The Tannenberg Monument to the Reich
The History of the Monument
The hills of the East-Prussian land around Hohenstein undulate widely and freely, Hohenstein being the town which was the centre of a great
Tannenberg Battle in the days of the August of 1914, the town in whose vicinity now stands the Monument to the Glory of Hindenburg and Those Fallen under Tannenberg.
A sanctified soil around, the holy earth which witnessed a heroic battle for German liberation. Today, the Towers of the Reich Monument welcome us equally widely and
freely as this land does, equally forcefully and valiantly as the soldiers who once won here, the greeting flowing over the land, admonishing and greeting us seriously over
the German borderland in the east; they sent their greetings towards the main homeland – the place for the pilgrimages of the German nation.
The German confidence and German stamina win over the Russian army during the harshest period of the War in the biggest battle of the
World War which has ever been fought on the German land. And during this largest oppression, already during the War,
German determination was ready to elevate a dignified monument to the glory of the fallen on the site of the battle. The energetic efforts of East-Prussian veterans created its first,
solid basis, against all the odds, the idea was preserved and the goal reached: on the tenth anniversary of the victory, 31 August 1924, General-Field Marshall
von Hindenburg – the commander and victor of the greatest battle – performed the act of the placement of the corner stone for the prospective monument.
The Association of the National Tannenberg Memorial (Tannenberg-Nationaldenkmalverein) assumed the difficult task of the organisation of its construction,
so its members' steadfast endeavours permitted them to gather due means. In the competition for the best design the General-Field-Marshall himself decided about
the selection of the project of the two Krüger brothers, who proposed to construct and realised the monument on the circular motif of old Germanic sacrifice venues.
The shell-stage of this gigantic building was ready at the General-Field-Marshal's eightieth birthday. It was opened on 18 September 1927 and the Leader's words
defying the then lie that it had been Germany who was responsible for the outbreak of the War, deeply reverberated throughout the world. Today they adorn the entrance gate
to the memorial The years of its continuous building are coming. Despite that time is hard, its extension continues.... And a new morning star has risen above Germany:
Adolf Hitler creates The Third Reich and bestows the Leader of the Greatest Battle the most noble place for his final rest – he sees him off to the Tannenberg Memorial which,
from this moment on, becomes The Reich Monument to the Glory of Hindenburg and Those Fallen is honoured in the seemliest way thanks to the Führer and Reich Chancellor's declaration.
Tannenberg becomes the destination of pilgrimages of the whole German nation.
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