Napoleon Stone (Jena)
The Napoleon Stone is a memorial to the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt and is located on the Windknollen northwest of Jena . Due to its location on this hill close to the city, the Napoleon Stone is a popular destination for the population of Jena.
Historical context
After three failed coalitions against the militarily strong France, the fourth coalition war took place. The new coalition from 1806 consisted essentially of Russia and Prussia and later also Great Britain and Sweden . The war began with the unification of the main army of Prussia and the army of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen , which was to take place in Thuringia . As the arrival of the Russian troops was not waited for, Napoleon was able to react quickly: he moved to Thuringia to prevent the two troops from uniting. So it came to the first skirmishes of the fourth coalition war on 9/10. October 1806. The Napoleonic troops then moved northwards along the Saale with the aim of Berlin from October 12th, in order to avoid a battle and not to be cut off from Berlin for the time being. Napoleon was in the dark about the location of the Prussian troops (he suspected them north in the area from Naumburg to Leipzig), his Marshal Lannes only discovered them the day after near Jena. Therefore Napoleon moved to Jena and occupied the strategically important mountains there, in particular the Landgrave and the Windknollen - the location of the monument. The site of the Windknollens is of historical importance as the starting point for the battle of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806. From here, Napoleon opened fire on the city of Jena and the village of Closewitz at 6 a.m. after he had spent the night of October 14th . This was done with the help of artillery that had been stationed on the Windknollen during the previous night. The Prussian troops were insufficiently prepared, slightly reduced and battered as a result of the battles at Schleiz and Saalfeld only four days earlier. Hohenlohe's troops were a few kilometers west of the city near Isserstedt and Vierzehnheiligen , but had to withdraw even after heavy losses due to continuous fire from the French. A total of around 10,000 Prussian and Saxon soldiers were killed or wounded in the battle of Jena and another 10,000 were taken prisoner.
Original shape of the monument
The Napoleon Stone on the Windknollen was in its original form a boundary stone between Jena and the nearby settlement of Cospeda , similar to several other boundary stones in the 18th and early 19th centuries. After the battle of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806, Napoleon had an "N" carved into the stone as a sign of triumph. This memorial stone was replaced by other stones twice in the course of the 19th century, the second one wore an imperial crown.
After the Second World War , the Windknollens area became a training area for the Soviet Army . The stone disappeared in the 1960s. After the turning point in 1989 and the evacuation of the Soviet military training area in 1991, the association Academica & Studentica Jenensia e. V., the municipal administration Cospeda and the Jena 1806 e. V. erected the present stone.
Inscriptions
A quote from Golo Mann is engraved on the north side : "In Germany, people feasted on greater hatred and ardent admiration for Napoleon for a good century."
On the east side of the stone, various distances from selected stations of Napoleon's life to the location of the stone are listed in chronological order.
- Paris 700 km
- Marengo 707 km
- Cairo 2838 km
- Austerlitz 429 km
- Auerstedt 17 km
- Madrid 1657 km
- Borodino 1683 km
- Leipzig 72 km
- Waterloo 503 km
- Longwood (St. Helena) 7626 km
The south side of the stone is adorned with an "N", symbolic of Napoleon, and a crown - both in golden color. The date of the battle, October 14, 1806, is engraved underneath.
The clubs that made the construction possible are noted on the west side. It reads: "Established in 1992 at the instigation of the ASJ eV in conjunction with the Cospeda municipal administration and the Jena 1806 eV"
Web links
literature
- Holger Nowak, Birgitt Hellmann, Günthe Queisser, Gerd Fesser : Lexicon for the battle near Jena and Auerstedt 1806. People, events, terms. Municipal museums Jena, Jena 1996, ISBN 3-930128-28-4 .
- KP Lange: In: East Thuringian daily newspaper. October 13, 1992, p. 16.
- Wolf-Jörg Schuster: Napoleon in Thuringia 1806. 2nd edition. Jenzig-Verlag , Golmsdorf 2005, ISBN 3-910141-76-5 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 58.6 " N , 11 ° 34 ′ 23.8" E