Ansgar column
The Ansgar column is a bronze monument in Bremen - Mitte , on the Ansgarikirchhof on Obernstrasse . It was set up in 1965 and is included in the list of monuments and statues of the city of Bremen .
The monuments
Ansgar memorial from 1865
The first Ansgar monument "Ansgar and the Redeemed Heide" was donated by the Artists' Association in Bremen on the 1000th anniversary of Archbishop Ansgar's death and made from marble in 1865 based on a design by the Bremen sculptor Carl Steinhäuser (1813–1879). An inscription on the sandstone plinth read: “Sanctus Ansgarius. Pugil fortis in acie gentes Deo sanctificans in viam coelicam duxit. Ex hymno antiquo ”. ('The strong fighter who leads the Gentiles to God in battle has set them on the way to heaven.')
This monument was destroyed in 1944 by the collapsing tower of Ansgarii Church .
Ansgar column from 1965
The second monument, the Ansgar column, was erected in 1965 in honor of the 1100th anniversary of the death of St. Ansgar and in memory of the St. Ansgarii Church, which was destroyed in 1944, in front of the Bremen industrial building based on a design by the Cologne sculptor Kurt-Wolf von Borries ( 1928–1985) made of bronze and erected. On a pillar, which ends with a cross, lies the Bible and above it the hull of a ship: Bible, ship and cross, the symbols of Ansgar's mission. At the same time, the memorial commemorates the loss of the church.
meaning
The column reminds of Ansgar and the St. Ansgarii Church:
Ansgar
Ansgar von Bremen (801–865) was after 831 Archbishop of Hamburg and Bremen and, as a papal legate, mission bishop for Scandinavia ("Apostle of the North"). Ansgar moved his headquarters to Bremen in 848/849. He was the patron saint of the historical dioceses of Bremen and Hamburg and was the patron saint of travelers, symbolized by the ship in the monument.
The St. Ansgarii Church
The St. Ansgarii Church in Bremen , which dates from the 13th century, was named after Ansgar. For centuries, St. Ansgarii was the center of one of the four parishes or districts of Bremen , which had been the town council since 1230 and one of the four Bremen mayors from 1398 to 1849 . The Gothic church with its 118 meter high tower was an essential element of the city skyline . It was badly damaged in World War II in 1943 , the tower collapsed into the nave in 1944 and the remains were torn down in the 1950s.
A plate on the southeast corner of the square indicates the location of the spire, which u. a. Carl Friedrich Gauß used it as a survey point.
literature
- David Fraesdorff: Ansgar. Apostle of the North (= Topos Pocket Books , Volume 633). Topos Plus, Kevelaer 2009, ISBN 978-3-8367-0633-9 .
- Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 53 ° 4 ′ 43.7 ″ N , 8 ° 48 ′ 11 ″ E