Wiesbaden War Memorial

[Paul Hederer]

Hello,

Took the opportunity yesterday to make my first exploration of Wiesbaden in relation to the war.

I visited the War Memorial on the Neroberg, which lists 7 regiments associated with Wiesbaden, and took some pictures. A truly beautiful setting, well above the city in the forest.

15,680 dead. Makes you realize how many paid the ultimate price, even in a medium sized town.

Wiesbaden War Memorial

Paul

[Andrew Hesketh]

15,680! What an astonishing figure. To give us some context Paul, as I know you are familiar with England, what might be an equivalent sized town in the UK? The pictures are excellent - a very peaceful setting.

[Paul Hederer]

15,680! What an astonishing figure. To give us some context Paul, as I know you are familiar with England, what might be an equivalent sized town in the UK? The pictures are excellent - a very peaceful setting.

Andrew,

I was wondering that a bit myself. It seems that Wiesbaden would have had a population of around 110,000 at the beginning of the war, +/- a few thousand. Norwich had almost the same population, according to what I can find online (101,000 in 1900).

Norwich lost 3,500 men in the war (according to the city history site) which makes me wonder at the very high figure for Wiesbaden. I suspect that though all the casualties came from the surrounding area, they perhaps did not all come from the city alone.

The fact that seven regiments are listed on the memorial was a bit of a surprise to me, as this would seem like a lot to come from one area.

The Regiments were formed as follows:

Füsilier Regiment von Gersdorff Nr. 80--active army

Reserve-Füsilier-Regiment 80--mobilized at beginning of the war

Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr 80--formed 2.8.1914

Infanterie-Regiment Nr 186--formed 1915

Reserve-Infanterie Regiment Nr. 223--October 1914

Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 253--formed December 1914

Infanterie-Regiment 365--formed 1915

I noticed on doing a bit more research that the 186th Regiment is also listed on the memorial in Darmstadt, which seems odd to me, as their division had the 168th regiment, so the website I found it one may just be in error.

Paul

[Frank_East]

I thought the figure was high for the town of Wiesbaden.

The town had a recorded population of 151.961 in 1925.

Although the memorial is in Wiesbaden, could it be the figure for the state of Hessen which I think is a small state.However,a casualty list of 15680 for a state appears to be low compared to total German losses.

[Paul Hederer]

I thought the figure was high for the town of Wiesbaden.

The town had a recorded population of 151.961 in 1925.

Although the memorial is in Wiesbaden, could it be the figure for the state of Hessen which I think is a small state.However,a casualty list of 15680 for a state appears to be low compared to total German losses.

Frank,

I wondered the same thing, but the memorial defintely is not for all of Hessen. Darmstadt (where I work) has three memorials itself, mostly for regiments associated with the 25th Infanterie Division, which was also part of the XVIII AK district.

The 80th Fusiliers were garrisoned in Wiesbaden, while its "sister" regiment the 81st was not, nor is it listed on the memorial. That would lead me to beleive that though all the troops may have not come from Wiesbaden all the formations were closely related to the city.

There is a lot to see here. The barracks of the 80th Regiment are still here. I didn't realize what they were until I did some poking around.

It'll take me a bit, but I'll try and get the association of the units listed on the memorial from the city archives when I have a chance.

Paul

[Take on me]

I was wondering that a bit myself. It seems that Wiesbaden would have had a population of around 110,000 at the beginning of the war, +/- a few thousand. Norwich had almost the same population, according to what I can find online (101,000 in 1900).

Norwich lost 3,500 men in the war (according to the city history site) which makes me wonder at the very high figure for Wiesbaden. I suspect that though all the casualties came from the surrounding area, they perhaps did not all come from the city alone.

I do not think that comparing the relative casualty figures for Nowich and Wiesbaden would yield very much. The German Army was engaged on both the Eastern and Western Fronts, by contrast the British Army was only engaged on the Western Front in large numbers after about mid 1916, when the New Armies entered into the war. I think this is also true of the other theatres upon which British troops fought, although British forces in these areas were small compared to those on the Western Front.

Furthermore the German Army took higher losses than the British, probably well over two million men killed, the British lost less than a million soldiers killed. The Wiesbaden statistics might well reflect Germany at war during this period.

Jon

[Paul Hederer]

Just wanted to follow up on this. I've been doing some research over the past week, and all seven regiments listed on the memorial were indeed raised in the Wiesbaden area.

Hessen, and the XVIIIth Corps district fielded 41 regiments during the war, plus various supporting services units.

No matter how you count it 15,680 dead from a population of around 120,000 for the area it quite a loss.

I'm working further to tally the total losses for Hessen during the war. I am imagining they were very high as a lot of the regiments suffered heavy losses at Verdun--not to mention many other battles.

Paul