MUNICH/GERMANY - OBELISK
Originally planned in 1818 as «Army Monument» by court-architect Klenze for Munich's Odeon Place and to be made from captured bronze, this obelisk was erected in 1833 on Karolinen Place in commemoration of the Bavarian soldiers who had perished in the 1812 campaign in Russia.
Napoleon had raised Bavaria's status to that of a kingdom in 1806, and subsequently 33 000 Bavarian soldiers were sent along with his troops invading Russia in 1812. Of the two Bavarian generals Deroy was wounded on August 19th, 1812 and died, while Wrede, whose statue can be seen at Odeon Place, returned home with a small contingent in February 1813. In total less than 3000, according to other reports only about 1000 Bavarian soldiers had survived the 1812 campaign.
The monument is 29 meters high and constructed out of bronze-plates over brick-stone. The metal was obtained from guns of Turkish battle-ships sunk in the Battle of Navarino/Greece on October 20th, 1827. At the foot the obelisk has four inscriptions:
Even today this monument is well known to people as «the obelisk». However few have an idea of what it stands for, unless they come close and read the inscriptions. Even then due to lack of historical awareness they usually fail to detect the misleading reference to the liberation. Cleansing of the obelisk and conservation measures were last undertaken in July 2001.
Photograph and text submitted by Ahmad von Denffer.
2002, Internet project «1812 year».