Koloseus-Engel

Hermann Koloseus the younger was a soldier in the First World War. He was killed on 20 May 1918 in Nieppe, Belgium, at the age of just 20. He is buried in the war cemetery in nearby Illies, France.

Exactly when the memorial on the Engelberg was erected is not clearly established. In his 1926 writings about the Engelberg, Father Willibald Karfreitag mentions it only as already existing, without naming a construction year. A precise date therefore cannot be derived from this.

Why the memorial stands at this particular spot is likewise not firmly documented. The author Matthias Klotz suggests that the Koloseus family may have enjoyed hiking up to the Engelberg near Großheubach – which could explain the chosen location. This, however, remains speculation.

Altogether there are three places of remembrance for Hermann Koloseus: the memorial in Großheubach, a gravestone in the old-town cemetery in Aschaffenburg, and the war grave in France.

Hermann the younger was the youngest son of the Koloseus family, entrepreneurs from Aschaffenburg. The family ran the "Aschaffenburger Herdfabrik und Eisengießerei H. Koloseus" (Aschaffenburg stove factory and iron foundry H. Koloseus), founded in 1877 by Hermann Koloseus the elder (1852–1911).

The company at times employed around 300 people and, from 1898, also operated a branch works in Wels, Austria. It continued into the 1960s.