The Hermann Memorial (German: Hermannsdenkmal) is a monument located southwest of Detmold in the district of Lippe (North Rhine-Westphalia), in Germany. It stands on the densely forested Grotenburg, sometimes also called the Teutberg or Teut, a hill (elevation 386 m) in the Teutoburger Wald (Teutoburg Forest) range. The monument is located inside the remains of a circular rampart. The monument was constructed between 1838 and 1875 to commemorate the Cherusci war chief Arminius (in German, Hermann) and his victory over Rome at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. When the statue was built, its location was believed to be near the original battle site, although experts now consider it more likely that the battle took place near Kalkriese, about 100 km to the north-west.
Background In 9 AD, Arminius, a chieftain of the Cherusci people and an auxiliary cavalry commander, turned against his Roman allies and led an alliance of Germanic tribes to ambush three legions under the leadership of provincial governor Publius Quinctilius Varus. The vast majority of the Roman legions were destroyed. To Rome and its Emperor Augustus the loss was a catastrophe and called the "Varian disaster". This event later came to be seen as a vital turning point in Middle-European history as it may have been instrumental in limiting the advance of the Roman Empire into Germania. In the 1520s, Arminius was equated with the name "Hermann", perhaps first by Martin Luther. Germany was among those countries where nationalism became a rising force in the 19th century as opposition to aristocratic rule increased. Equating the nation with all of its people rather than just with its rulers was a revolutionary idea at the time. In Germany, it became entwined with the hopes of many for an end to the disunity that had ruled the Holy Roman Empire at least since the Peace of Westphalia. Nationalists wanted one of the German princes to unite all of Germany under a single rule. In this regard, Arminius came to be seen as a symbol, since he allegedly had "united" the Germanic tribes. Reports by Roman historians on internecine fighting among the tribes were deliberately ignored. Arminius (or "Hermann") thus became a subject of popular literature such as Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock's three dramas on this topic (1769, 1784 and 1789). However, Heinrich von Kleist likely did most to popularise Arminius in Germany with his Hermannsschlacht (1808). At that point, the old Empire had been dissolved, the Kingdom of Prussia had been defeated and partially dismembered by Napoleon and all hopes of a German Great Power emerging in the foreseeable future seemed lost. In this situation, Arminius served as an historical role model ("Father of the German Nation") for those willing to continue the fight against the Empire of France, which was seen as the latest successor of the Roman Empire as an external enemy (via the Medieval Popes and the early modern Kingdom of France). The Congress of Vienna, which re-ordered Europe after Napoleon's final defeat, disappointed hopes for a unified Germany as the princes were mostly able to retain their independent powers in the new Deutscher Bund.
History of the monument
Construction
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