Monday, July 18, 2011

The Monument to the Battle of the Nations is a monument in Leipzig, Germany, dedicated to the Battle of Leipzig of 1813, also known as the Battle of the Nations. It is one of Leipzig's main landmarks. It was completed in 1913 for the 100th anniversary of the battle.
This battle involved over 600,000 soldiers, making it the largest battle in Europe prior to World War I.Casualties on both sides were astoundingly high; estimates range from 80,000 to 110,000 total killed or wounded. Napoleon lost about 38,000 killed and wounded.
During the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler used this monument as a frequent venue for his speeches when in Leipzig. During the period of communist rule in East Germany, the government of the GDR was unsure whether it should allow the monument to stand, since it was considered to represent the staunch nationalism of the period of the German Empire. Eventually, it was decided that the monument should be allowed to remain, since it represented a battle in which Russian and German soldiers had fought together against a common enemy. Since 2010, the monument is under restoration, with work scheduled to be finished by 2013, the year of the two-hundredth anniversary of the battle.

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