At the Monument to the Battle of the Nations

Location Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. Designer Bruno Schmitz Material Granite-faced concrete. Length 80 metres (260 ft) Width 70 metres (230 ft) Height 91 metres (299 ft). Beginning date 1898-10-18. Opening date 1913-10-18. Dedicated to Battle of Leipzig. Coordinates 51°18′44″N 12°24′47″E

The Battle of the Nations was fought during 16-19 October, 1813 and the commemoration of such an important battle in Leipzig kept me busy during this weekend. Yesterday, the Reenactment of the Battle was fantastic and today I went to the GIGANTIC monument that celebrates the victory of the allied nations against Napoleon.

What is the importance of this building?

Architecturally; the structure is amazing. It is 91 meters tall and its base is 124 metres (407 ft) large and 124 metres (407 ft) wide.
Aesthetically; the sculptures of the four legendary historic qualities ascribed to the German people: bravery, faith, sacrifice and fertility are simply exquisite if understood in the context in which they were made.¹ It was bravery for defending what is yours; faith (courage) to fight against the vicissitudes; sacrifice (fighting until the last moment in order to protect Life); and fertility (to overcome the mass murder caused by this war). IThe statues of the monument were sculpted by Christian Behrens and his apprentice Franz Metzner with a fantastic technique.
Historically; it commemorates the establishment of a German community that united different nations into a common goal.¹

For further images; I invite you to check this Flickr album with the snapshots I took.

Reenacting The Battle of the Nations 16-19 October, 1813 (capitalisthistory.wordpress.com)

¹Koshar, Rudy. (2000) From monuments to traces: artifacts of German memory, 1870-1990. University of California Press. p.44

Reenacting The Battle of the Nations 16-19 October, 1813

Today I had the pleasure of attending (living) the reenactment of The Battle of the Nations (also known as The Battle of Leipzig) that took place half mile south of Leipzig on 16-19 October, 1813. The battle was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon’s army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine. The battle involved over 600,000 soldiers, making it the largest battle in Europe prior to World War I.¹

This allied victory over Napoleon at Leipzig marked the first significant cooperation among European nations against a common foe. “Napoleon limped back toward Paris. Behind him he left 60,000 dead, wounded, or captured French soldiers. The Allies had lost a similar number, but they could find replacements far more quickly and easily than Napoleon. Other countries, including the Netherlands and Bavaria–which Napoleon had added to his confederation by conquest–now abandoned him and joined the Allies. On December 21, the Allies invaded France and, following their victory at Paris on March 30, 1814, forced Napoleon into exile on Elba.”²

Indeed, it was the cooperation of all the region’s powers that Leipzig led to the fall of Paris and the abdication of Napoleon. The decisiveness of this battle had a global impact that redefined the course of history.

I invite you to see all the pictures I took of this fantastic battle:

Check dozens of more pictures in my Flickr album

¹ Battle of Leipzig. Wikipedia.

² Vía http://www.historyplace.com

Friday Book Recommendation

Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure
Need a short monograph on Austrian business cycle theory? This is the one to get.Murray Rothbard was the master of reducing complicated theories to their very essence while retaining theoretical rigor, and this essay is a case in point. It was written in 1969 and published in the form of a tiny book that achieved a huge circulation. It has not been in print since that time, but it is now back in this new release.

Libyan Strongman Muammar Gaddafi Falls

Free Libya - Saturday Is Always A Day Of Prote... — Image by infomatique via Flickr

“Dictatorship nations are outlaws. Any free nation had the right to invade Nazi Germany and, today, has the right to invade Soviet Russia, Cuba or any other slave pen. Whether a free nation chooses to do so or not is a matter of its own self-interest, not of respect for the non-existent “rights” of gang rulers. It is not a free nation’s duty to liberate other nations at the price of self-sacrifice, but a free nation has the right to do it, when and if it so chooses.

This right, however, is conditional. Just as the suppression of crimes does not give a policeman the right to engage in criminal activities, so the invasion and destruction of a dictratorship does not give the invader the right to establish another variant of a slave society in the conquered country.” Ayn Rand. The Virtue of Selfishness, 104

Gaddafi came into power as an assassin and terrorist. He started out murdering, continued murdering and had been going out murdering until today. His death is no panacea but it is surely a victory for the Libyan people and their 2011 Revolution.

Starting in February 15th, 2011 a series of peaceful protests asked for change in the country and they were met with military force by the Gaddafi regime. Thousands were hurt and killed. Gaddafi proclaimed his despotic discourse that same night and said that the only way he was going to leave Libya was going to be in a cuffing. Indeed, that’s how he will leave the history of the country.

The fight for Libyans has not finished; loyalists around the Algerian and Nigerian borders are still present and the opposition continues.

I celebrate the capture of this dictator and our attention needs to be focused now in the continues shipping of supplies of medicine, fuel and food were for Libya’s urban centres. As the philosopher Ayn Rand mentioned in the quote with which I begun this post; it is necessary as well, that we keep a close attention to the outcome of this Libyan revolution in order to avoid that another variant of a slave society in the conquered country with national or international control.

Againts Greed and Crony Capitalism

“This economic system that they call Capitalism has no moral or ethical core to it.” Michael Moore

This time, the American Sensationalist Director Michael Moore was right. He explained in one sentence what thousands of men are right now protesting against in the streets and we support them. Why?

Capitalism is a social system that is based upon the foundations of individual freedom, respect for individual rights and property rights, and reason as man’s only mean to achieve their goals. However, the current economic, political and economic system in which large parts of the world are now living is not really a Capitalist economy.

The correct name for this system is “crony capitalism” and its foundations are privileges, irrational greed, expropriation, and violation of human rights (individual rights and the rights to property). It is this system that we need to fight against and fight a moral revolution against to. In the following video, you’ll hear a wonderful explanation of what that Irrational Greed is all about. The second video, is very interesting and portrays an interesting image of how TNCs (Transnational Corporations) have established Billion Worth Business all over the world without caring for what should matter most to them: Their Consumers.

I hope you enjoy them and understand that we are together in this fight,