Memorial B24

Napoleon's bench
In many places in the Palatinate, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Alsace you can find these somewhat outdated sandstone benches. They are located on streets or paths, on former postal routes, on mountain passes, by streams, by lakes, in clearings, under trees, at high crosses, etc. ... This is a "seating and storage furniture" made to place a load that was carried on the head or back on the higher surfaces (lintel or widened capital) and to rest on the bench next to it or underneath it.Most of the time it was women (e.g. market women, farmers' wives, maids, etc. ...) who carried firewood, crops, butter, hay, manure, etc. ... in baskets on their heads and covered long distances with them. The benches that were set up between the 18th and 19th centuries were popular resting places. They are colloquially known as Napoleon benches, butter benches, resting stones or post benches.Entrance to Schweighofen (bench from 1811)They all look more or less similar. However, there are differences in the design and construction. The simple post benches consist of a seat and two cheeks attached to the side (they are only used for resting), while others have a stone bench for sitting and next to it a higher stone bench for laying down loads, while others consist of two stone columns with a widened capital for laying down loads and a transverse sandstone block in between for sitting. The individual sandstone elements were put together in different ways. The transverse sandstone slabs of the vertical cheeks rest on a post base or a separate stone, or are in a groove or stuck in a tenon. In addition, there are sometimes metal bands that hold the individual slabs together.

The benches, which were named after Napoleon Bonaparte (*15.08.1769 - }†05.05.1821), are slightly different from the resting stones, but serve the same purpose: to comfortably rest the head load and to sit on. They look somewhat like the letter "A": two sandstone pillars on the right and left, on top of which a sandstone block (lintel) lying across which served to place the load, and a sandstone block lying across for sitting on. After the French Revolutionary Wars (1792 - 1802), the borders of France reached as far as the Rhine. In 1811, at the behest of the Prefect Adrien Lezay-Marnesia, these resting benches were set up in his department of Bas-Rhin to mark the birth of Napoleon Franz Bonaparte (*20.03.1811 - †22.06.1832). The inscription "A LA Naissance Du Roi De Rom" - erected to mark the birth of the King of Rome - was carved on the lintel. But columns (in Steinweiler), drinking stones and fountains, as well as bushes, fruit trees, oak and linden trees were also set up/planted in villages or community forests in honor of the "King of Rome".Hunspach in Alsace, since 1986 next to the Musee de la Ligne Maginot near Schœnenbourg In 1853, Napoleon benches were again set up in the Bas-Rhin department. This time on the instructions of the prefect Auguste Cesar West. The reason was the wedding of Napoleon III (*20.04.1808 - †09.01.1873) to Eugénie de Montijo (*05.05.1826 - †11.07.1920). The year of installation was carved on the transverse lintel. In the following years, new Napoleon benches were set up again and again. In 1855, 1859 and 1860, because France was victorious in wars and in 1856 because Loulou the "little prince" was born.In the course of the 20th century, wooden benches were set up because they are cheaper and more comfortable than sandstone benches. Many of the old benches fell victim to the two world wars or the passage of time. The remaining benches are now cultural monuments that are cared for and lovingly restored.More information about the resting stones / Napoleon benches can be found on the website: wild-annweiler.homepage.t-online.de or in the booklets by Rudolf Wild:Resting stones and Napoleon benches
Written by Alexander Klein (rittersteineundmehr.de

This is a plane that crashed during WWII.