VÖLKERSCHLACHTDENKMAL

From 16 to 19 October 1813, in the vicinity of Leipzig, the Battle of Nations was fought during which Napoleon's army was crushed by the Russian-Prussian coalition. This battle was a turning point of the Napoleonic wars that ravaged Europe and particularly the average Germany (Jena is nearby). It announced the beginning of the end for the French Emperor. This symbolic battle was called the «Battle of Leipzig» by the vanquished and the «Battle of the nations» by the victors (name representative of the ideology expressed by the Prussia coalition, which arose in liberating French oppression). It was also a decisive turning point for Prussia's place in the Germanic world, and soon was recovered from the ideology of the Second German Empire, based on the Prussian State. It was Guillaume II who, in 1898-1913, humiliating the king of Saxony by affirming his power, built this monumental monument, almost monstrous, which is the most brutal exhibition of wilhelmien nationalism. You may find it frightening, with his huge statues of armed knights, huge, impassive, and mother of the nation without any expression on the face. Many left-wing people in Leipzig see it as a living symbol of fascism, the era of wilhelmienne being often seen as pre-fascist. The extreme right is in agreement with this judgment, since the neo-Nazis celebrate the monument. It consists of 120 000 m ³ of concrete and 26 000 stone stones and is more than metres high. More a hymn to power than a prayer for peace, its delightful does not cease to impress. Today open to visit, more place of memory than museum, it has an analytical and critical museum frame that also allows to decipher the ideology of its builders. You must enter the interior to realise the enormity of the building and its meaning; You can also climb up and have a superb view over Leipzig. On the weekend, the esplanade of the monument, with its pool, is a popular promenade, sausages and candy for sale, and a little nap on its artificial hills. The'Völki'is also known in Leipzig as'place of suicides '; in the 1990 s, more than once, someone climbed to the top to throw themselves out… Something almost impossible today, because its access was secure.