The Siegesdenkmal ("victory monument") in Freiburg im Breisgau is a monument to the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. It was erected at the northern edge of the historic center of Freiburg im Breisgau next to the former Karlskaserne (barracks). After World War II it was moved 100m to the west. Today it is located on Europaplatz.
The Siegesdenkmal is dedicated to the XIV Corps (German Empire) of the German army, in which mostly soldiers from Baden served. Under the command of General August von Werder the battles at Montbéliard in 1871 ended in victory. In the general mood of victory, funds were raised in Baden (with cities from Lörrach to Karlsruhe participating), to erect a statue in the middle of Baden.
A public competition was organized among the sculptors in Germany for a design of the statue. Whereby, some artists were explicitly invited to participate. The jury consisted of five artists and art connoisseurs:
The winner amongst the 18 competitors is Karl Friedrich Moest, a sculptor working at the art academy of Karlsruhe. He was then also in charge of the realization of the monument. Professor Caspar von Zumbusch from Munich and Reinhold Begas from Berlin earned second and third places respectively. Their models were displayed in the city's Augustiner Museum. [1] Joint second place went to the sculptor Josef Alois Knittel from Freiburg im Breisgau, whose son Gustav Adolf Knittel later on became the master student of Moest and was involved in the construction of the Siegesdenkmal. [2]
The sculptural and ornamental elements were made in the Bildgießerei ("casting house") of Lenz in Nürnberg and the work on the granite was conducted by local sculptor Alberto Luratti. For the decoration of the monument gun barrels from the defeated enemy were used. The total production cost amounted to 85,000 gold marks.
The monument was inaugurated on October, 3rd, 1876. At the inauguration Emperor Wilhelm I, Grand Duke Frederick I and his wife Louise, Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and August von Werder himself, among others, resided as guests of honor.
When the government was collecting metal in 1940, Robert Heinrich Wagner, the Gauleiter (district leader) on the Upper Rhine (Baden and Alsace), requested the monument to be given to Adolf Hitler as a birthday present. This request was denied by the city administration. In 1944, November, 4th, the monument survived a bombing even though the barracks of the Karlsbau, which are situated directly next to the monument, were entirely destroyed. The west wing of the building was rebuilt between 1950 and 1951. Nowadays, it houses the city's social welfare and youth welfare office.
In 1948, the request by the German Peace Society and Bund der Kriegsgegner (German Pacifist Union) to remove the monument was denied. [3] In 1961, the monument was moved 100 m westwards as it had become an obstacle on the newly built city highway. There, the monument to the Baden Dragoons used to be situated, but this was removed after the war. [4] At the old location of the Siegesdenkmal, a big crossroads was built, with tram and bus stations and a pedestrian underpass. In the course of the construction work on the Rotteckring, which started in 2014 and are anticipated to last to 2018, it is planned to move the monument back to its original place. [5] [6]
The memorial has a square base which is surrounded by steps on all four sides. It is made of granite from the Black Forest. The statue of the goddess of victory stands on the tapered pedestal. She is on a hemisphere and holding a laurel wreath. Four warriors armed with different types of weapons rise from the corners of the base. Three of them are intended to symbolize the defenders, but the fourth warrior, an artillerist, is fatally injured. The figures are considered the main work of Karl Friedrich Moest. [7]
The pedestal shows four bronze tablets with inscriptions. Its corners are embellished with juvenile genii in positions of movement.
Above them, medallions with the emblems of the German Reich are engraved.
A masterful result which dominates the location. Even if its architecture appears slightly too soft and too bluntly structured.
— Association of architects and engineers of Baden [8]
With the defensive posture of the four warriors in the four corners of the base body, the artist thoughtfully depicts the main aspect of that glorious battle, where the challenge was not to attack, as the opponents did, but to defend the open door of the unprotected fatherland to the last man. Thus, three German men are now honored with memorials in Freiburg: Rotteck, Bertold Schwarz and Werder.
The full text of Die Gartenlaube (1877) at Wikisource
Freiburg im Breisgau, usually called simply Freiburg, is an independent city in the state of Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germany. With a population of about 231,848, it is the fourth-largest city in that state after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of about 355,000 (2021) while the greater Freiburg metropolitan area ("Einzugsgebiet") has about 660,000 (2018).
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich August Leopold Graf von Werder was a Prussian general.
Freiburg Hauptbahnhof is the central railway station of the German city of Freiburg im Breisgau. The Rhine Valley Railway (Mannheim–Basel), Höllentalbahn and the Breisach Railway (Breisach–Freiburg) meet here.
The Freiburg im Breisgau tramway network is a network of tramways that forms part of the public transport system in Freiburg im Breisgau, a city in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Established in 1901, the network has been operated since its foundation by the company now known as Freiburger Verkehrs, and powered by electricity. The tramway network currently has five lines. The expansion of the tram network since 1980 has served as an example of the "renaissance of the trams" in Germany. As of 2023, 73 trams were available for regular use: 2 of these were high-floored, 36 partial and 35 low-floored. Almost the entirety of the network is located within Freiburg's urban area; only a few metres of the balloon loop at Gundelfinger Straße are located outside the boundary of Gundelfingen to the north of Freiburg. In total, the trams serve 20 out of the 28 districts in Freiburg.
Friedrich Meinecke was a German sculptor. Born in Winsen, Lower Saxony, he worked as in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg.
The Kaiser-Joseph-Straße in Freiburg im Breisgau is a shopping street of about 900 meters, which runs through the center of Freiburg's historic downtown from north to south. It is one of the most expensive locations in Germany.
The Bertoldsbrunnen is a monument in the historic city of Freiburg im Breisgau. It is situated at the crossing of the Salz- and Bertoldsstraße with the Kaiser-Joseph-Straße. The fountain is one of the central locations of the city. A tram station with the same name is situated at the Bertoldsbrunnen where four of the five tramways of the Freiburger Verkehrs AG stop.
The Struve Putsch, also known as the Second Baden Uprising or Second Baden Rebellion, was a regional, South Baden element of the German Revolution of 1848/1849. It began with the proclamation of the German Republic on 21 September 1848 by Gustav Struve in Lörrach and ended with his arrest on 25 September 1848 in Wehr.
The Historical Merchants' Hall is one of the most outstanding buildings in Freiburg im Breisgau. It is situated on the south side of the Minster Square. It stands out clearly due to its dominant red facade.
The Lorettoberg, also known as Josephsbergle in Freiburg, is a mountain ridge in the South-West of the Wiehre district in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany. The mountain, with its elevation of 384.5 meters (1,261 ft) above sea level, is wooded at its peak. It divides the district Unterwiehre-Süd and borders the Vauban district in the West. 500 meters (1,600 ft) north of the "peak" there is a high spur 348 m (1,142 ft) above sea level, next to which the eponymous Lorettokapelle is located. The name derives from Loreto, the second biggest Italian (Mary-) pilgrimage destination, after the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The Schloss-Café is located at the top of the mountain making the Lorettoberg a popular destination for a getaway, strolling and a local recreation area.
Fridolin Dietsche was a German sculptor from Baden.
The Abbey of St. Märgen is a former Augustinian canons monastery in St. Märgen in the Black Forest in Germany, which was founded around 1118 under the name Cella Sanctae Mariae. The German form of the name, Maria-Zell, changed over the centuries through Marienzell, Sante Merien and St. Mergen to the present name of the abbey and village, St. Märgen. The Baroque abbey church of St. Mary of the Assumption is today the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Märgen and one of the most important Marian pilgrimage churches in the Archdiocese of Freiburg.
The Colombischlössle is a manor house in the city centre of Freiburg im Breisgau where the eponymous archaeological museum is situated.
The Stadtgarten of Freiburg is a 2.6 ha park within the Neuburg district. It has an old tree grove and a large rose garden, and lies between the Leopoldring, Jackob Burckhardt, Ludwig and Mozart streets near Freiburg's city centre. It is connected to Karlsplatz via the Karlssteg footbridge, which is made from pre-stressed concrete. Since 2008 the Schlossberg Tram, an inclined elevator, leads up to Schlossberg. It replaced the Schlossberg Cable Car built in 1968.
The Johanneskirche is a Roman Catholic church located in Freiburg im Breisgau. It was first opened in 1899 and is currently located in the Wiehre district. Around the church, further historic buildings were built. On the western side is the presbytery of the community next to a vocational school and to the north is the Lessingschule. At the same time as the Johanneskirche was being completed, the Protestant Christians built their own church near to Johanneskirche, the Christuskirche.
The Platz der Alten Synagoge is a square in Freiburg, Germany. With a size of 130 square metres, it is the second largest square in the city after Minster Square. The square is named after the old synagogue, which was destroyed during the Kristallnacht in 1938. The synagogue had been built in 1869/1870 to the southwest of today's location of the square.
The Bismarck tower in Freiburg im Breisgau belongs to a series of towers that were built in honor of Otto von Bismarck, the first German chancellor. It is located on the Schlossberg. It is 12.6 m (41 ft) tall and has a square base. The top of the tower can only be reached by climbing a ladder. Because of this it can not be used as an observation deck.
The old cemetery in Neuburg, a district of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, covers an area of 2.65 hectares. Situated on park-like grounds, the old cemetery is one of Germany's oldest cemeteries that have been abandoned and preserved as a whole. Located close to the Ludwigskirche, it is often mistaken to be part of the neighboring district Herdern. Providing tombs to an estimate of 1200 people, half of them are worthy of preservation. The booster club takes care of maintenance. The old cemetery falls under preservation order of cultural and natural monument. Moreover, it can be seen as evidence for death cult, town history and stylistic area of the 17th and 18th century. Serving not only as a place for individual and artistic tombstones of middle class people. Furthermore, the old cemetery grants an insight into the consciousness of faith during the baroque period until the time of neo-classicism.
Jakob Friedrich Eisenlohr was a German architect and university professor. His design for a cuckoo clock, now known as the Bahnhäusle style, was the first to be mass-produced and helped make the clocks popular outside of Germany.
Josef Alois Knittel was an Austrian-born German sculptor. On his mother's side, he was a nephew of the painter, Joseph Anton Koch; on his father's side, an uncle of Anna Stainer-Knittel. His sons, Gustav Adolf and Berthold Knittel also became sculptors.
The full text of Oeffentliche Brunnen und Denkmäler at Wikisource(in German)