The war memorial – memorial column in memory of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71
Based on research by Franz Götz
On the north side of the Lutheran church there is a war memorial in memory of the participants of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/71. The monument was ceremonially erected on May 2, 1875 at the corner of Gaustraße/Pfarrgasse (today Bahnhofstraße) on The Dalles opposite the then Protestant parish garden. A peace lime tree was also planted here at the same time. In a location polan of 1896 the monument is no longer marked on the Dalles. In this respect, it can be assumed that it was dismantled and moved to its present location at a time between 1875 and 1896, which is no longer known today.
In a letter dated February 22, 1875, the then mayor Frieß reported to the Grand Ducal Building Authority in Mainz that by the end of April 1875 “a monument for the warriors of the municipality of Harxheim who had been in the field should be erected” in Harxheim, as had already happened at the same time in many Rhine-Hessian municipalities. An exact design of the monument to be created in sandstone was not yet available at that time. 1)
To finance this, the campaigners had founded an association into which each member had to make a deposit and pay a monthly contribution of nine [probably in guilders, currency conversion to marks from 1875]. The stonemason Huber from Oppenheim was commissioned with the execution of the stonemasonry work. Likewise, the inscriptions of the individual pages and the decorations were determined. The inauguration took place on Sunday, May 2, 1875. Even before its erection, however, the monument caused considerable unrest in Harxheim. 1)
Sketch for the war memorial
Image source: LASp_H053, Speyer State Archive
In the Speyer State Archives, there is correspondence and minutes between the complaint clerk Georg Martin Rösch III, the local municipality of Harxheim and the ducal district building authority in Mainz. In a note on a letter of Georg Martin Rösch dated April 29, 1875, it can be read: “… the warriors’ association intends to erect a memorial stone in Harxheim at the place from where the Gaustraße intersects the Pfarrgasse [heutige Bahnhofstraße].” In this letter, the complainant referred to the memorial, which was already being erected, as an obstacle to traffic. In another letter dated May 21, Rösch again turned to the building authority with the request to move the just newly erected memorial stone five feet (about 1.5 m) in the direction of the then still open Harxheimer ditch (diagonally to the northeast and more to the edge of the square). In order to remedy the “grievance”, a specially appointed commission was to be appointed to deal with the complaint. The municipal council, however, immediately rejected this request. Mayor Frieß insinuated in the correspondence with the ducal building authority that the complainant was known in the village to have the intention of harassing the veterans’ association with his actions. Rösch in turn denied this in writing by return of post, stating that he himself had made a contribution to the monument. 1)
The monument was erected and inaugurated as planned. Georg Martin Rösch’s objections, which went beyond the date of construction, were finally rejected by the building authority in a letter dated July 1, 1875. 1)
On a site plan from 1896 the monument on the Dalles is no longer marked. At some point in the following two decades after its erection, the people of Harxheim must have found the monument disturbing after all and moved it to its present location.
A late victory for Georg Martin Rösch III!
Site plan on the determination of the building lines in Bahnhofstraße zu Harxheim, 1896; Cadastral Office Alzey
Image source: Irmgard Kaiser-Vreke
Probably first location of the war memorial on the “Dalles” (animation); original photo: Willi Buchert, 1979
Image source: Willi Buchert
No details have survived about the exact first location of the war memorial. However, from the letter of Georg Martin Rösch it can be deduced that the sandstone monument must have been located near the intersection of Gaustraße, Untergasse (formerly Hintergasse) and Bahnhofstraße (formerly in this area Pfarrgasse).
It is understandable that Georg Martin Rösch, as a direct resident and owner of the corner property Gaustraße/Pfarrgasse with a nearby exit in Gaustraße, saw the monument as an obstacle for his cart. His statement that “the monument had to be circumnavigated and this was annoying” speaks to the fact that the monument must have stood relatively far in the middle of The Dall.
On the day of the dedication of the war memorial, May 2, 1875, a peace lime tree was planted at the same time, which according to the report of pastor Würth was cut down in 1914 as a “stately tree, whose fragrance at the time of blossoming pleased far and wide”. Further it writes to this: “… on 19 February of the yearly publicly to the highest bidder auctioned and had its wood at the price of 6,30 Mark the field marksman Mück [Kriegsteilnehmer 1870/71] fallen to”. The lime tree of peace thus met the same fate as another traffic obstruction as the war memorial from 1870/71, which had been moved to the cemetery grounds in front of the north side of the Protestant church years earlier.
The war memorial from 1870/71 at the present location
Image source: Willi Buchert
Inscription of the war memorial of 1870/71:
Front:
God was with us
(Relief: crossed cannons)
To him be the honor
(Relief: oak wreath with iron cross)
In memory of the campaign
1870-71
Back cover:
This monument was created by
the warriors club and the
Municipality of Harxheim in the year
Built in 1875
Right side:
Left side:
The top of the sandstone monument is set with a figure of an eagle.
Annotation:
The abbreviation Eskad. stands for Eskadron, the smallest unit of cavalry. Depending on the military unit and army affiliation, an eskadron consisted of approx.150 horses, 5 officers and 145 non-commissioned officers and enlisted men. 2)
References:
Source: 1) Speyer State Archives, LASp_H053_100;
Source: 2) Wikipedia, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskadron, retrieved 11/28/2022
