Iron Cross (Merseburg)

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Iron Cross in Merseburg

The Iron Cross is a memorial for the Battle of Nations of 1813 in the city of Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt .

location

It stands in the listed castle garden , north of Merseburg Castle , east of the estate . The monument stands exactly on the 12th degree east longitude.

Design and history

The simply designed monument was created in 1816. It was originally located on a hill northwest of Merseburg on the Kleiner Tierholz on the old Lauchstädter Chaussee. From there, in April 1813, French troops had advanced to Merseburg. On April 29, there was fighting between these troops and Prussian and Russian units stationed in Merseburg . Ultimately, the defenders had to withdraw, after which they succeeded in penetrating Merseburg due to betrayal by the French side. On the Prussian and Russian sides, 64 dead and 111 injured were complained of.

The inauguration of the memorial took place on the two-year anniversary of the battle on October 18, 1815. The inscription on the memorial, erected in 1816 , probably later, initially around a sun , is in this respect incorrect. To the east was the inscription Battle of Leipzig on October 18, 1813 , to the west for the warriors who fell on October 18 . The Merseburg city council, representatives of the citizenry, the privileged citizens' target shooting guild, students and a delegation of residents from the surrounding villages attended the inauguration. The celebratory speech was held by the vice-principal of the cathedral grammar school, Magister Detlev Carl Wilhelm Baumgarten-Crusius.

The monument was restored in 1848. On this occasion, the inscription Renewed in 1848 , framed by a wreath of oak leaves, was placed on the south side of the base . It no longer exists today. After 1872, October 18 was celebrated less and less in favor of the newly introduced Sedan Day. The memorial was forgotten and then overgrown with undergrowth. At the beginning of 1931 it was restored and a limestone cladding was attached below the base. The area was designed as an honor grove and surrounded with a hedge. As early as the mid-1930s, the monument was sidelined again due to the new construction of the Mitte airfield and the road to Bad Lauchstädt . After the end of the Second World War , the airfield was used by the Soviet army , on whose premises the monument was then located.

From 1953 onwards, Merseburg citizens tried to move the monument, which took place on October 21, 1956 when it was moved to the palace garden. The installation took place on the former site of the Kaiser Wilhelm monument erected in 1897, which had previously been demolished. The handover to the city of Merseburg was carried out by the Soviet garrison commander. As a symbol of the German-Russian brotherhood in arms, the memorial was held in high regard during the GDR era . As part of a redesign of the palace garden in 1968, the memorial was moved a few more meters, as a new path was created from the main entrance to the Saalehang.

The memorial consists of an inscribed base with a standing column. The column is crowned with a ball and this with an iron cross . The base stands on a stepped pedestal.

On the south side of the base is the inscription:

Battle of
Leipzig
on October 18. 1813

The west side is decorated with a memorial wreath. On the northern side it says:

Erected in
1816
for
the fallen
warriors

The south side is decorated with a wreath of ears of corn.

literature

  • Falko Grubitzsch, Marina Meincke-Floßfeder: List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt, Volume 6.1, Merseburg-Querfurt district (I), Merseburg district. Flugkopf Verlag Halle, 2000, ISBN 3-910147-66-6 , page 141.
  • Peter Ramm / Hans-Joachim Krause, Dehio-Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Saxony-Anhalt II: Dessau and Halle administrative districts. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-422-03065-4 , page 552.

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 21 ′ 36.6 ″  N , 12 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  E