Ehrenmal des Heeres in Koblenz, War memorial at Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, Koblenz, Germany
The Ehrenmal des Heeres is located within Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in Koblenz overlooking where the Rhine and Moselle rivers meet. The memorial features a sculptural composition set in the fortress grounds, dedicated to German Armed Forces soldiers.
After the Berlin Wall cut off the old memorial at the Neue Wache in 1961, the army chose Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, then Koblenz's largest garrison and seat of III Corps. Hans Wimmer built the memorial into a four-metre niche in the ravelin, and it was handed over on 29 October 1972 by Defence Minister Georg Leber and Inspector General Armin Zimmermann. A stele added on 23 November 2006 extended remembrance to Bundeswehr soldiers killed on operations or in peacetime service.
Every year on Volkstrauertag, the German war graves day, a ceremony here honours fallen, missing and deceased soldiers of the Bundeswehr. The fortress also hosts army concerts by the Heeresmusikkorps Koblenz and Großer Zapfenstreich ceremonies. Until the 2000s, reunions of former Wehrmacht units were held at the memorial, but these have ceased as participants aged.
Visitors can reach the site by cable car from the waterfront or by hiking up marked trails through the grounds. The memorial is accessible year-round and remains open to the public as part of the fortress.
The niche reuses the shape and framing of the Prussian fortress's gun embrasures, and the soldier's steel helmet is a hybrid of the types worn in the two world wars. The inscription was changed in 2006, when a plain stele was added to the right of the memorial for Bundeswehr soldiers who died on operations.
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