Schill Monument (Wesel)
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The Schill Memorial in Wesel was inaugurated in 1835 and commemorates the execution of eleven officers of the Prussian major Ferdinand von Schill , which took place here in 1809.
The Schill officers in Wesel
In 1809, the Prussian major Ferdinand von Schill attempted to offer military resistance against the French occupation without authorization and without the consent of the Prussian military leadership. The Schill Free Corps was subordinate to him . On May 31, Schill fell and 11 officers and 557 NCOs were captured. The officers were held captive in various fortresses and came to Wesel on the Lower Rhine in August 1809. There the trial against her was conducted and all eleven accused were sentenced to death on September 16, 1809 according to a previous order from Napoleon Bonaparte . They were shot on the same day in a meadow near the Lippe . The names of the officers killed were Leopold Jahn, Daniel Schmidt, Friedrich von Galle, Friedrich von Trachenberg, Adolf von Keller, Friedrich Felgentreu , Konstantin Gabain, the brothers Karl and Albert von Wedell, Johann Flemming and Karl von Keffenbrinck. They were buried in the immediate vicinity of the execution site.
History of the monument
Even during their imprisonment in Wesel, the officers had received great sympathy from the local population. After their death and especially after the end of French rule, they were stylized as heroes. However, the erection of a memorial was initially rejected by the Prussian king because the soldiers had acted independently and without regard to the central authority. The idea of a monument in Wesel was promoted in the Prussian army from 1833 and was finally enforced by Wesel officers. The monument was inaugurated on March 31, 1835, largely financed by a collection of donations. It was created on the burial site of the officers in the Lippewiesen south-east of the Wesel town center and near the then still very rural district of Fusternberg , which was already part of the urban area. The memorial designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel has a relief on the front and back . It contains national symbols of Prussia, the names of the officers and the inscription "You died as Prussians and heroes on September 16, 1809" . The memorial plaques were made by the Royal Prussian Iron Foundry in Berlin.
Other places and names in Wesel are reminiscent of the Schill officers. They were particularly glorified at the time of National Socialism and their history was used for propaganda purposes. Against this background, in the first years after the end of the war, the benevolent handling of the Prussian heritage was questioned and the Schill monument was dismantled for the time being. However, a re-installation was already discussed in the city council in 1948. In 1953 the monument was restored and then put up again. The name “Schillwiese”, which is also the name of the street leading to the monument, has established itself for the surrounding meadows on the Lippe.
literature
- Martin Wilhelm Roelen, Doris Rulofs-Terfurth (ed.): The reconstruction of the city of Wesel . City archive, Wesel 2009, ISBN 978-3-924380-25-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Date: September 16, 1809 - shooting of the eleven Schill officers. City of Wesel, accessed on August 11, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Entry on the Schill monument in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Council , accessed on August 11, 2017.
- ↑ a b c Schinkel's monument for rebellious Prussian officers. In: Monuments in the Ruhr area. Regional Association Westphalia-Lippe, accessed on August 11, 2017 .
- ↑ Martin Wilhelm Roelen, Doris Rudolfs-Terfurth (Ed.): The reconstruction of the city of Wesel , p. 17
- ^ Martin Wilhelm Roelen, Doris Rudolfs-Terfurth (ed.): The reconstruction of the city of Wesel , p. 217
- ↑ Martin Wilhelm Roelen, Doris Rudolfs-Terfurth (Ed.): The reconstruction of the city of Wesel , p. 63
Coordinates: 51 ° 38 ′ 59.7 " N , 6 ° 38 ′ 6.3" E