The Steigerkopf, also
colloquially
Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conversa ...
called the Schänzel, near
Edenkoben
Edenkoben () is a municipality in the Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It lies approximately halfway between Landau and Neustadt an der Weinstraße. Edenkoben is one of the towns situated along the German Wine R ...
in the county of
Südliche Weinstraße in the German state of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
, is a mountain, ,
in the
Palatine Forest. At the summit, which lies on the territory of
Gommersheim, is the
Schänzel tower.
Location
The Steigerkopf lies in the eastern part of the Palatine Forest in the
eponymous nature park. Its summit rises about 7 kilometres west-northwest of the small town of
Edenkoben
Edenkoben () is a municipality in the Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It lies approximately halfway between Landau and Neustadt an der Weinstraße. Edenkoben is one of the towns situated along the German Wine R ...
on the western rim of a group of mountains that are all over 600 m; 4 kilometres to the northeast is the highest peak in the Palatine Forest, the
Kalmit (672.6 m). The summit and those parts of the mountain in the northeast belong to the forest parish of
Gommersheim,
which form an
exclave of this municipality around 17 km to the west of Gommersheim itself. Geologically the Steigerkopf is a northwestern outlier of the 661.8 m high
Kesselberg, whose top is 2 km (
as the crow flies
__NOTOC__
The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver ...
) away. The
Modenbach, a right tributary of
Speyerbach
The Speyerbach is a left tributary of the Rhine in the Palatinate part of Rhineland-Palatinate. In Speyer, the river split into ''Gießhübelbach'' and ''Woogbach''. The Woogbach changes its name to ''Nonnenbach'', then flows into Gießhübe ...
, rises on the southwestern flank of the mountain on which the Gommersheim Forest lies.
History
Schänzel
Colloquially the Steigerkopf has also been referred to as the ''Schänzel'' ("little rampart") since about 4,500
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
n soldiers built a
sconce there in summer 1794. The earthworks were built to delay the 7,000
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
ary troops who had been dispatched to conquer the
German territories west of the Rhine. The French were victorious, however, following the decisive and bloody
Battle of Trippstadt
The Battle of Trippstadt was a relatively-minor French military action in 1794 during the War of the First Coalition. The clash between French Republican forces and the armies of Prussia and Habsburg Austria was fought over several days (1 ...
on 12 and 13 Jul 1794, after a local hunter from the nearby village of
Dernbach had guided them into the rear of the Prussian position on the second day.
The Prussian commander, General (1727–1794), was taken prisoner after being severely wounded and died the same day.
Schänzel tower
In 1874, the
Schänzel Tower (''Schänzelturm'') was built at the summit of the Steigerkopf in memory of the defeated Prussians in recognition of German victory in the 1871
Franco-Prussian War.
It is an octagonal
observation tower
An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, an ...
, 13 metres high and made of hewn
bunter sandstone
The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...
. The viewing platform on top of the tower is protected by railings.
The observation tower was dedicated in 1894, a hundred years after the 1794 battle, by the Schänzelturm Society of Edenkoben as follows:
Gallery
File:Schaenzelturm.JPG, The ''Schänzelturm'' in November 2007
File:2012 Pfälzerwald 013 Ritterstein Zur Schanze III.jpg, Ritterstein No. 64a: ''Zur Schanze III''
File:2012 Pfälzerwald 011 Gedenkstein Inf Reg v. Schladen 25 06 1794.jpg, Monument to the von Schladen Infantry Regiment, 25 June 1794
References
Further reading
* {{citation , author=Walter Eitelmann , title=Rittersteine im Pfälzerwald , edition=4th. revised and expanded, publisher=Pfälzerwald-Verein , location=Neustadt/Weinstr. , year=1998 , ISBN=3-00-003544-3 , ref=none
Mountains and hills of Rhineland-Palatinate
Mountains and hills of the Palatinate Forest
Mountains under 1000 metres
Südliche Weinstraße