History
In October 1813, the biggest battle in the history of mankind so far raged around the Leipzig city walls. Napoleon and his allies on one side, and the allied armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden on the other, fought over Europe’s future political fate. The victory over Napoleon’s forces near Leipzig cost more than 90,000 lives, but it formed the beginning of the end of the Napoleonic era.
Soon, there were many futile attempts to build a memorial for the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig. However, the monument was only completed after the end of the 19th century. On 18th October 1913, the one-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Nations, the gigantic 91-metre-high monument was inaugurated as the biggest monument in Europe.