Marceau Monument (Koblenz)

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The Marceau memorial in the French cemetery in Koblenz-Lützel

The Marceau Monument is a monument in Koblenz in honor of the French general François Séverin Marceau (1769–1796). It is located in the Franzosenfriedhof in the Lützel district and was originally erected in 1797 as a tomb for Marceau on the Petersberg .

history

Marceau after François Bouchot, dated 1840
Map of the first resting place of Marceau on the Petersberg in Lützel

The French revolutionary general Marceau conquered the city of Koblenz in the First Coalition War with his division of the Sambre and Maas Army in 1794 , thereby ending the rule of the Archbishops of Trier . On the retreat of the French from Franconia , he had the order from Obergeneral Jourdan to shield the movement of the Sambre and Maas armies to the Rhine against the pursuing Austrians with his division at the crossings over the Lahn . He was seriously wounded on September 19, 1796 near Höchstenbach in the Westerwald and died of the consequences two days later in Altenkirchen. His body was brought to Koblenz. On September 25, 1796 he was buried with military honors and with the participation of the civilian population at the northern end of the Petersberg in Lützel. His friend, General Jean-Baptiste Kléber , organized a collection among the officers of the Sambre and Maas armies, and so a pyramid was placed in memory of the popular general in 1797 in place of his grave. It was built by the city architect Georg von Trosson according to plans by the architect Peter Joseph Krahe . Marceau's body was exhumed and cremated, the urn remained in the pyramid. It was labeled "HIC CINERES, UBIQUE NOMEN" (German: Here is the ashes, the name is everywhere).

In addition to Marceau, the body of the French general Lazare Hoche was also buried in the area of ​​the later feasts of Kaiser Franz in 1797 . His remains and the grave slab with the inscription General Hoche were transferred to the site of Monument General Hoche in Weißenthurm in 1919 .

Grave robbers broke open the pyramid in 1804 to search the grave and urn for valuables. The resulting opening destroyed the original trophy relief and was closed again with a lion relief. The urn never returned to the tomb; it was subsequently kept by the French prefect Chaban and later brought to Paris , where it was placed in the Panthéon in 1889 .

With the construction of the Bubenheimer Flesche on the Petersberg, which was built as part of the Prussian fortress Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein , the monument was demolished in 1817 and the stones are allegedly partly used for the construction of the fortress. After violent protests in the city, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III finally intervened . and ordered that the pyramid be rebuilt in its current location at the foot of the mountain. The tomb, erected in 1818, is probably smaller than the original pyramid, as the stones used in the construction of the Flesche were missing and were not replaced. The memorial was partially restored in 1885, whereby the weathered inscription was renewed and the heavily damaged lion relief was replaced by a new relief by the sculptor Philipp Bohl.

A cemetery for deceased French soldiers who were interned in the POW camp on the Petersberg was built around the memorial during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 . In the 1950s, the Marceau monument was restored with financial support from the French occupation forces stationed in Koblenz. Another restoration was carried out in 2013/2014, with the lion relief also being repaired.

Another Marceau memorial was erected in 1863 near Höchstenbach in the Westerwald on the spot where Marceau was seriously wounded in 1796.

construction

Side view of the Marceau monument

The Marceau monument is a truncated pyramid made of Mendiger basalt lava on a four-step pedestal . On the front in a semicircular niche there is a relief of a crouching lion. The design on the lower edge with a lunette field is based on a tomb design by the Parisian architect Étienne-Louis Boullée .

The life and work of Marceau is described on the four sides of the pyramid. Here you can read the following French inscription:

1. Ici repose MARCEAU, ne à Chartres, Département d'Eure et Loire, soldat à XVI ans, général à XXII ans. Il mourût en combattant por sa patrie le dernier jour de l'an IV de la République Française. Qui, que tu sois ami ou ennemi de ce joune héros, respecte ses cendres.
2. L'armée de Sambre et Meuse après sa retraite de la Franconie quittait la Lahn. Le général MARCEAU commandait l'aile droite, il était chargé de couvrir les divisions, qui défilaient sur Altenkirchen. Le III jour complémentaire, il faisait ses disposotions au sortir de la forêt Höchstenbach, lorsqu'il fut mortellement atteint d'une balle. On le transporta à Altenkirchen, où sa faiblesse obligea de l'abandonner à la générosité des ennemis. Il mourût entre les bras de quelques Français et des généraux Austrichiens dans la XXVI année de son age.
3. Il vainquit dans les champs de Fleurus, sur les bords de l'Ourthe, de la Rhoer, de la Moselle et du Rhin. L'armée de Sambre et Meuse à son brave général MARCEAU.
4. Je voudrois qu'il m'en ait coûté quart de mon sang, et vous tinsse [?] En santé mon prisonnier, quoique je sache que l'Empereur mon maître n'eut en ses guerres plus rude et fâcheux ennemi. (Mémoires du chevalier Bayard.) Allusion aux paroles du général Autrichien, baron de Kray .

The corresponding German translation is:

1. MARCEAU, born in Chartres , Département d'Eure et Loire , rests here, a soldier since the age of 16 and a general at the age of 22. He died fighting for his fatherland on the last day of year IV of the French Revolution . Whoever you are, friend or foe of this young hero, respect his ashes.
2. The Sambre and Maas Army withdrew from the Lahn area after their withdrawal from Franconia . General MARCEAU commanded the right wing. His job was to shield those divisions that were advancing on Altenkirchen. On the third day after the fighting began and his order to leave the forest of Höchstenbach , he was fatally hit by a bullet. He was brought to Altenkirchen , where his weakened condition forced him to rely on the generosity of his opponent. He died at the age of 26 in the arms of a few French and Austrian generals.
3. He won in the fields of Fleurus , on the banks of the Ourthe, the Rur, the Moselle and the Rhine. The army of the Sambre and Maas to their brave general MARCEAU.
4. I wanted it to take a quarter of my blood to keep you healthy, my prisoner. Though I should know that the Emperor, my lord, had no rougher and more vicious enemies in his wars. - Quoted from the memoirs of Chevalier Bayard, alluding to the words of the Austrian Baron de Kray .

Monument protection

The Marceau monument is a protected cultural monument according to the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is located in Koblenz-Lützel on Am Franzosenfriedhof street .

The Marceau monument has been part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002 .

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. Theiss, Stuttgart 1992-1993;
  • Peter Kleber / Matthias Kellermann: Tombs and monuments on the Petersberg in Koblenz-Lützel , in: Feste Kaiser Franz. On the history of the fortress and the Feste Franz system in Koblenz-Lützel. Festschrift for the 10th anniversary Feste Kaiser Franz eV, ed. von Feste Kaiser Franz eV, 3rd edition, Koblenz 2012, pp. 99–106, here pp. 99–102. ISBN 978-3-934795-55-6 .
  • Fritz Michel : The art monuments of the city of Koblenz. The profane monuments and the suburbs , Munich Berlin 1954, (Die Kunstdenkmäler von Rheinland-Pfalz, first volume).
  • Helmut Kampmann: When stones speak. Memorial plaques and memorial plaques in Koblenz. Fuck-Verlag, Koblenz 1992, ISBN 3-9803142-0-0
  • Minola, Bonn around 1816: The French in Coblenz 1794-1797 , edited and edited by Hermann Cardauns , Koblenz 1916. ( online )
  • Ulrike Weber (edit.): City of Koblenz. City districts (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany . Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Vol. 3, 3). Werner, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-345-9 .

Web links

Commons : Marceau Monument  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Minola: The French in Coblenz 1794-1797 , pp. 116-117
  2. ↑ General Marceau Monument ( Memento des original from September 21, 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. in: hoechstenbach.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.xn--hchstenbach-rfb.de
  3. ↑ Landeshauptarchiv Rhld.-Pfalz, Koblenz, unprocessed Best. 403, No. 14027 and Best. 256, No. 1701
  4. ↑ According to another source, the urn was removed when it was demolished in 1817 and transferred to the Panthéon in 1820.
  5. ↑ Philippe Boucqueau, Mémoire statistique du département de Rhin-et-Moselle, p. 93, Paris An XII, gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k84904f/f98.image.r=philippe boucqueau.langDE
  6. ↑ Kampmann: When stones speak. Memorial plaques and memorial plaques in Koblenz. P. 81
  7. ↑ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - district-free city of Koblenz (PDF; 1.5 MB), Koblenz 2013

Coordinates: 50 ° 22 ′ 25.5 ″  N , 7 ° 35 ′ 31.2 ″  E