Club founded in 1969
The association, which was founded in 1969 and is part of the Vosges Club, is a place where Franco-German friendship is lived. The 62-year-old chairman knows that it is not just lip service. French and Germans are pulling together – even across generations: Frenchman Clément Morcel is just 13 years old. “I am interested in history and I like being in nature,” he says, summing up his motivation, putting down his shovel and pulling a small glass bottle out of the ground. “Another find,” says the boy happily, examining the bottle. “The bottle once belonged to a soldier.”
Club chairman Robert Lenhardt (second from right) with his colleagues Photo: Michael Werndorff
Dangerous finds
During work, soldiers’ equipment and ammunition, of which there is still plenty, are repeatedly found, warns club member Eric Mettler. After the end of the war, ammunition was blown up on site, but by no means all of it. For this reason, visitors should not leave the paths, as warning signs on the summit indicate. And the author of these lines immediately notices the deadly legacy: half a grenade, not fully detonated, with explosives sticking out from under branches. The dangerous find is immediately put aside. Sometimes, says Mettler, ammunition has to be rendered harmless on site. “Official authorities then take care of that.”
The friends spend their free time at a place in history that has become a bone of contention between the two nations like no other. What is special about Hartmannsweilerkopf is that both warring parties assumed that they were defending their own land, because Alsace belonged to France until 1871, but since the end of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 it has belonged to the German Empire. This also explains the severity of the fighting, in which – unlike in Verdun or on the Somme – mainly special troops, mostly mountain infantry, were involved.
A museum on the Hartmannsweilerkopf provides information about the war in the Vosges. Photo: Michael Werndorff
The mountain was initially of great strategic importance because the guns placed at a height of 1000 meters could be used to precisely fire on the Rhine plain, including the roads and railway line, thus dominating the area. The front line repeatedly shifted by a few hundred meters, one wave of attacks followed another, but by 1915 the Hartmannsweilerkopf was a secondary theater of war in the race to the west. Nevertheless, bitter fighting continued for the mountain peak – defending it was a matter of honor for both parties.
Fight against forgetting
Meanwhile, the club members are fighting against the decay of the countless buildings and against forgetting them: because we learn from the past for the future, emphasises Mettler. The Alsatian does not want to talk about German or French positions. “For us, it is only the mountain.” It is about people being able to get a good picture of what once happened here. And for this, active support is needed, he says, promoting the club. The chairman is pleased that young people are also getting involved. The number of club members is stable, “but we need the young people who want to get involved with us on a long-term basis and provide impetus,” emphasises Lenhardt, who sets a sporty pace with his men: the narrow forest path is passable again after a short time, and the French position is also cleared of undergrowth. But the friends of the Hartmannweilerkopf only have a short break. An estimated 1,000 buildings are still waiting for them, which are being eaten away by the ravages of time.
