 New Ulm Hermann monument |
Indeed, the city of New Ulm itself was conceived of, designed and built by German immigrants looking for a place to call home in the southern Minnesota wilderness.
Many monuments found in New Ulm are dedicated either to people from Germany or to an event involving German ancestors.
The most prominent of these monuments is "Hermann the German," as it is affectionately called.
More than a century old, the Hermann monument is a testament to German heritage and ancestral ties that bridge the vast ocean separating Europe and America.
Hermann has been a fixture on the masthead of The Journal newspaper for many years, so it was only natural that this element be included in The Journal's online website.
The Journal printed a special centennial anniversary tabloid when the Hermann monument reached its 100th birthday. The following articles are taken from that publication.
By GUIDO EBERT
Journal Staff Writer
NEW ULM Raising his swords defiantly into the sky as if to lay claim to the area which he overlooks, the figure of Hermann the Cheruscan has adorned a hilltop above New Ulm for the past 100 years.
A symbol of the town's overwhelming German heritage, the 102-foot-tall monument was erected in 1897 following its design by architect Julius Berndt.
 Dietmold Hermann monument |
According to Dr. Arnold Koelpin, a professor of history at Martin Luther College, the statue in New Ulm and one similar to it erected near Detmold, Germany signifies Hermann as a freedom fighter for the Germanic tribes in Europe around the time of Christ.
"He may now be known as a freedom fighter to the people of Germany, but in actuality he had personal visions of holding those Germanic tribes under his power," Koelpin said.
Born in 17 B.C. to a royal family of the Cheruscan tribe, Hermann was an "heir apparent to leadership."
While Roman forces were dominating all known governments and sweeping through the European continent, a young Hermann traveled to Rome from his homeland to learn the Roman language and the society's battle tactics. There known as Arminius he gained Roman citizenship and, in 6 B.C., before returning to his homeland, served as a unit commander for the Romans in what came to be known as the Pannonian War.
Following the war, Hermann was named a leader of the auxiliary group of Cheruscans fighting for the Romans. As years passed, however, Germanic tribes grew weary of the Romans' northward expansion. Witnessing this, Hermann began to formulate his plan for revolt in 9 A.D. by uniting neighboring tribes against their oppressors from the south.
Using the information he had attained as a youth in Rome, he aligned his forces for what turned out to be widely regarded as one of the most influential battles in world history.
"Perhaps Hermann gained his notoriety because the battle he carried out against those Roman forces is one of the most defining battles of all time," Koelpin said. "It virtually affected the entire development of Europe."
There are no firsthand accounts of the battle on record, but it is widely believed Hermann and his forces engaged the ruling Roman Governor Quintilius Varus and three Roman legions in what is now central Germany's Teutoberg Forest in 9 A.D.
As the Roman leader and his legions of soldiers moved from their summer encampments in the north to winter forts on the banks of the Rhine River, they were forced to traverse a narrow road through the immense forest approximately 20 kilometers northeast from the present city of Osnabruck. It is believed Hermann and his rebelling tribes ambushed the Romans at several points along this route.
"But it's important to remember that this was not a mutiny," Koelpin said. "It was really a planned attack. Planned, intended, and well thought out. The goal of the battle was really to defeat the invader before they could expand further north."
Trained for the open battlefield, where their strength depended on heavily fortified lines of defenses, the Roman occupiers were not prepared to fight in the area's dense woods and expansive swamps.
Implementing the same tactics Native Americans used against arriving British forces in the 18th century, Hermann and his men employed a strategy now known as "guerrilla warfare" against Varus' troops. Thought to have lasted three or four days, the battle was believed to have been a slaughter. Three of Varus' six legions between 15,000 and 20,000 soldiers were virtually slaughtered on the battlefield. And, acknowledging his loss, Varus committed suicide among the corpses of his men.
Although this decisive battle slowed the Romans' northward expansion, it did not stop it. Six years following Hermann's first victory, the Roman field marshall Germanicus arrived with more troops to reestablish their rule in the region.
Hermann, however, continued his armed defiance.
A few years after Germanicus arrived, and having enjoyed only moderate successes against the tribes, the leader sent to end the defiance was recalled to Rome about 17 A.D.
"At this point the Romans underwent a shift in policy and gave up extending their northern and eastern borders," Koelpin said. "The result of that decision ended up shaping the entire continent's heritage."
Later, about 20 or 21 A.D., the Germanic tribes who had once fought alongside Hermann realized his original intentions in wanting to be their sole leader. Despising him for his selfrighteousness, they murdered him at the age of 38.
In the 18th and19th centuries A.D., as Germany began to unify and take on its modern independent form, the figure of Hermann became a symbol of unity and independence. As a reminder of Hermann's defeat over the Romans, a monument to him was designed and raised by Ernst von Bandel in Detmold, Germany, in 1875. Von Bandel spent most of his adult life designing, raising funds for the monument, and overseeing its construction. Twenty-two years later, the Hermann Monument in New Ulm was completed.
By KEVIN SWEENEY
Journal Editor
NEW ULM Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was the monument to the German tribal leader who defeated Rome's legions in the Teutoberg forest.
In fact, it took ten years from the time work began in New Ulm on the base of the monument until the completion of the statue of Hermann. And it took years before that to get the project started.
The Hermann Monument in New Ulm was the vision of Julius Berndt, one of the pioneer settlers of New Ulm. Berndt was an architect and designer, and obviously a man of dedication.
 Hermann at the factory |
Von Bandel began sketching his ideas for the monument when he was 19, and by the time he was in his 30s had picked the site for the monument near Detmold. In 1841 work began on the base, but financial difficulties and political unrest in Germany stalled the project for about 15 years.
Von Bandel was 71 when German unification came about. His project received public funding for the first time, and the monument was completed and dedicated in 1875, a year before Von Bandel's death.
The completion of the monument in Detmold undoubtedly fired the imagination and dedication of Berndt in New Ulm. Berndt, born in Silesia in 1832, came from Germany to Chicago in 1852 and became a member of the Chicago Landverein, one of the two organizations that joined forces to establish the city of New Ulm.
Berndt arrived here in 1857 and spent the rest of his life in New Ulm. He surveyed the land and laid out plans for the town, high above the floodplain of the Minnesota River.
He became a member of the New Ulm Turnverein, and was one of the founders of the local Sons of Hermann Lodge.
Berndt, like von Bandel on the other side of the Atlantic, adopted the idea of building a monument to Hermann. Like the Detmold monument, which looks over the Teutoberg Forest, the New Ulm Hermann would look across the forested Minnesota River valley.
Berndt first approached the national Grand Lodge of the Sons of Hermann with the idea in 1881. In 1882 he became president of the local lodge.
Berndt took his idea to the Grand Lodge of the Sons of Hermann in Minnesota, which approved the idea and gave it their backing in 1885. Berndt next traveled to the East Coast where the project met with the national Grand Lodge's approval.
But two years later, the $20,000 to $24,000 it was estimated were needed to build the monument were a long way off. Still, the national Grand Lodge commissioned Berndt to begin work in 1887. Local fundraising had brought in $6,000 for the project, and land was purchased by the local Sons of Hermann Lodge.
Like von Bandel, Berndt found the going difficult. Other lodges across the country liked the idea of the monument so well that they wanted it built in their towns, and were reluctant to contribute to one in New Ulm.
But the Grand Lodge decreed that Berndt and New Ulm, who came up with the idea, should have the honor of being home to Hermann, and an appeal for funds went out from the Grand Lodge.
Work began on the monument in 1887, and the cornerstone was laid on June 24, 1888.
The work progressed slowly as funds dribbled in. The Grand Lodge had dedicated $2,000 in 1887 and pledged $1,000 each year until the project was completed. It assessed each member across the country 8 cents a year for this purpose.
But even that was too much for some lodges. The Wisconsin lodges rebelled, saying a "western wilderness" like New Ulm was no place for such an important monument, and they seceded from the Grand Lodge.
The W.H. Mullins Company of Salem, Ohio, was commissioned to create the 33-foot-tall figure of Hermann. Twenty tons of clay went into the model, and the final figure, made of copper sheeting riveted to steel pipes and beams, weighs over two tons.
The statue was finished by June 1889 and it arrived in New Ulm a month later. But it had to be stored in a shed for five years until the base of the monument was completed.
Finally, on Sept. 25, 1897, Julius Berndt's dream was realized. The National Convention of the Sons of Hermann was held in New Ulm, and representatives from 23 states were in attendance. About 20,000 people arrived by special trains, and they participated in a festival procession from Turner Hall to Hermann Heights Park for the dedication and unveiling of the statue.
Unlike von Bandel, Berndt lived several years after the dedication of his monument. He died in 1916, a man "who always busied himself with matters pertaining to the public welfare, never thinking of himself," according to his obituary in the New Ulm Review. "As a result he was never burdened with riches and never really got away from rubbing elbows with want. But he was happy and contented, because his mind and his hands were occupied with doing things that gave him pleasure, and his lifework, disinterested and unselfish as it was, should be an inspiration to all..."