A battlefield always has a link to geography, and therefore geopolitics. For centuries, the Rhine Valley has been the scene of interventions by French and German armies. We have on our doorstep a precious and telling place of memory: a double battlefield. On 22 December 1793, the "Soldiers of the Year II", the famous "Sans-Culottes", emerged victorious from their battle against the Austrian and Prussian allies. A kind of second battle of Valmy, where Goethe said "Today, in this place, a new era for humanity has begun". The revolutionary myth still nourishes the French and European idea of Human Rights.
Not far from this battlefield of the revolutionary period, the soldiers of the new Prussian-South German alliance, some Protestant, others Catholic, fought victoriously together in 1870-1871 against the hereditary French enemy. This is a unique and well-maintained memorial landscape, which provides access through the plasticity of the monuments to an understanding of the fundamental political concepts of that time: imperialism, militarism, colonialism, nationalism.
This site is freely accessible and can be discovered with the ICSW team during a guided tour and/or through an interactive photo rally.