Two hundred years ago, the greatest battle of the Napoleonic era, known as the Battle of the Nations, took place near Leipzig in Saxony. There are several memorials in the city relating to the participation of Poles in this battle.

Battle of the Nations in Leipzig
Two hundred years ago, the greatest battle of the Napoleonic era took place at Leipzig in Saxony. It saw the army of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte on one side and the allied forces of the Sixth Anti-French Coalition (comprising Austria, Prussia, Russia, Great Britain and Sweden) on the other. More than half a million soldiers took part in the four days of bloody fighting, and it went down in history as the Battle of Nations. In Polish historical memory, the Battle of the Nations is primarily associated with the death of Prince Józef Poniatowski, Minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw, commander of the VIII Corps of the Imperial Army. On the last day of the battle that decided the fate of Napoleon and Europe (19 October 1813), the wounded prince, appointed Marshal of France on the battlefield, drowned while trying to cross the White Elster River. Napoleon's defeat in the 1813 campaign also sealed the fall of the Duchy of Warsaw.

Leipzig's memorial stones to the Battle of the Nations
For Poles interested in the history of the Napoleonic era, the most famous place in Leipzig is the square at the junction of Elsterstrasse and Carl-Maria-von-Weber-Strasse. There is an obelisk dedicated to the memory of Prince Jozef Poniatowski, killed on 19 October 1813 in the banks of the White Elster as a result of a rifle bullet shot in the breast. The first monument was erected as early as 1813, near the site where the prince's corpse was retrieved; in later years the monument was altered and moved. The present one is surrounded by the compact buildings of the city, and this section of the Elster, tragic for the Poles, flows underground.

However, there are several other sites in Leipzig related to the Poles' participation in the battle, marked with symbolic stones. They are all part of a group of fifty commemorative stones set up in the Leipzig area since the early 1860s by the Battle of the Nations enthusiast Dr Guido Theodor Apel (1811-1867). After careful research, carried out in conjunction with a number of historians, he erected, at his own expense, 44 stones known after his death as Apelsteine ("Apel stones"); others were funded by his successors.

The Leipzig memorial stones indicate the most important battle positions of both Napoleonic corps and the Sixth Anti-French Coalition, as well as the fields of decisive clashes. They were made of granite and sandstone in the form of cuboidal stones about 120 cm high. The front of each obelisk indicates the place and date of the battle fought and indicates in which direction the formation was facing the enemy. On the reverse side is the number of the tactical compound, the name of the commander and the numerical status of the subordinate soldiers. The "Napoleonic" stones are distinguished by finials in the shape of an imperial hat, the letter "N" and an odd number of their own, while the stones of the troops of the Sixth Coalition are distinguished by a spike with the letter "V" (from German Verbündete - allies) and an even number. The tops of all the stones bear the signs of the world directions - "O" (east), "N" (north), "W" (west) and "S" (south).

Leipzig memorial stones to Poles at the Battle of the Nations
Stone No. 21 (Apelstein No. 21)
In the northern part of Leipzig, at the junction of Delitzscher Landstrasse and Seehausener Strasse, is the "Polish" Apelstein No. 21. The inscription on the home page reads: "Schlacht / bei / MÖCKERN / am / 16 October / 1813", above is the letter "N" (Napoleonic tactical association) and on the finial is another "N" . At the top of the reverse the letter "S", below again the letter "N" (Napoleonic formation) and the inscriptions: "General DOM / BROWSKI / General SOUHAM / General DELMANS / VIII corps. / ZUS. 12 000 M". On a small marble plaque at the foot of the stone, additional information was placed in 2001, which in Polish translation reads: "In commemoration of the Battle of the Nations on 16 October 1813 - a Polish division supported by two French divisions formed the extreme right wing of Napoleon's defence in the north of Leipzig...".

Indeed, Appelstein No. 21 indicates the battle position of General Jan Henryk Dabrowski's division, formally part of the Polish VIII Army Corps under Prince Józef Poniatowski (hence the inscription "VIII corps"). It fought battles on 16 October 1813 for the then village of Möckern. In the evening it was supported by elements of two divisions (8th General Joseph Souham and 9th General Antoine G. Delmas) of Marshal Michael Ney's III Army Corps. Hence their names, and the total number of soldiers (12,000) fighting to hold the village. Two hundred years ago, the clashes took place in a rural, wooded, marshy area; today, a compact metropolitan building stands here. It is noteworthy that the fragment of the inscription on the plaque ("divisions of the extreme right wing") presents the Germans' view of the battle from "their own side"; the division actually formed the extreme left wing of Napoleon's army.

Stone No. 37 (Apelstein No. 37)
The second defensive position of General Dabrowski's division is indicated by Apelstein No. 37 with inscriptions. The stone was placed on the tightly built-up Nordplatz. In 1813, this area was the north-western edge of Leipzig with remnants of the old defensive walls, adjoining tenement houses, craftsmen's businesses and suburban residences. After the order to withdraw the division from under Möckern, the general was given the task of defending, among other things, the banks of the Partha River and the gates in the fortifications (Ranstädter Tor, Rosentaltor and Hallische Tor) and the villages in the foreground (Gohlis and Pfaffendorf). The division on 18 October 1813 first defended the entrusted positions on its own, then was reinforced by four battalions of the Young Guard and together held them for only a night and a few hours the following day. Due to the general collapse of Leipzig's defensive line, General Dabrowski was ordered to withdraw from the city on 19 October. The aforementioned villages, walls and city gates are long gone, and have been replaced by Gohliser Strasse and Pfaffendorfer Strasse, among others. Almost all of them lead to the Nordplatz or run close to it, reminding us of the existence of villages and buildings from long ago.

Stones Nos. 11 and 33 (Apelstein Nos. 11 and 33)
In the south of Leipzig, where the main body of the forces of the VIII Corps (Polish) of the Imperial Army fought, Dr Apel erected two "Polish" stones with the numbers "11" and "33" (then in the far suburbs). No. 11 is located at the present Rilke Strasse 20b, signalling the starting positions of the corps before the battle on 16 October 1813 in the area of the village of Markkleberg-Wachau.

Tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides took part in the struggles there. The fierce fighting involved all Polish infantry and artillery, which is not to say that Polish cavalry did not fight alongside them. On the contrary, six regiments of Polish cavalry forming the IV Cavalry Corps repeatedly charged at the enemy at Wachau. The participation in the battle of this formation was veiled by an inscription carved on another stone numbered '49'. This stone is only a few hundred metres from Apelstein No. 11, standing on the edge of the small Dösener Strasse. The inscription on the reverse side with the union number and the name of the commander formally corresponds. - At the time, it was commanded by French General François Étienne Kellermann. In reality, however, the IV Cavalry Corps consisted exclusively of Poles and numbered 3,000 cavalrymen commanded by Maj-Generals: Michał Sokolnicki, Antoni Sulkowski and Jan Umiński. Despite this, Dr Apel did not immortalise their names next to the Marshal as he did on stone No. 21, where the French divisionists were placed next to General Jan H. Dąbrowski. Consequently, Apelstein No. 49 is not associated with the armed efforts of the cavalrymen of the Duchy of Warsaw, but with some other Napoleonic formation.

Stone No. 33 (Apelstein No. 33)
During the battle, on 17 October 1813, due to the need to shorten Leipzig's defensive lines, Prince Jozef Poniatowski was ordered to withdraw the VIII Corps closer to the city centre, in the area of the village of Dölitz-Lossing-Connewitz. Almost flush with his left wing, Marshal Pierre Augereau's IX Army Corps took up position. During the fighting, both corps were reinforced by the 3rd and 4th Divisions of the Young Guard of Marshal Nicolas Oudinot. Therefore, on the original stone with the number '33', erected on the site of an advanced defensive position in what was then Dölitz (now Goethepark), Dr Apel ordered the numbers of all these compounds to be forged together with the names of their commanders.

The troops of the VIII Corps bled the most in the battles for Torhaus Dölitz in the southern suburbs of Leipzig; to commemorate this fact, a commemorative bilingual plaque appeared on the inner wall of the gate years ago. Remarkably, however, there is a second Apelstein No. 33 about 1 km north of Torhaus Dölitz, on Rembrandtplatz, which has been duplicated because the clash for Dölitz-Lossing-Connewitz is considered by most historians to be one of the bloodiest and fought over the most extensive terrain during the Battle of the Nations.

It is worth remembering that there are still many sites related to the battle, including unmarked ones, known mainly to history enthusiasts.