Memorial to the March Fallen (Eisenach)
The memorial for those who fell in March on Frankfurter Strasse in Eisenach commemorates the violent death of five workers on March 18, 1920. It consists of an approximately 1.5 m high wall made of embossed sandstones with a stone plaque in the center bearing the names the victims are noted:
- August Gustav Schmidt
- Friedrich August Voigt
- Heinrich Adolf Niemeier
- Emil August Volkert
- Karl Emil Mengel
A place for funeral wreaths was created in front of the memorial plaque. The memorial was inaugurated on March 22, 1969.
Historical background
In March 1920, the Kapp Putsch also led to strikes and unrest in the Gotha and Eisenach region . After a military patrol from the Eisenach garrison arrested five citizens of Eisenach with firearms in a forest near the Hohe Sonne on the night of March 17, a patrolling soldier was taken by surprise and disarmed by striking workers in the city the following day. This event led to an overreaction on the part of the Eisenach military command, an immediate test of strength with the insurgent population. With the order to track down the stolen weapon and the perpetrator in Frankfurter Strasse, an armed squad of infantrymen and criminal police officers was put on the march. After the person in question had been arrested and the weapon found, a commotion broke out on the march, in which the soldiers attacked passers-by and hurrying workers with hand grenades and rifle fire. In addition to a few seriously injured people, the five named Eisenach citizens with fatal injuries remained on the street, the remaining observers of the action fled in panic into the surrounding houses and streets.
literature
- Rolf Bartko: From the history of the workers' movement in the city of Eisenach. In: Eisenacher Schriften zur Heimatkunde, Heft 23, 1983, p. 72.
- Memorials and memorials of the revolutionary working class in the Eisenach district. In: Eisenacher Schriften zur Heimatkunde, Heft 3, 1978, pp. 14–15.
Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 40 ″ N , 10 ° 18 ′ 17 ″ E