Monument Schleiter

Inaugurated on September 27, 1936, under a gloomy drizzle, the monument dedicated to Victor Schleiter stands in a small square on avenue Garibaldi, at the junction of the two towns, the renovated old Verdun on the left, the new extension on the right. Both bear the imprint of the builder-mayor. Although Verdun's reconstruction began with Edmond Robin, the town's first post-war mayor from 1919 to 1924, Victor Schleiter had been his predecessor's invaluable and dynamic first deputy since the election of the first municipal team in 1919. This longevity in the city's affairs during the twenties permanently attached Victor Schleiter to the reconstruction of Verdun.

On the left, the people of the ruins against a wall riddled with shrapnel holes. Elderly men, women and children with serious faces recall Victor Schleiter's attachment to the many social works he presided over or administered: Familles Nombreuses, Mutuelles et Assurances Sociales, Prévoyance Sociale, as well as his responsibilities in the Chamber of Deputies as vice-chairman of the Commission du Travail and the Commission des Assurances et de la Prévoyance Sociale.

On the right-hand side of the monument, the builder-mayor is celebrated by the men, construction workers, against a backdrop of smooth, squared stone blocks.