Le Petit Donon is a 961-metre-high mountain in the French Vosges. At the start of the World War I, the mountain was the site of a brief but intense battle between the French and German armies. The battle reached its climax on 20 and 21 August 1914, ending in a German victory. Le Petit Donon remained in German hands until the end of the conflict.

Due to the summer heat and the resulting rapid decomposition of the bodies, the fallen soldiers were buried on-site. Wooden crosses were placed at the gravesites, marking the resting places of both German and French soldiers. In 1916, the German commander ordered that the wooden crosses be replaced with stone steles.

Gefreiter Ludwig Gebhardt was tasked with crafting the stone steles. These were made of sandstone and bore an index number, the number of soldiers buried, and sometimes the military unit. The German steles also featured an engraved cross, the symbol of the German Empire. At the summit of the mountain, a monument was erected bearing Gebhardt's name.

In total, 180 steles were created, with 112 unique numbers. Steles located close to each other shared the same number, supplemented with a suffix. After the war, the remains of the bodies were reburied in other cemeteries, but the steles were left behind on the mountain. Today, the locations of 41 steles are known. Many have disappeared over time due to forestry activities or have been buried under sand during storms.