Freiherr-vom-Stein-Denkmal

The Freiherr-vom-Stein-Denkmal stands in Nebelin, a village in the Prignitz district of Brandenburg. Local people built it in 1913 to mark the centenary of the Battle of Leipzig. The monument honours Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, the Prussian minister whose reforms freed farmers from hereditary servitude. It is one of very few Stein monuments paid for by the people who benefited from his reforms. Not everyone welcomed the tribute: the landrat, the estate owner and the parish priest stayed away from the unveiling. The village teacher, Kurt Schädel, stepped in at short notice to give the main speech. A massive boulder crowns the plinth, topped by a bronze plaque showing Stein’s profile. The plaque bears the words ‘Freiherr vom Stein – Preußens Grund und Edelstein’. Another boulder forms the front of the plinth, engraved with the dates 1813 and 1913. The whole structure sits among large glacial erratics gathered from the surrounding fields.