Sedandenkmal Frankfurt

The Sedan Memorial stands in Frankfurt (Oder), a town on the River Oder in eastern Germany. It was raised to honour local soldiers who died in Prussian campaigns at Sedan in 1864, 1870 and 1871. The monument was destroyed in 1946, leaving only the granite column and bronze eagle to be rediscovered later. The memorial was commissioned by a committee formed in April 1878 to collect funds. A Berlin foundry owner offered free materials if he could be chosen to build it. The unexpected donations led the royal building inspector, von Niederstetter, to recommend a more costly design. The sandstone pedestal bore the inscription ‘Den Söhnen Frankfurts, die für das Vaterland starben’ on the side facing the city centre. The other three sides listed the fallen soldiers’ names, while a polished red-brown Swedish granite column rose 1.1 m above it. At mid-height the column was wrapped in a bronze frieze showing the war medals awarded for those campaigns. A bronze eagle with outstretched wings perched on top. By 1946 all the inscriptions had been removed, leaving the column and eagle as the last traces of the monument. The site once lay on the Kleine Wilhelmsplatz, now called Zehmeplatz, in the Gubener Vorstadt district.