Gräber gefallener Freiheitskämpfer

Friedrich painted this in 1812, with French troops occupying much of Germany and Napoleon about to march on Russia. It looks like a quiet study of old tombs in a rocky gorge, but almost nothing here is neutral. The graves belong to ancient German heroes, and one carries a reference to Arminius, the chieftain who wiped out three Roman legions in the year 9. In Friedrich's day that ancient defeat of Rome was read as a mirror for the fight against France. Look at the mouth of the cave and you find two small soldiers in French-style helmets, strayed among the enemy dead. Friedrich had climbed for this the summer before, sketching a real cave on the Hartenberg in the Harz mountains.