General Hoche Monument

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The General Hoche monument (Fig. 1) is in Weißenthurm on the Rhine, a small town north of Koblenz . It is the grave and memorial for the French general Louis Lazare Hoche (1768–1797) (Fig. 4), who directed his troops crossing the Rhine from here on April 18, 1797 during the First Revolutionary War (Fig. 2). On the right bank of the river Rhine, he defeated an Austrian army in the Battle of Neuwied . Five months later, on September 19, 1797, he died in Wetzlar an der Lahn.

It is said that this early Classical grave monument is the largest and oldest French monument in Germany. The monument site has been the property of the French Republic since 1798. Since 1978 the municipality of Weißenthurm has been allowed to use the southern part of it as an urban green area. The entire complex has been a protected monument zone since 1994.

1. Built from 1798. View from the north-east

Historical background

General Hoche achieved an exceptionally high reputation in a very short time: his soldiers admired the military bravura, the organizational talent and the republican virtues of their commander-in-chief. And, after he had taken over the administration of the conquered areas on the left bank of the Rhine from Bingen to Bonn in addition to the military high command of the Sambre and Maas armies and later also the Rhine and Moselle armies in early 1797 , after only a few months in office they appreciated with a republican form of government sympathizing with the Rhinelander, he reorganized a previously incapable, corrupt civil administration. His ordinances on taxes and levies meant a restriction on the previously unchecked exploitation of the land by civil servants and the military and guaranteed the residents their remaining property.

2. General Hoche crossing the Rhine near Weißenthurm on April 18, 1797. Painting by S. u. M. Meister around 1839

Hoches surprisingly early death was mourned from many quarters: " La République perd le général le plus distingué, par ses lumières et par ses talents militaires, que la France ait produit… " wrote Paul de Barras (1755-1828), President of the National Convention and Promoter of the young Napoléon Bonaparte in his memoirs. Many contemporaries saw Hoche as one of the standard-bearers of the revolutionary demands for freedom, equality and brotherhood, which he wanted to see realized in the conquered regions. Josef Görres (1776–1848), German publicist, publisher of the Rheinischer Merkurs and initial proponent of a republic based on the French model on the Rhine, described Hoche in a letter to Freiherr vom Stein in 1814 as “… the most intelligent and cheapest of all French generals and the most chivalrous. "

Hoches corpse was buried on September 23, 1797 in Koblenz on the Petersberg , near General Marceau, who had also fallen a year earlier and who was also admired . But at the same time there was a plan to erect his own monument.

3. Detail from the Weißenthurm sheet of the topographical survey of the Rhineland by Tranchot and v. Müffling from 1810
4. General Hoche in Quiberon (Brittany), bronze statue by Jules Dalou 1902

planning

5. Schematic construction view based on an elevation from 1907. Drawing by the author

Hoches soldiers are said to have donated 30,000 francs to erect this memorial for their general. The deposit of a fund of 2,000 livres for the community of Weißenthurm with a banker in Koblenz is documented for 1797. The fund was provided by the French army, represented by General Championnet and other officers. The interest from this fund should be used for the maintenance of the monument and " the education of the youth ". The conclusion of these agreements was celebrated with a large dinner attended by the French generals and 26 German deputies from the Bergpflege office , to which Weißenthurm was a part at the time.

A hill within Weißenthurm, the Frauenberg , was designated as the location for the monument . From there the general had led the crossing of the Rhine for his troops and the battle against an Austrian army. This area was bought from eleven owners. (Fig. 2) The memorial was planned from the beginning as a burial place with an underground burial chamber. In fact, the remains of Hoche were only transferred to Weißenthurm more than a hundred years later. The design of the tomb is attributed to the architect Peter Joseph Krahe (1758–1840), who a year earlier is said to have designed a similar memorial (Fig. 12) for General Marceau, who was fatally wounded in 1796 near Höchstenbach in the Westerwald. Elsewhere, a city architect Trosson and General Kléber , a close friend of Marceau's, are cited.

execution

The design of the monument follows the popular type of monument of an obelisk on a cube-shaped base, which has been popular since the end of the 18th century: on a heaped, walled-off round hill with a diameter of 32 meters stands a three-tiered substructure made of basalt lava blocks, subdivided with light shafts, the upper one in the shape of a Sarcophagi with gables and acrotia crowns (Fig. 5 and 6). Above it stands the eight-meter-high obelisk that tapers towards the top. On the side facing the Rhine, it bears the inscription L'ARMEE DE SAMBRE ET MEUSE A SON GENERAL EN CHEF HOCHE in metal letters. The obelisk, which is hollow on the inside, was clad with Lahn marble from Villmar by the stonemason Simon Leonhard II.

It is not possible to determine exactly when the burial chamber and obelisk were completed. A detailed document from 1798 names 9,429 livres of construction costs. In 1806 Theodore Sosy made a (according to LHA-Koblenz) now lost scale drawing of the monument. The location was first mapped as a tomb (Tombeau) in 1810 (Fig. 3). In his sketch of Neuwied and Weißenthurm from 1817, William Turner shows the monument as completed.

6. View of the monument around 1840

After the First World War, the area was fenced in with an iron fence and basalt pylons and was given a massive entrance and access area (Fig. 8 and 9). General Hoches' remains were exhumed from his earth grave on the Petersberg in Koblenz-Lützel and transferred in an urn to the burial chamber of the Weißenthurm monument in 1919 (Fig. 10 and 11). On July 14, 1928, the monument was declared completed. [...] été achevé par l'armée du Rhin it says on a small bronze plaque on the south side. Bronze reliefs were also placed on the four fields of the base, which show the most important stations for Hoche's military fame: Wissembourg 1793 (west side), Quiberon 1795 (east side), Vendée 1796 (north side) and Neuwied 1797 (east side). A small bronze plaque on the north side reminds of the installation of the plaques in the presence of the High Commissioner Tirard , the commanding general of the Rhine Army Guillaumat , the Mayor of Versailles and a delegation from the community of Weißenthurm. The French sculptor Louis-Simon Boizot (1743–1809) created the scenes in 1800 as marble reliefs. You are in the Château de Versailles et de Trianon .

Notes on meaning and history

The unusual dimensions of the monument and its layout are not only a reminder of the historical personality Hoche, who was in command of the Armée de Sambre-et-Meuse just a few months in 1797 . With its foundation, the army itself commemorated its fame of having been one of the victorious armies of the French Revolutionary War from 1792 to 1797 against the monarchist, Anglo-Austro-Prussian coalition.

The responsibility of the local community in Weißenthurm for the maintenance of the monument was - although contractually agreed with a purchase agreement and a capital foundation - a matter of dispute for a long time. After belonging to France ended, some felt no longer bound by previous agreements. The community leased the land for agricultural use. (Fig. 6) A description of the condition from the 1830s suggests willful destruction. A witness report from 1833 accused “Prussian soldiers and people from Neuwied” of damaging the memorial when the Prussian army marched in in 1814. The municipal administration therefore directed requests for the assumption of maintenance costs to the Prussian government. The French consulate and even General Hoche's daughter were asked for financial aid. In 1839 the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. Funds available. In 1886 there were 90 marks "against decay". In 1902 the whole area was registered in the land register with the name "Domain Monument General Hoche". In 1907, a construction plan by an unknown architect shows an expanded facility with the current wall and the stairs in front of the actual monument.

After the First World War, the monument for the French army - especially for some annexionist generals - was a place to demonstrate an imperialist-oriented French presence on the Rhine. The elaborate, fortress-like complex, the guard by soldiers, the daily hoisting of the tricolor, the spectacularly staged transfer of Hoches' remains from Koblenz to Weißenthurm in the presence of Marshal Foch (who in 1918 dictated the unconditional acceptance of a ceasefire to the German army had), in 1928 the installation of four tributes to French battle victories on the monument base, were perceived by parts of the population as a provocation.

After the Second World War, French army veterans were required to guard and maintain the monument until 1994. The German writer and translator Reinhard Kaiser erected a literary memorial to the last survivor, Laurent . Ever since the French and Germans have seen their “hereditary enmity” as a past and have professed a united Europe, the general has become the Liberté! Égalité! Fraternity! also wanted to revolutionize France's neighbors, one of the early political leaders for a united Europe. The monument and its park-like surroundings have been a "place of friendly encounters" since the end of the 20th century

  • 7. View from the west. In the background a pylon of the Raiffeisen Bridge over the Rhine

  • 8. Main entrance to the facility on the street "Am Hoche"

  • 9. Gate of the outer wall in front of the passage to the burial chamber

  • 10. Underground passage to the burial chamber

  • 11. Burial chamber with (empty) sarcophagus, on top of which the urn with Hoches mortal remains

  • 12. Monument General Hoche, aerial photo (2016)

Monuments of the French military in western Germany

The monuments described here can already be counted among the type of war memorials that became customary at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century to honor wars and their dead participants. The motives of the donors must have been national pride and the desire to share in the fame and honor of their heroes. In the past, neglect, willful damage up to complete destruction were indications that in the “host country” there was a lack of respect and tolerance for this commemoration of the dead.

The Hoche, Marceau and Turenne monuments stand on land owned by the French Republic.

Fig. 12, 12 a and 12 b: Like the monument to General Hoche , the Marceau tomb was donated by the Sambre and Maas Army in 1797. The dedication commemorates his victorious battles in the French Revolutionary War in the north and east of France. The monument with the ashes of Marceau is said to have been looted in 1804. A bricklayer's bill for two-day repairs this year could confirm that. In 1819 the monument was moved to its current location in Koblenz-Lützel without a grave plinth .

Fig. 13: Marceau's Adjudant-Capitain Souhait had a memorial stone placed in the place of his fatal wound in 1797. The original inscription is still preserved on one side of the current obelisk. The text reads: Ici fut blessé le XIX Septembre MDCCLXXXxvi Marceau Général francais. Il mourut estimé pleuré du soldat de l'habitant et de l'ennemie.

Fig. 13a and b: On German initiative and financed by Emperor Napoléon III. , a memorial was erected in 1863 near Höchstenbach , at the point where the young general was fatally wounded . It bears honorable dedications in German, Latin and French on all four sides of the base. The latter, engraved in a light marble plaque, is said to have been part of a first memorial stone placed in 1796 at the site of his wounding. Photo 13b shows the monument, which was rebuilt in its old form in 1945 and which was blown up in 1941 by the NSDAP district leader Fischer . The municipality of Höchstenbach, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Hachenburg forest administration are responsible for the preservation of monuments.

Fig. 14: The Turenne obelisk was rebuilt in 1945/46 on the instructions of General de Gaulle . The first memorial for Marshal Louis XIV, who was fatally wounded in the Battle of Sasbach , was donated by the Hereditary Prince of Braunschweig in 1766 . The second of Cardinal de Rohan in 1782, the third in 1829 by the Government of the French King Charles X . This was completely destroyed in 1940 on the instructions of the Baden Gauleiter Wagner . The 115 ares large area is owned by the French state and was originally the private property of Prince-Bishop de Rohan of Strasbourg.

Fig. 15: The so-called Franzosenstein in the main cemetery in Mainz was erected in 1834 by 202 veterans from Rhenish Hesse and Mainz from Napoléon's armies in memory of their fallen comrades. It was designed by Franz-Josef Stoll . A bronze application of a St. Helena medal from 1857 was from Napoléon III. has been donated. "Veteranensteine", the monuments of former German soldiers of Napoléon, can be found in various places on the left bank of the Rhine. B. also at the main cemetery in Koblenz .

Fig. 16: The 14 meter high sandstone obelisk for the dead of the French Mainz garrison from 1918 to 1930 is in the garrison cemetery of the Mainz main cemetery. The monument was designed by Louis Henri Nicot in 1925 . 600 Christian and Muslim soldiers of the Rhine Army are buried here during the occupation from 1918 to 1930.

Fig. 17: In 1945 the French 2nd Company of the 24th Regiment placed the memorial stone with the inset wooden Lorraine cross for its chief sergeant, who had an accident here on the way to the rescue of a burning farm.

  • 12. Monument to General Marceau in Koblenz-Lützel . Originally built in 1797 on the instructions of General Kléber . Since 1818 without a grave plinth in the French cemetery in Koblenz-Lützel.

  • 12a. In 1817 William Turner sketched the Ehrenbreitstein and Marceau's tomb (left), which at that time still had a shape similar to the Hoche monument in Weißenthurm.

  • 12b. William Turner's painting of the Ehrenbreitstein over Koblenz from 1835 shows the Marceau monument in a heroic elevation (left in front of a dark group of trees).

  • 13. Memorial stone at the place of Marceau's fatal wound in 1796 in the forest near Höchstenbach. Donated by his adjutant Souhait . Source: Westerwald Landscape Museum.

  • 13a. In 1863, Emperor Napoléon III. erect an obelisk in the same place. The photo shows the French, Austrian and Prussian military on the occasion of a commemoration ceremony in 1901. Source: Westerwald Landscape Museum.

  • 13b. Situation in 2011 of the monument that was destroyed in 1941 and rebuilt in 1945/46.

  • 14. Obelisk for Marshal Turenne in Sasbach (Baden). Rebuilt in 1945/46 after being destroyed in 1940. Photo: Roland Spether

  • 15. The Franzosenstein at the main cemetery in Mainz was donated to their comrades in 1834 by the veterans of Emperor Napoléon from Rhine Hesse.

  • 16. Also in Mainz: The Rhine Army, the dead French soldiers in Rhenish countries , it means translated on the base of the 1925 monument of the Mainz garrison after the First World War .

  • 17. Memorial stone near Oberfell ( Lower Moselle ) for Sergeant Roger Gentile, who died in an accident . Set in 1945 by his comrades.

Monument protection

The Monument General Hoche 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 on the Hoche .

literature

  • Josef Ruland: a poet, a memorial and a general. Görres-Verlag, Koblenz 1979.
  • Joseph Hansen: Sources on the history of the Rhineland in the age of the French Revolution. Volume IV. Bonn 1938.
  • Mayen-Koblenz district: Heimatbuch 2004. Koblenz 2003, ISSN  0944-1247 , pp. 24-25.
  • Weißenthurm municipal administration: Brief description of the monument. AB95, Hoche Monument 950.

Web links

Commons : Monument General Hoche  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on this: Property department of the Weissenthurm municipality and the land surveying and cadastral office of the Osteifel-Hunsrück Mayen
  2. ↑ Jürgen König: The Hunsrück in the French. Time. Dissertation Mainz, Darmstadt 1995, ISBN 3-9804416-0-1 , pp. 64-69.
  3. ↑ Alain Pigeard, Les Étoiles de Napoléon , Edition Quatuor Paris 1996, p. 398
  4. ↑ Josef Ruland: A poet, a memorial and a general (=  Mittelrheinische Hefte . Volume 3 ). Görres-Verlag, Koblenz 1979, p. 19 .
  5. ↑ Map of the Rhineland by Tranchot and v. Müffling, sheet 136 Koblenz, reproduction of the Landesvermessungsamt Rhld.-Pfalz, Koblenz 1972.
  6. ↑ Landeshauptarchiv Rhld.-Pfalz, Koblenz, unprocessed Best. 256, No. 1701.
  7. ↑ Werner Bornheim called Schilling (ed.): The art monuments of the city of Koblenz. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1954.
  8. ^ Cecilia Powell: William Turner in Germany . Exhibition catalog. Prestel-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7913-1490-4 , pp. 101 ff .
  9. ^ Paul Clemen and Walter Zimmermann (eds.): The art monuments of the district of Koblenz. Publishing house L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1944.
  10. ^ Lydia Aumüller: Article about the Villmar stonemason family Leonhard . In: Nassauer Tageblatt . July 23, 2002.
  11. ↑ Map of the Rhineland by Tranchot and v. Müffling, sheet 135 Weißenthurm, reproduction of the Land Surveying Office Rhld.-Pfalz Koblenz 1972.
  12. ↑ Victor Hugo: The Rhine . Insel-Verlag, Berlin 2010, p. 34–36 (French: Le Rhin . Paris 1842. Translated by Annette Seemann).
  13. ↑ Landeshauptarchiv Rhld.-Pfalz , Koblenz, unprocessed Best. 403, No. 14027 and Best. 256, No. 1701
  14. ^ Anton Golecki: From the First World War to the end of the Weimar Republic . In: History of the City of Koblenz . tape II . Verlag Theiss, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8062-1036-5 , p. 137 ff .
  15. ↑ Reinhard Kaiser: The general's guardian . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung . No. 35 , August 31, 1997 ( online ).
  16. ↑ General Hoche brought revolution to the Thur. Celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the death of the French . In: Rhein-Zeitung . No. 52 , March 3, 1997.
  17. ^ Invoice from the bricklayer André Reuss for 25 livres in the LHA Koblenz Order 256, No. 1701, erroneous. at Hoche monument documents
  18. ↑ a b in detail in: Volker Ecker: General Marceau's last battle near Höchstenbach, September 19, 1796 . In: Ortschronik of the municipality of Höchstenbach . 1994.
  19. ↑ Roland Spether: From hatred to international understanding. In: Baden's latest news. BNN No. 246, October 23, 2010.
  20. ^ RH von Lanzenauer: The Turenne monument in Sasbach. In: Badische Heimat. Volume 3, Karlsruhe 1983, p. 597 ff.
  21. ^ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Mayen-Koblenz district. Mainz 2020, p. 101 (PDF; 5.8 MB).

Coordinates: 50 ° 24 '49.3 "  N , 7 ° 27' 30.8"  E