Obelisk am Karolinenplatz - Munich, Germany
N 48° 08.681 E 011° 34.147
32U E 691101 N 5335573
This obelisk is located in the center of the Karolinenplatz, a public square in Munich, Germany.
Waymark Code: WMMGY6
Location: Bayern, Germany
Date Posted: 09/20/2014
Views: 15
"The 29m tall obelisk pays respects to 30,000 Bavarian troops who were part of Napoleon’s ill-fated Russian conquest. It's made of metal plates from melted down Bavarian cannons and was designed by Leo von Klenze."
--Source (
visit link)
The bronze casting was performed by Johann Baptist Stiglmaier. There are inscriptions on each of the four sides of the bronze base that read: "Den dreyssig tausend Bayern die im russischen Kriege den Tod fanden", "Auch sie starben für des Vaterlandes Befreyung", "Errichtet von Ludwig I Koenig von Bayern" and "Vollendet am XVIII October MDCCCXXXIII". [English Translation: "Thirty thousand Bavarians were killed in the Russian wars", "Also they died for the fatherland deliverance", "Built by Ludwig I Koenig von Bayern" and "Completed on XVIII October MDCCCXXXIII".]
The following history of Napoleon's Russian Campaign is from Wikipedia (
visit link) with English translation courtesy of Google Translate (with modifications):
"As a member of the Confederation of the Rhine Bavaria had to provide troops for Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812 under Max I. Joseph. Led by Generals Wrede and Deroy only 2,000 of 30,000 men returned. Already 1813, Bavaria turned against France and took part in the wars of liberation. Klenze had already planned in 1818 that a memorial, a stone monolith in the shape of an obelisk, should be at the Odeon Square; the transport proved to be impossible, however. In 1833 under Ludwig I, the simpler version on Karolinenplace was realized. The material for the bronze plates comes from the cannons of Turkish warships that were sunk in 1827 in the naval battle of Navarino, a key event on the way to an independent Greece, whose first king in 1832 was Otto, son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria."