Hessendenkmal Finthen
The Hessendenkmal is a monument in Mainz-Finthen . Grand Duke Ludwig III. von Hessen-Darmstadt had it built in 1858 on the 65th anniversary of the siege of Mainz and in memory of his ancestor Ludwig I , formerly Landgrave Ludwig X., on the spot where the Landgrave's tent had been during the siege . It is the only monument in Mainz that commemorates the siege.
description
The monument is a squat obelisk made of red sandstone over a rock base made of rubble stones. On the front there is a shield with a sword and oak leaves as relief decoration. Inside the shield is the original only inscription referring to the siege of Mainz in 1793:
- IN MEMORY OF THE CAMP / OF LANDGRAF LUDWIG X. SUCCESSOR / HERIGEN GRAND DUKE LUDWIG I. / OF HESSE AND NEAR THE RHINE IN THE MONTHS OF MAY, JUNE AND JULY OF THE / WAR YEAR 1793 / INTENDED BY HIS GRAND HIGH QUEEN III. FROM HESSEN AND NEAR THE RHINE / 1858
In 1993, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the siege and the associated end of the Mainz Republic, an additional memorial plaque was attached to the rubble base. The inscription reads:
- THE SIEGE OF MAINZ BY ALLIED GERMAN TROOPS LEADED TO THE DEPARTURE OF THE FRENCH ARMY ON JULY 22, 1793. THIS MEANS THE END OF THE "MAINZ REPUBLIK", WHICH STARTED WITH THE FOUNDING OF A JACOBINER CLUB IN MAINZ ON OCTOBER 23, 1792 UNDER THE FRENCH MASTERSHIP, AND AS THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO REMOVE IN GERMAN.
The monument of urban historical relevance is enclosed by an original wrought iron fence, which was restored in 2007. Overall, the monument is well preserved, although the ravages of time have gnawed at it.
history
During the First Coalition War (1792–1797) French troops conquered and occupied the city and fortress of Mainz in 1792 . From April 1793 Mainz was surrounded by Allied German troops. Mainz was subsequently bombed and "liberated" by the French. A contingent of the siege troops was provided by the Landgrave Ludwig X of Hesse-Darmstadt. The camp of the Hessen-Darmstadt residents was located northwest of what was then Finthen on the Feilkirschberg (today Römerquelle), which was still largely forested, but still offered a good view of the city.
The Ludwig X tent must have been of impressive splendor. Goethe writes in his siege of Mainz: "Thursday, May 29, at 9 o'clock in the morning ... I accompanied my gracious gentleman to the left wing, waited for the Landgrave of Darmstadt, whose camp was particularly delicately decorated with pine arbors. whose tent surpassed everything I have ever seen in this way, well thought out, excellently made, comfortable and splendid. ” After the end of the blockade, it was forgotten in the course of history until Grand Duke Ludwig III. obviously remembered the event in the 1850s. As the Mainzer Anzeiger reported on October 16, 1858 on the occasion of the inauguration ceremony, the Grand Duke did not want “such a strange episode from the glorious life of his ancestor to fall into oblivion”.
As early as 1854 he had the exact location of the tent determined. When he gave the order to carry out the stone carving is unknown. This was given to the court sculptor Johann Baptist Scholl , known as the Younger, who completed the obelisk by October 1858 at the latest. Scholl also created the Schiller Monument in Mainz in 1859 . On October 10, 1858, in the absence of the Grand Ducal couple, the solemn inauguration of the "memorial stone" took place with the participation of the Finther population. Ludwig III. was represented by its Prime Minister Reinhard Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels .
While the monument in 1858 was still far outside the development area in the middle of a pine forest, despite its historical significance it is hardly known and noticed today on a hill in the curve of the Sertoriusring and is surrounded by the development of the Römerquelle residential complex .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Imiela , Michael Lipp (Eds.): Fountains, Monuments and Sculptures in Mainz Mainz, Verlag Hermann Schmidt, 1991 Excerpts online ( Memento of the original from November 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 51.2 " N , 8 ° 10 ′ 57.4" E