As early as 1726, elector August gave the order to Field Marshall Jacob Henry count of Flemming for the preparation of a parade of the whole Saxon army in the early 1730s. After Flemmings death in 1728, General Christoph August Wackerbarth was named his successor. The brilliant engineer prepared the parade grounds in the vicinity of Riesa and ordered the building of wooden multistorey pavilions for the festivities and even an opera house in the fields. He coordinated the housing and provisioning of 27.000 soldiers, hundreds of aristocratic and noble guests and the whole court of Dresden according to their rank and station.

Apart from the military maneuvers and exercises in front of the guests and the monarch, baroque splendor was celebrated with dinners, balls, concerts, operas and a brilliant display of fireworks that lasted several hours. Even today the “Zeithainer Riesenstollen” – a gigantic stollen cake of two tons and a dimension of seven by three meters in square is remembered for its sheer size. With a knife created specifically for this purpose, about 24.000 slices of cake were cut.

The wooden constructions of the festivities were removed and the area returned to its former farmland status. All the glamour vanished, only the memories remained – as well as lots of horrendous bills. The anticipated alliance with Prussia never came to fruition. Only six stone obelisks remained. Four of them can still be seed in the vicinity of Zeithain: Silent witnesses of a glorious celebration.