signs of ancient worship
“It’s difficult for us to understand today,” explains the historian and director of the Monument to the Battle of the Nations Völkerschlacht Museum in Leipzig, dr Steffen Poser, especially since Napoleon “God knows he demanded a lot of physical and mental things from his people”. “And yet there were thousands who still admired him greatly following his fall and mourned this time and who just said out of old reverence: somehow we want to send the man a sign that there are still people who don’t cheer, that he’s sitting on this rat island now.”
Uniform braid carpet
And that’s what eventually happens. Around 1815/16, Napoleon’s old comrades-in-arms made a carpet out of military braid, such as those used to decorate the trumpeter uniforms of the Napoleonic army from 1812 onwards. The lapels bearing Napoleon’s “N” monogram and the imperial eagle had been removed from all French uniforms following the end of his reign. Napoleon’s soldiers sewed more than 100 yards of this severed border neatly – alternating an “N” and an eagle – onto a large piece of burlap. In 1815, 1816 or a few years later, they sent the two and a half square meter carpet made in this way to St. Helena on a British mail boat.
Napoleon-“Residence” Longwood House
The captive Napoleon “resides” at that time on the Atlantic island in the former official residence of the British governor in Longwood House, where he is allowed to maintain a greatly reduced household. Despite his privileged status as a prisoner, living conditions for the former French emperor are anything but easygoing. In addition to the few faithful who are allowed to accompany Napoleon to the island, numerous descendants of former Portuguese, Dutch and British ship rats, who have multiplied splendidly on St. Helena since the 16th century, are among the permanent residents and guests in Napoleon’s “residence “.
Carpet reaches St. Helena by mail
In addition, Napoleon has a British officer as a guard in Longwood House, who, according to the museum director Poser, makes no secret of the fact that he can’t stand the man: “It is said, for example, that he received mail addressed to the Emperor of the French , basically not allowed to pass, but only mail addressed at most to General Bonaparte.” Apparently Napoleon’s old comrades-in-arms didn’t send their carpet to the “Emperor of the French”, but possibly just to Napoleon. In any case, her reminiscence of the great times reached her idol on the island in the South Atlantic intact. “It is not known whether Napoleon really used the carpet as such, but the sentimental gesture must have touched him,” Poser suspects.
Death and late transfer of Napoleon
However, Napoleon might not enjoy the proof of the loyalty of his old comrades-in-arms for too long. On May 5, 1821, at the age of 51, he died of stomach cancer on St. Helena. Since the English did not allow the former Emperor of the French to be taken to France for fear of a revival of the Napoleon cult, he was initially buried on the Atlantic island. The then British governor of St. Helena took the carpet made of trumpeter braids as a souvenir. It was not until 1840 that the English allowed Napoleon’s body to be transferred to France. The Prince of Joinville, the son of the French “Citizen King” Louis-Philippe (1773-1850), is in charge of the exhumation and transfer of his bones. On this occasion, the prince gets the carpet as a gift from the governor.
From St. Helena via France to Leipzig
In December 1840, following his transfer, Napoleon was buried in a huge sacophage in the Les Invalides in Paris. This creates a permanent place for the growing cult surrounding his person. Napoleon’s carpet from St. Helena, on the other hand, subsequently changed hands several times. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was part of the collection of historian and military man Henri Lahouque, a great expert on Napoleonic history, who also had Longwood House on St. Helena restored. Other owners will follow. In 2021 it finally turns out that the Foundation of the Monument to the Battle of the Nations can acquire this extraordinary example of Napoleon worship.
Piece of Napoleon worship
After extensive restoration work, Napoleon’s carpet from St. Helena is now a further highlight of the permanent exhibition in the Forum 1813 – Museum of the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig. Museum director Poser is pleased that the historical piece with its special aura can be shown to a large group of visitors here: “Anyone who deals with history is already very touched by the performance, Napoleon walked over it, and secondly – that’s , I think, more importantly – it’s also a part of this Napoleon admiration, which was very intense, especially following his death, and has shot up to this day.”
The Monument to the Battle of the Nations and the Museum of the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig remind us that this admiration for Napoleon, despite all the understandable fascination for the historical figure of Napoleon, must always be critically questioned. They commemorate the greatest and bloodiest of all Napoleonic battles, which cost the lives of more than 100,000 soldiers from all over Europe in October 1813.
