Monument allemand du cimetière Saint-Charles

The second square on the left of the Saint-Charles cemetery is dominated by a monument of ancient inspiration. Erected in concrete by the Germans in 1915, it paid homage to the German soldiers buried all around it, within a reserved enclosure, laid out in terraces. With its transparent effects linked to the columns and side entrances, the monument evokes a door to heaven for the souls of the heroes. The formal relationship with the Brandenburg Gate, erected in Berlin in 1791, is also worthy of note, and the only figurative elements of decoration on the outside are the stylised fruits that crown the side pillars. On the outside, the only figurative elements of decoration are the stylised fruits on the side pillars, while on the ceiling of the interior are two iron crosses and, in the centre, the Cross for Merit. The entablature bears a poetic text by Joseph von Lauff: Fighting for the Emperor and the Empire, God has taken the earthly sun from us. Now, freed from all earthly things, his eternal light illuminates us.Sacred be this place, which you have consecrated by bloody victims, three times sacred to us by the sacrifice of thanksgiving. The bodies of the soldiers were moved in the 1920s to the Noyers-Pont-Maugis cemetery, and the surrounding wall was destroyed in 1937. The German monument is one of the 139 burial and memorial sites of the Great War (Western Front) for which a request for inscription on the World Heritage List has been submitted to UNESCO.After a century of abandonment during which it deteriorated considerably, the monument will be restored in 2017-2018 by the City of Sedan thanks to French (State and local authorities) and German (Federal State) public funds and a subscription by the Heritage Foundation. Historical presentation desks are available on site in French, German and English, and the monument is accessible free of charge during the cemetery's opening hours.

DATAtourisme France