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 Eleonore Prochaska - Potsdam, Germany
N 52° 23.213 E 013° 04.446
33U E 368934 N 5805814
Monument for "Potsdam's Joan of Arc"
Waymark Code: WM1045B
Location: Brandenburg, Germany
Date Posted: 02/22/2019
Views: 1
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Eleonore Prochaska was a Prussian soldier with the rank of Jäger in the War of Liberation against Napoleon.
Disguised as a man, she enlisted with the Lützow Free Corps in June 1813, at the age of 28. She was fatally wounded during the Battle of the Göhrde and succumbed to her wounds on October 5, 1813.
Her hometown Potsdam hails her as the Heldenjungfrau (Maiden Heroin) and erected a monument in her honor. |
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 Eleonore's last words,
"Lieutenant, Sir, I'm a girl!"
Source: Rebecca Hensley |
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In 1813, when Europe rose up against Napoleon, Eleonore joined Lützow's Black Riders under the male name August Renz. Her commanding officer, Lieutenant Otto Preuße later reported, that due to her tall stature and her foul language, nobody suspected that she was a woman.
On September 16, 1813, she was wounded while trying to save a wounded comrade. Only when a medic examined her, her true gender was discovered.
She died three weeks later after "unspeakable suffering". All officers of the Lützow Free Corps as well as members of the Hannover Rangers and the Russian Rangers attended her funeral and a Berlin Newspaper coined the honorary title "Potsdam's Joan of Arc."
It took her hometown 56 years to acknowledged a female war hero, but in 1869, the city of Potsdam honored her, erecting a monument consisting of a column crowned by a Prussian Eagle. It is located at Potsdam's Old Cemetery where 2,000 veterans of the War of Liberation are buried.
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 Born in Potsdam on March 11, 1785
raised in the Royal Military Orphanage |
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 In remembrance of the Maiden Heroin
1813
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Website pertaining to the memorial: [Web Link]
List if there are any visiting hours:
24/7
Entrance fees (if it applies): none
Type of memorial: Monument
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