Hessendenkmal, War memorial in Nordend, Frankfurt, Germany

The Hessendenkmal is a war memorial in Nordend consisting of a marble cube resting on basalt blocks, with inscriptions on all four sides. Each basalt block symbolizes a fallen soldier, while decorative elements like the club of Hercules represent military strength.

The memorial was commissioned by Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II and erected in 1793 outside the Friedberger Tor, where most of the Hessian soldiers fell during the storming of Frankfurt on 2 December 1792. The city was then occupied by French forces under Adam Philippe de Custine. In 1971 the monument was moved a few metres because of the rerouting of Friedberger Landstraße.

The inscriptions in Latin and German record names of officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers who died. This practice of naming individuals across all ranks was unusual for its era and reflects how the fallen were remembered equally.

The memorial is located along Friedberger Landstraße and is wheelchair accessible, making it easy to visit. The site is open and free to access at any time, so you can view it without planning in advance.

In the 1990s a satirist who had mocked the Hessian lion in court defended himself by pointing to the slain lion on the Hessendenkmal, only to be told the animal shown is the Nemean lion of Hercules, not the Hessian coat-of-arms beast. The marble cube rests on basalt blocks, and tradition holds that one basalt column was built in for each fallen soldier.