Memorial of the German Army

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The memorial of the German Army on the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in Koblenz
The reclining soldier in the niche
The new stele in memory of the army soldiers of the Bundeswehr who died in the course of their service
The plaque near the memorial

The memorial of the German Army on the Ehrenbreitstein in Koblenz is a 1972 inaugurated the Bundeswehr One suitable memorial for the fallen German Army soldiers in the two world wars and since 2006 also for the foreign assignment -down and in peacetime killed military personnel of the Army . The patron of the memorial is the inspector of the army . At his side and responsible for the maintenance of the memorial is the Kuratorium Ehrenmal des Deutschen Heeres eV Owner of the memorial and at the same time the Ehrenbreitstein fortress is the state of Rhineland-Palatinate .

The memorial of the German Army has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley since 2002 .

history

With the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the way to the old memorial in the Neue Wache in Berlin was blocked. Plans to build a new memorial in what was then the federal capital Bonn failed due to the political opinion that a designated site should be reserved for a central memorial for all war dead and victims of the dictatorship. In the subsequent search for a suitable location for a memorial of the German Army, the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in Koblenz was chosen. There were many reasons for this location. In the 1960s, Koblenz was the largest garrison of the Bundeswehr and the seat of III. Corps ; The proximity to the headquarters of the army in Bonn was also an advantage. A number of leading military officials previously worked in the city, such as August Neidhardt von Gneisenau , Carl von Clausewitz , Albrecht von Roon , Wilhelm von Scharnhorst , Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke and Paul von Hindenburg . Already after the First World War there had evidently been efforts to use the fortress as an imperial feast for the fallen.

The memorial of the German Army was installed in the front of the Ravelin by Hans Wimmer to commemorate those who fell in the First and Second World War, and on October 29, 1972, Federal Defense Minister Georg Leber and the General Inspector of the Federal Armed Forces Admiral Armin Zimmermann took care of the army to hand over. When choosing the appearance of the memorial, a conscious emphasis was placed on simplicity. At the inauguration, the inscription above the memorial read: "The dead of the German Army 1914 - 1918 + 1939 - 1945 - their legacy: peace." There was also a plaque.

Since the tasks of the Bundeswehr include more and more missions abroad , an expansion of the dedication was considered in 2005 in order to give the fallen soldiers of these missions a place to remember. On November 23, 2006, a stele was added to the memorial and now also commemorates the soldiers of the Bundeswehr who died in the course of their service. The inscription in the niche of the memorial was changed.

Since the inauguration of the memorial in 1972 is held annually for Memorial Day a funeral ceremony for the fallen, missing and died in the service of the Bundeswehr soldiers instead. In addition, the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress itself is used for other Bundeswehr events, such as military concerts by the Heeresmusikkorps Koblenz and the Great Zapfenstreich . Until the 2000s, memorial and reunion celebrations for former Wehrmacht units were held at the monument, but this has now come to a standstill due to the ever decreasing number of (very old) participants.

construction

Surroundings of the memorial

The memorial of the German Army was broken into a four meter wide and about two meter high niche in the ravelin of the Ehrenbreitstein fortress, the shape and frame of the niche take up the design of the artillery slots of the Prussian fortress. In the niche is the lying figure of a young soldier with a steel helmet . When designing the steel helmet, an intermediate form of the helmets worn in the two world wars was deliberately chosen. In the upper area of ​​the niche, the Iron Cross is attached as the national emblem of the Bundeswehr, in the niche the words "THE DEAD OF THE GERMAN ARMY" can be read. Slightly to the right in front of the memorial, a simple stele with the text “The army soldiers of the Bundeswehr who gave their lives for peace, justice and freedom” was erected.

See also

literature

  • Energieversorgung Mittelrhein GmbH (ed.): History of the city of Koblenz . Overall editing: Ingrid Bátori in conjunction with Dieter Kerber and Hans Josef Schmidt
    • Vol. 1: From the beginning to the end of the electoral era . Theiss, Stuttgart 1992. ISBN 3-8062-0876-X
    • Vol. 2: From the French city to the present . Theiss, Stuttgart 1993. ISBN 3-8062-1036-5
  • Kuratorium Ehrenmal des Deutschen Heeres eV: Flyer Ehrenmal des Deutschen Heeres (PDF; 286 kB), 2009

Web links

Commons : Memorial of the German Army  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anonymous: The Ehrenbreitstein as Reichsehrenmal, Ehrenbreitstein 1928.
  2. ↑ Living memory of the dead in the German Army in: deutschesheer.de, 23 November 2006

Coordinates: 50 ° 21 '54.7 "  N , 7 ° 36' 57.9"  E