Memorial Amédée Hesse

This memorial commemorates Amédée Hesse, who was executed by the Germans in 15 October 1915.

This memorial commemorates Amédée Hesse, who was executed by the Germans on 15 October 1915.

Pierre Amédée Hesse was born on July 28, 1870 in Metz. He emigrated to Belgium, where he obtained a dentist's degree at the University of Liège.
Amédée Hesse was a member of "Les Amateurs Cyclistes Verviétois" and can be found in a cycling race from 1894 in Ensival, among other things.
On March 6, 1912, a report appeared that Amédée Hesse had been appointed "Officier d'Académie de France" by the French government. In August 1912, the Vélo-Club-Spadois organized the start of the third stage of the Tour of Belgium (Spa-Namur) and a month later, Hesse is listed as the club's president.

Shortly after the German invasion in 1914, Amédée Hesse became an intelligence agent for the French intelligence service in the network "Renier" that spied on German train movements between Verviers and Liège. Spa was an important junction of a railway line where the Germans had Russian prisoners of war carry out improvements such as tunnels and bridges. Hesse passed on messages about those constructions.

On August 26, 1915, at 10.30 pm, three men from the German military police rang the doorbell at 15 Avenue du Marteau (now Avenue Reine Astrid). Hesse opened the door himself and was questioned at home until 2 a.m., during which the house was searched, but nothing was found. He was then taken away without being able to say goodbye to his wife and children and transferred to Saint Léonard prison in Liège. Hesse was sentenced to death on 15 October for "treason" by the German Feldgericht of Liège. The Germans transferred him on October 17 at 11 p.m. to La Charteuse in Liège where he was shot at 5 a.m. on October 18, 1915.

On 2 August 1919, his remains were exhumed and transferred to Spa, where he received a solemn funeral on 5 August. On July 25, 1920, the association "La Warfaazienne" inaugurated a monument in memory of their founding president on Lake Warfaaz against the hill. In 1940 the Germans destroyed the monument, but thanks to the architect Ivan Dethier who saved the statue of the monument, the monument was rebuilt in 1946. The monument was restored in 2008 to mark the centenary of the fishermen's association. In the 1920s, the Spa town council renamed the road connecting Spa to the Lake of Warfaaz "Avenue Amédée Hesse".

Info: renners-in-de-grote-oorlog.fandom.com/nl/wiki/Amédée_Hesse

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries + TracesOfWar
• Photos: Joost Verheijden