Monarch hill near Großgörschen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friedrich Wilhelm III.
Emperor Alexander I, painting by Franz Krüger (1812)

The Monarch's Hill at Großgörschen is a Neolithic burial mound on which several crowned heads observed the course of the Battle of Großgörschen on May 2, 1813.

location

About 2100 meters south of the town of Großgörschen , between the villages of Tornau and Werben, there is an elevation extending from west to east, the highest point of which, located roughly in the middle, measures 172 meters above sea ​​level . This hill has been called Monarch Hill since the day of the Battle of Großgörschen.

Meaning during battle

In the course of the battle at Großgörschen, both the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm III. as well as the Emperor of Russia, Alexander I position and followed the action of the fighting from there. This is known at least for the time at the beginning of the battle, around 11:30 a.m. Both of them faced the battlefield to the north.

Very close to the highest point, about 200 meters to the northeast, the Prussian guard units under Major General von Röder stood in the front to the north.

In contrast to the whereabouts of the crowned heads near Güldengossa on October 16, 1813, when the French marshal Murat came within a few hundred meters of the whereabouts with a horseback attack, the monarchs south of Großgörschen were probably not in serious danger at any point in the battle.

Monarch hill today

As early as 1815, a homage stone for Friedrich Wilhelm III was erected by the local population at the foot of the monarch's hill. Erected by Prussia, the reason for this was the declaration of loyalty of the population to the new sovereign, as the region had been Saxon until the Congress of Vienna . It has been preserved in its original form including the inscription to this day. On the 4th anniversary of the battle, in 1817, the Prussian king had a memorial dedicated to the fallen officers and soldiers of his units, the so-called Schinkel pyramid, on today's Monarch's Hill. The inscription reads:

“The fallen heroes gratefully honor the king and fatherland. You rest in peace. Großgörschen, May 2, 1813. "

The pyramid stood there until the early 1980s, when it was removed due to significant corrosion damage. Only the base of the monument with a new inscription, which still exists today, remained. The Schinkel pyramid itself has been rebuilt since 1985 in Großgörschen.

literature

  • Norbert Faust, Siegfried Hoche, Wolfram Seyfert: The battle at Großgörschen: la bataille de Lützen, May 2, 1813. Verlag Fach-und-Werk-Projektentwicklung, Berlin, ISBN 3-933491-00-2
  • Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme: Area map Naumburg-Weißenfels-Merseburg. Compiled from sheets of the map of the German Empire 1: 100,000, Berlin 1922
  • Jan Dobraczyński : Before the gates of Leipzig: Life and death of Józef Poniatowski. Union Verlag, Berlin 1985.

Web links

Commons : Monarchenhügel Großgörschen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Short question and answer Olaf Meister (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Prof. Dr. Claudia Dalbert (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Ministry of Culture February 25, 2016 Printed matter 6/4829 (KA 6/9061) List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt . P. 28.

Coordinates: 51 ° 12 '  N , 12 ° 11'  E