Germany 2010 15-LeipzigE

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Saxony State

Vacation 2010

September 18, Germany
Battle of the Nations Monument, Saxony

Leipzig City

After a last breakfast with Julia, we hit the road again. Our final destination today was Volker's home town Potsdam.

But first we had one last stop in Saxony, to see Europe's largest monument.

After Napoleon's defeat in Russia in 1812, all the other occupied European nations joint forces and decided to drive Napoleon back to Paris. In October of 1813, Napoleon had 190,000 troops concentrated near Leipzig in Saxony and the armies of the Liberation-Alliance - 365,000 Russian, Swedish, Austrian and Prussian soldiers were closing in on them.

Between October 16 and 19, the Battle of the Nations, the most decisive battle of the Liberation War took place here, near the town of Leipzig. Up unto World War One, this was the largest battle in human history, with three times as many combatants than Waterloo and ten times as many as in Gettysburg.

The Monument was dedicated in 1913, at the 100ths anniversary of the battle. It took 15 years to build it, using, 26,500 granite blocks. It is 299 feet high and weights 300,000.

The monument celebrates the victory over Napoleon and mourns the 120,000 casualties on both sides - amongst them many Germans. The rectangular pond in front of the monument symbolizes the blood and tears shed in this battle.

The Monument is situated at a central location of the battlefield and a large crypt inside is the symbolical resting place of the soldiers that left their life on this field 200 years ago.

A stair ofexactly 500 steps leads to the top of the monument.

The entrance is guarded by a 30 feet tall statue of Archangel Gabriel. (below left). The person in the picture top left gives you an idea of the size of the statues. The flight of winding stairs to the top of the monument was somewhat claustrophobic (top right), but it was worth it - because of the view and because of the gigantic statues in the crypt (which is at an elevation of almost 200 feet).

The crypt, located 187 feet above ground is the center of the monument.

Eight pairs of 30 feet tall guards circle a simple bronze plaque, representing the 120,000 names that would fill two Viet Nam Walls.

Each toe of these statues is two feet long!

On top of the monument - view over Leipzig.

During this short stop, we had two other picture opportunities: a meeting of Trabant-cars in front of the monument and a drive-by at the former Leipzig-Fair, which used to be the largest trade fair in the Eastern Block.

From Leipzig, we drove non-stop to Potsdam and arrived at Volker's mother at the end of the day.
At this point - a big, big thank you to Steffen, who was our save driver for four days and 500 miles and dealt admirably with everything traffic, weather and human moods thrown his way!