Vienna Woods Heroes Monument
The Vienna Woods Heroes Monument or Vienna Woods War Memorial was erected by soldiers near the city limits of Vienna in the municipality of Weidlingbach during the First World War . The building is under monument protection ( list entry ).
history
The Vienna Woods Heroes Monument was erected in 1916 by soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army according to the plans and under the direction of Engelbert Robert Tula, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Landsturm, in their spare time on a plot of land made available by Prince Johann Schwarzenberg in what is now the Schwarzenbergpark .
After the completion of the building, the first lieutenant reported to the War Ministry on the completed work and asked for a consecration ceremony with a military chaplain and a military band to be arranged. The ministry praised the officer for this patriotic action, but reprimanded him for not following the official channels and for having previously asked for permission. He was banned from selling the commemorative manuscript he had written and postcards, the proceeds of which he wanted to distribute equally to the Red Cross in Austria-Hungary, Germany and Bulgaria and the Red Crescent in Turkey. He had to repay donations made by the teams. It is not known whether and when the authorized simple consecration ceremony was held.
Since Schwarzenbergpark was hardly looked after after the First World War, the meadow was overgrown with trees over the years and plants could also take root on the Vienna Woods Heroes Monument itself.
The municipality of Vienna, which acquired Schwarzenbergpark in 1958, wanted to remove the apparently dilapidated Vienna Woods war memorial and erect a memorial stone in its place. The Austrian Comradeship Association then took on the task of renovating the building. By chance the monument committee entrusted with this task succeeded in locating the documents pertaining to the monument in the war archive and in doing so to determine the builder and above all the texts of the inscriptions, some of which were already illegible.
After the renovation work was completed, the Vienna Woods Heroes' Monument was inaugurated on May 24, 1970 in the presence of Colonel Josef Gerstmann in his role as military commander of Vienna and deputy to the defense minister and Engelbert Tula's daughter.
description
Together with the war memorial erected in 1915, also on the initiative and according to plans of Lieutenant Tula, on the Fath-Höhe, named after Lieutenant Field Marshal Heinrich Fath , on the Bisamberg and redesigned in 1957 as an Eichendorff memorial, the Vienna Woods Heroes Monument is probably the earliest in the First World War created memorial for fallen soldiers.
The monument is a massive round building 12 meters high, which was erected on a circular base 14 meters in diameter. On the dome , which appears to be supported by 12 columns, sits a lantern , which in turn carries a helmet adorned with laurel and oak leaves . Around 186 cubic meters of broken and artificial stone as well as 18 tons of Portland cement were processed .
The bronze laurel wreath with a bow on the base disappeared in the inter-war period, as did the heavy iron chain, supported by 10 columns, surrounding the hero's monument.
When the heroes' memorial was erected, three inscriptions were added:
- Honor the protectors of the homeland
- Built in 1916 by Lieutenant Engelbert Tula and teams from the Landsturm-Abt. I / IV, Hameau
- Dedicated by soldiers for soldiers to the memory of those who fell before the enemy in the allied armies of Austria-Hungary, Germany, Turkey and Bulgaria.
On the occasion of the monument consecration after the renovation, two more panels with inscriptions were installed:
- Repaired by the Austrian Comradeship Association with the help of the Federal Army, the communities of Vienna and Klosterneuburg, compatriots and comrades of Germany.
- Renewed by Hoch- und Tiefbau Pichler u. Co, Vienna 18; Ing.Franz Aufhauser, master stonemason, Vienna 12, Hervicusg. 1-7, 1970
literature
- Engelbert Tula: Festschrift for the unveiling of the Vienna Woods hero monument at Hameau near Neuwaldegg. Vienna 1916.
- Erich Hillbrand: Three monuments from the First World War in the Vienna area. In: Viennese history sheets. Published by the Association for the History of the City of Vienna, issue number 4, 1960.
- Erwin Mehl: The Vienna Woods War Memorial in its old glory. In: Official Gazette of the City of Klosterneuburg / Kulturbeilage. May 1970.
- Erwin Mehl: The Vienna Woods War Memorial in its old glory. In: Official Gazette of the City of Klosterneuburg / Kulturbeilage. September 1970.
Web links
- Hubert Michael Mader: Honoring the dead - honoring heroes (PDF; 2.1 MB)
Footnotes
- ↑ Eichendorff monument. Website of the market town of Langenzersdorf .
- ^ Hubert Michael Mader: Honoring the dead - honoring heroes. In: Military & Pastoral Care. Special issue no. 24, 2008, pp. 24–25 (PDF file).
Coordinates: 48 ° 15 ′ 16.6 ″ N , 16 ° 15 ′ 37.6 ″ E