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Origin and history

The statue of General Rapp in Colmar is a major work by sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, made between 1854 and 1856. Commanded at the age of 20 by Colonel Jean Jules Marnier, she represented Jean Rapp (1771–1821), a general of the Empire born in Colmar. Originally exhibited in the Champs Elysées during the Universal Exhibition of 1855, it was inaugurated on August 31, 1856 in Rapp Square. This bronze statue, 3.50 metres high, rests on a 4.20 metre granite base, decorated with the names of striking battles (Iena, Austerlitz, Moskova) and a famous quote from Rapp: "My word is sacred", pronounced during the siege of Dantzig in 1813.

During the German annexation of Alsace in 1872, the monument barely escaped destruction. In 1940, under the occupation, the statue was overthrown and restored in 1948 by Édouard Stenzel. It was reinaugurated on 2 February 1948 in the presence of Edmond Michelet (Minister of Army) and General de Lattre de Tassigny. Ranked a historic monument on August 6, 1945, this work marks Bartholdi's first public achievement, sunk by the Charnod foundry. The original base was designed by architect Mathias Xavier Hatz, while a moulding of the bust damaged in 1940 is preserved at the Bartholdi Museum.

A genealogical detail links Bartholdi and Rapp: General Edighoffen (1759–13), uncle of both men, was a common ancestor. Bartholdi made the model of the statue in his mother's Parisian house, rue Vavin, where he lived almost forty years. The statue symbolizes both the tribute to a child of Colmar and the early talent of his sculptor, before his later achievements as the Statue of Liberty.

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