6th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 95, GOTHA

OUR DECEASED AND THOSE WHO DIED IN THE 1914-1918 WORLD WAR
MISSING, EXPENSIVE COMRADES OF ALL ARMS FROM THE CITY AND
LAND GOTHA IS THIS MONUMENT TO THE
NINETY-FIVE
CONSECRATED IN MEMORY WITH GRATITUDE AND LOYALTY

The war memorial for the "6th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 95" was inaugurated in the rose garden between Friedenstein Castle and the museum building (Ducal Museum). It honored 3500 soldiers of the local regiment who died in the First World War It stylized them as steadfast heroes. The creator was the sculptor Hans Dammann (1867-1942) from Berlin The contract was awarded to the motif "A 95 in guard uniform on post."

In the summer of 1926, excavation work and the construction of the base for the monument began by master mason Karl Noth. The foundation stone was laid on Sunday, 31 October. In a copper time capsule, the lists of the fallen, commemorative signs, documents, orders and decorations were placed into the foundation stone. I do not know what happened to this capsule... anyone with any information?

From the 11th to the 13th of June 1927, the inauguration of the war memorial for the fallen of the First World War was celebrated in the city and province of Gotha. On Sunday, the day of the inauguration, all the churches in the city called for services. There were open-air concerts in the Orangery and on the upper main market. At 13:15 p.m., the statue was inaugurated on Monument Square with full military honors. The unveiling was carried out by the duke, who abdicated in 1918.

An Allied decision of 13 May 1946 regulated the liquidation of war memorials, except those in cemeteries. The Soviet occupying power left the decision to the Gothaer Anti-fascist bloc. That year, the seven-metre-high and 48-tonne monument was dismantled. The pedestal was still standing until the 1950s. For almost twenty years it was "only" the beautiful rose garden, until in 1967 a memorial was erected for the heroes of the anti-fascist resistance, which has since been removed.