part of the campaign, the allied forces against Napoleon suffered defeats at Großgörschen (2 May) and Bautzen (20–21 May), being driven back to the river Elbe. However, due to lack of training in his newly recruited soldiers, Napoleon was unable to take full advantage of his victories, allowing his enemies to regroup. Following a ceasefire, Austria rejoined the Coalition on 17 August. The French advantage in numbers was now reversed, with the Coalition forces counting 490,000 soldiers to Napoleon's 440,000.

Between 16 and 19 October 1813, the Battle of the Nations outside Leipzig was the decisive one in the war, cementing the French defeat and temporarily ending Napoleon's rule. The Emperor was exiled to Elba in May 1814, but briefly returned to power the following year, before being permanently banished following his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. The Battle of the Nations was fought between France and their German allies against a coalition of Russian, Austrian, Prussian, and Swedish forces. About half a million soldiers were involved and at the end of the battle, around 110,000 men had lost their lives, with many more dying in the days after in field hospitals in and around the city. The scope of the fighting was unprecedented.

Remembrance of the Battle of the Nations between 1813 and 1871

In the immediate aftermath, both the Battle of Leipzig as well as the Wars of Liberation ( Befreiungskriege ), as they became known in Germany, soon established a controversial and divided culture of remembrance. For liberal thinkers and young, educated students, many of whom had fought in the wars, they resembled a starting point for a potential German unification into a national state. This sentiment was embodied in the mythologization of the Freikorps and Landwehr regiments, volunteer fighters against the French rule. On the other side, the monarchs of the German states as well as conservatives highlighted the role the princes had played in the struggle against Napoleon, seeing a growing desire for a German national state as an attack on their royal and noble positions.

Ernst Moritz Arndt, a leading liberal and nationalistic writer, called for a commemoration of the battle throughout Germany. He pronounced that the anniversary on 19 October should be marked by festivities with "burning fires, festive 'folk' clothing, oak wreaths, and the ringing of bells". The first anniversary of the battle consequently was marked by celebrations across the German countries, including bonfires. However, in some territories such as Baden and Württemberg, such celebrations were prohibited, while in the Kingdom of Hanover, they were incorporated into the festivities around George III 's jubilee on 23 October. In Berlin, the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, the main celebration was organised by the Turner movement, gymnastic clubs led by nationalist Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. Taking place at the Hasenheide, a park outside Berlin, the event was attended by several tens of thousands of people. Similar celebrations were held the following years. These included the Wartburg Festival in 1817, a nationalistic event commemorating both Martin Luther 's stay at the Wartburg as well as the Battle of Leipzig. However, following the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819 both the Burschenschaften, the nationalistic student groups, as well as the Turners, were outlawed, and commemoration of the Battle of Leipzig subsided over the following years. In the 1840s, the "Association for the Celebration of October 19" was established in Leipzig, partly reviving the remembrance of the event, however, only the anniversaries in 1838 and 1863 were "forcefully expressed". In 1863, for the battle's 50th anniversary, the city of Leipzig put up large festivities, inviting representatives from 200 German cities and several hundred veterans. The celebrations included nationalistic songs and the reading of poems, with between 25,000 and 30,000 people in attendance.

First proposals for a monument at the site of the battle

Shortly after the Battle of Leipzig, Arndt called for a monument to be built at the site. In a pamphlet entitled " Ein Wort über die Feier der Leipziger Schlacht " ("A Word on the Celebration of the Battle of Leipzig"), he demanded that it "has to be constructed in such a way that it can be seen from all the streets around from which the allied armies moved to the bloody decisive battle. If it is to be seen, it has to be large and splendid – like a collosus, a pyramid, a Cologne Cathedral ". His plans included a 60 m (200 ft) high mound surrounded by oak groves, with a large cross on top. However, lack of political will prevented such a monument of being built at the time. Arndt, together with the painter Caspar David Friedrich, worked on a monument for Gerhard von Scharnhorst, who had died from injuries sustained in the Battle of Großgörschen, but received no support from state officials. In a letter to Arndt, Friedrich lamented in March 1814: "I am not at all surprised, that no memorials are being erected, neither to mark the great cause of the Volk, nor to the manganimous deeds of great German men. As long as we remain man-servants to the princes, nothing of this sort will happen." Other people came forward with plans for a large memorial as well, including Karl Sieveking and August von Kotzebue, the latter of whom suggested a 31 m (102 ft) tall Roman column with an Iron Cross on top, symbolising the victory of Germany against France, the "modern Rome". The architect Friedrich Weinbrenner proposed a fortress to be built outside Leipzig, at the top of which a pyramid was to be placed, with the quadriga that Napoleon had taken from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin situated on it. On the other side of the political spectrum, the nobleman Adolph von Seckendorff put forward the plan for a simple monument to the Saxon government, which would bear an inscription reading "To the liberation of a strong land, Alexander, Franz, and Friedrich Wilhelm ", honouring the three monarchs who led the fight against Napoleon. While none of the proposals for Leipzig gained any support, a monument for the Wars of Liberation was erected in Berlin in 1821. Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, it was a miniature of a gothic church tower situated on top of the Kreuzberg, bearing the names of twelve battles fought against the French. Its inscription, "From the king to the people who, at his call, nobly sacrificed their blood and chattels to the Fatherland", highlighted the role of the monarch over that of the people.

On the first anniversary of the battle, in 1814, a 18 m (59 ft) tall wooden cross was placed as a monument on the village green close to the burned out church in Probstheida. Attached to it was a collection box for donations in order to rebuild the church. Originally envisioned by both the citizens of Leipzig as well as the Russian military command as the place for annual celebration of the battle, the cross was removed by the winter of the same year, following the division of the Kingdom of Saxony at the Congress of Vienna. In 1817, a monument to Józef Poniatowski, a Marshal of the French Empire who had died in the battle, was placed by his sister and Polish veterans near the battle site. After the establishment of the "Association for the Celebration of October 19", more small monuments started to be built. The family of Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg also placed a monument in his honour at the site, in 1838. In 1843, a sandstone monument was erected at "Napoleon Hill", where the Emperor had supposedly watched the battle. Two years later, the local government of Leipzig established another monument, commemorating the entrance of the victorious forces into the city. Until 1863, seven memorial stones were also placed to mark decisive points of the battle, which still remain to this day. In the same year, on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig, city officials also funded the restoration of the monument they had erected in 1845. During the same festivities, a cornerstone for a future grand monument was placed by Leipzig's mayor Karl Wilhelm Otto Koch, and 23 cities from all around Germany, including Vienna, Hanover, and Dresden, pledged money for its construction. A competition for the design of a bigger monument was also started for the anniversary, without success. However, the Unification of Germany and the subsequent foundation of the German Empire temporarily halted plans for a monument, since public conscience turned towards the more recent military victories. The commemoration of the Battle of Leipzig as a decisive one in German history was replaced by the Battle of Sedan and the city of Leipzig erected a monument to the German unification in its centre in 1888. Steffen Poser, head of the Museum of the Monument for the Battle of the Nations, wrote: "[T]he foundation of the German Empire deprived the monument project of what had been its basis for legitimacy so far—namely, the desire for German unification, the leitmotif, which had been missing at the time."

Following the French Revolution, France had waged a number of wars against its European neighbours. Napoleon Bonaparte had taken control of the country, first as Consul from 1799, and reigned as Emperor of the French under the title Napoleon I since 1804. Over the course of the hostilities, the Holy Roman Empire had ceased to exist following the abdication of Emperor Francis II, bowing to Napoleon's pressure, including the foundation of the Confederation of the Rhine from various former members of the Empire.

The War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 had ended with another defeat for the joint forces of the Austrian Empire, United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal against the French and their German allies. Following Napoleon's unsuccessful invasion of Russia in 1812, Prussia joined the countries already at war with France to begin the War of the Sixth Coalition in March 1813. During the early part of the campaign, the allied forces against Napoleon suffered defeats at Großgörschen (2 May) and Bautzen (20–21 May), being driven back to the river Elbe. However, due to lack of training in his newly recruited soldiers, Napoleon was unable to take full advantage of his victories, allowing his enemies to regroup. Following a ceasefire, Austria rejoined the Coalition on 17 August. The French advantage in numbers was now reversed, with the Coalition forces counting 490,000 soldiers to Napoleon's 440,000.

Between 16 and 19 October 1813, the Battle of the Nations outside Leipzig was the decisive one in the war, cementing the French defeat and temporarily ending Napoleon's rule. The Emperor was exiled to Elba in May 1814, but briefly returned to power the following year, before being permanently banished following his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. The Battle of the Nations was fought between France and their German allies against a coalition of Russian, Austrian, Prussian, and Swedish forces. About half a million soldiers were involved and at the end of the battle, around 110,000 men had lost their lives, with many more dying in the days after in field hospitals in and around the city. The scope of the fighting was unprecedented.

In the immediate aftermath, both the Battle of Leipzig as well as the Wars of Liberation ( Befreiungskriege ), as they became known in Germany, soon established a controversial and divided culture of remembrance. For liberal thinkers and young, educated students, many of whom had fought in the wars, they resembled a starting point for a potential German unification into a national state. This sentiment was embodied in the mythologization of the Freikorps and Landwehr regiments, volunteer fighters against the French rule. On the other side, the monarchs of the German states as well as conservatives highlighted the role the princes had played in the struggle against Napoleon, seeing a growing desire for a German national state as an attack on their royal and noble positions.

Ernst Moritz Arndt, a leading liberal and nationalistic writer, called for a commemoration of the battle throughout Germany. He pronounced that the anniversary on 19 October should be marked by festivities with "burning fires, festive 'folk' clothing, oak wreaths, and the ringing of bells". The first anniversary of the battle consequently was marked by celebrations across the German countries, including bonfires. However, in some territories such as Baden and Württemberg, such celebrations were prohibited, while in the Kingdom of Hanover, they were incorporated into the festivities around George III 's jubilee on 23 October. In Berlin, the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, the main celebration was organised by the Turner movement, gymnastic clubs led by nationalist Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. Taking place at the Hasenheide, a park outside Berlin, the event was attended by several tens of thousands of people. Similar celebrations were held the following years. These included the Wartburg Festival in 1817, a nationalistic event commemorating both Martin Luther 's stay at the Wartburg as well as the Battle of Leipzig. However, following the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819 both the Burschenschaften, the nationalistic student groups, as well as the Turners, were outlawed, and commemoration of the Battle of Leipzig subsided over the following years. In the 1840s, the "Association for the Celebration of October 19" was established in Leipzig, partly reviving the remembrance of the event, however, only the anniversaries in 1838 and 1863 were "forcefully expressed". In 1863, for the battle's 50th anniversary, the city of Leipzig put up large festivities, inviting representatives from 200 German cities and several hundred veterans. The celebrations included nationalistic songs and the reading of poems, with between 25,000 and 30,000 people in attendance.

Shortly after the Battle of Leipzig, Arndt called for a monument to be built at the site. In a pamphlet entitled " Ein Wort über die Feier der Leipziger Schlacht " ("A Word on the Celebration of the Battle of Leipzig"), he demanded that it "has to be constructed in such a way that it can be seen from all the streets around from which the allied armies moved to the bloody decisive battle. If it is to be seen, it has to be large and splendid – like a collosus, a pyramid, a Cologne Cathedral ". His plans included a 60 m (200 ft) high mound surrounded by oak groves, with a large cross on top. However, lack of political will prevented such a monument of being built at the time. Arndt, together with the painter Caspar David Friedrich, worked on a monument for Gerhard von Scharnhorst, who had died from injuries sustained in the Battle of Großgörschen, but received no support from state officials. In a letter to Arndt, Friedrich lamented in March 1814: "I am not at all surprised, that no memorials are being erected, neither to mark the great cause of the Volk, nor to the manganimous deeds of great German men. As long as we remain man-servants to the princes, nothing of this sort will happen." Other people came forward with plans for a large memorial as well, including Karl Sieveking and August von Kotzebue, the latter of whom suggested a 31 m (102 ft) tall Roman column with an Iron Cross on top, symbolising the victory of Germany against France, the "modern Rome". The architect Friedrich Weinbrenner proposed a fortress to be built outside Leipzig, at the top of which a pyramid was to be placed, with the quadriga that Napoleon had taken from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin situated on it. On the other side of the political spectrum, the nobleman Adolph von Seckendorff put forward the plan for a simple monument to the Saxon government, which would bear an inscription reading "To the liberation of a strong land, Alexander, Franz, and Friedrich Wilhelm ", honouring the three monarchs who led the fight against Napoleon. While none of the proposals for Leipzig gained any support, a monument for the Wars of Liberation was erected in Berlin in 1821. Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, it was a miniature of a gothic church tower situated on top of the Kreuzberg, bearing the names of twelve battles fought against the French. Its inscription, "From the king to the people who, at his call, nobly sacrificed their blood and chattels to the Fatherland", highlighted the role of the monarch over that of the people.

On the first anniversary of the battle, in 1814, a 18 m (59 ft) tall wooden cross was placed as a monument on the village green close to the burned out church in Probstheida. Attached to it was a collection box for donations in order to rebuild the church. Originally envisioned by both the citizens of Leipzig as well as the Russian military command as the place for annual celebration of the battle, the cross was removed by the winter of the same year, following the division of the Kingdom of Saxony at the Congress of Vienna. In 1817, a monument to Józef Poniatowski, a Marshal of the French Empire who had died in the battle, was placed by his sister and Polish veterans near the battle site. After the establishment of the "Association for the Celebration of October 19", more small monuments started to be built. The family of Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg also placed a monument in his honour at the site, in 1838. In 1843, a sandstone monument was erected at "Napoleon Hill", where the Emperor had supposedly watched the battle. Two years later, the local government of Leipzig established another monument, commemorating the entrance of the victorious forces into the city. Until 1863, seven memorial stones were also placed to mark decisive points of the battle, which still remain to this day. In the same year, on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig, city officials also funded the restoration of the monument they had erected in 1845. During the same festivities, a cornerstone for a future grand monument was placed by Leipzig's mayor Karl Wilhelm Otto Koch, and 23 cities from all around Germany, including Vienna, Hanover, and Dresden, pledged money for its construction. A competition for the design of a bigger monument was also started for the anniversary, without success. However, the Unification of Germany and the subsequent foundation of the German Empire temporarily halted plans for a monument, since public conscience turned towards the more recent military victories. The commemoration of the Battle of Leipzig as a decisive one in German history was replaced by the Battle of Sedan and the city of Leipzig erected a monument to the German unification in its centre in 1888. Steffen Poser, head of the Museum of the Monument for the Battle of the Nations, wrote: "[T]he foundation of the German Empire deprived the monument project of what had been its basis for legitimacy so far—namely, the desire for German unification, the leitmotif, which had been missing at the time."

In 1894, Clemens Thieme ( de ), a member of the Verein für die Geschichte Leipzigs (Association for the History of Leipzig) learned during a meeting of the association about the past plans to build a monument. Interested in resuming the project, Thieme, who was also a member of the Apollo masonic lodge and represented the National Liberal Party in Leipzig's city parliament, proposed the project during a meeting and gained the support of his fellow masons. Later that same year, he founded the Deutsche Patriotenbund (Association of German Patriots) which raised, by means of donations and a lottery, the funds necessary to construct the monument for the 100th anniversary. The projected cost was set at ℳ 6,000,000 (€33,000,000 in 2021). The following year, the city of Leipzig donated a 40,000-square-metre (9.9-acre) site for the construction.

A first competition to find an architectural design was started in August 1895, with prizes for the best handed out. During the first round, only 32 design were handed in, with first prize going to Karl Doflein from Berlin. However, the Patriotenbund was unhappy with the results on the grounds that they were not innovative enough and none was eventually chosen for the monument. In the second round of the competition, which started in August 1896, participation was much larger, with 71 drafts submitted. The jury met to discuss on 21 and 22 December of the same year, with first prize this time going to Wilhelm Kreis. Bruno Schmitz, an architect from Berlin who had earlier designed both the Kyffhäuser Monument in Thuringia as well as the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz, won fourth prize with a design of a round tower with a dome on top. The Patriotic Association was again not convinced of the winning design and contemplated a third round, but in order not to lose more time, eventually decided to give the commission to Schmitz, who was the most well-respected German architect of the time. While Schmitz was the principal architect, Thieme took great influence on the design, leading to the monument having a distinctive character from Schmitz' earlier work. Schmitz delivered a new design in June 1897, which resembled the final result. This was approved by the Patriotic Association on 18 October 1897 and then presented to Emperor Wilhelm II for approval. In August, the design was presented during the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung in August 1898, where it won a prize. Several more design changes, especially to the top of the building, were made in the followings years.