This is an apolitical forum for discussions on the Axis nations and related topics hosted by the Axis History Factbook in cooperation with Christian Ankerstjerne’s Panzerworld and Christoph Awender's WW2 day by day.
Founded in 1999.
rys wrote:seahawk11 wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is also the same place where the Teutonic Knights met their demise. The Poles call it Grunwald, the Germans Tannenberg.
This is and, at the same time, is NOT the same place as Grunwald. The so called '1st battle of Tannenberg' took place ca. 15 km. south-west off the town of Hohaltstein (Olsztynek) in a triangle between three villages: Stembark (in German: Tannenberg), Lodwigowo and Grunwald. The so called "2nd Battle of Tannenberg" obviously was not an event that could be linked with any particular place as the battle front extended over 200 km. from north-east to south-west, leaving the village of Tannenberg away from the main theater of war. Hindenburg and the pan - German ideology wanted those two historical events to be conveniently associated with the same locality so as to wipe away the shamefuly excrutiating smashing the Tutonic Knights suffered in 1410 at Grunwald from the Polish-Lithuanian-Tartar-Belorussian army. Thus the victory in 1914 was supposed to serve as the symbol of revenge they got on the Slavs, whom they had always had in low regard. This monument was also supposed t serve as a testimony of the Germanic 'cultural mission' in the east. We all know too well how great ideas like the one embodied in the Tannenberg Mmorial, come to a sad and tragic end.
That's correct. Supposedly an ancestor of Hindenburg's had fallen at the battle in 1410, and thats why he chose the name for the battle.
If my memory serves me correct, Hindenberg along with his wife and a couple of other famous figures were found in a salt mine. They had been placed there for safe keeping. Richard Wagner might have been with them also. I have a photo someplace and will have to find it.
Many good photos of the Tannenberg Memorial can be found at http://www.bildindex.de/rx/apsisa.dll/i ... %3Alang=de& (search for Tannenberg in Orte or Locations - then click on Tannenberg - Kreis Osterode Ostpreussen).
Including this interesting one, taken during the dedication in 1928. Notice the swastika banner, front and center of the crowd.
Geoff Walden
(Foto Marburg Collection)
tannenberg1928.jpg
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Looks like it, however slightly puzzled by the Russian Orthodox Cross in the foreground. If this is a Russian soldier buried there then by the time the Russians got there the monument didn't exist.
sobel wrote: ...slightly puzzled by the Russian Orthodox Cross in the foreground. If this is a Russian soldier buried there then by the time the Russians got there the monument didn't exist.
I could be a mass grave of Russians killed in the 1914 battle.
Some brave soul seems to have hit the jackpot while metal detecting at Tannenberg... a treasure trove of relics, mostly from the WWI battle, but also stuff "lost" during the NS era (a party badge, an HJ belt buckle, etc.). I would have been too afraid of getting blown to bits by an unexploded shell!
