Idstedt lion

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The Idstedt lion in Flensburg.
The Idstedt lion (Danish Istedløven), a late classical monument in Flensburg. The inscription on the plaque reads: "ISTED / DEN 25. JULI 1850 / REJST 1862/2011 rebuilt as a sign of friendship and trust between Danes and Germans"

The Idstedt lion ( Danish Istedløven ) is a late Classicist monument in Flensburg. The Danish sculptor Herman Wilhelm Bissen created it in 1862 to commemorate the victory of the Danish troops over the rebellious Schleswig-Holsteiners in the Battle of Idstedt (1850). After the Peace of Vienna (1864) the sculpture was brought to Berlin. In 1945 she came to Copenhagen . It returned to its original location in Flensburg in 2011 and was unveiled on September 10, 2011. A zinc copy from 1874 is on the Wannsee in Berlin.

overview

Five elements are decisive for understanding the figure and its historical-political journey:

The original

Fall of the Idstedt lion, the tail lying next to the base (1864)

In the Schleswig-Holstein uprising , the battle of Idstedt took place in 1850 . The Danish victory in this war meant that the Duchy of Schleswig and thus also the city of Flensburg remained linked to the Kingdom of Denmark in personal union. To commemorate this triumph, the Danish sculptor Herman Wilhelm Bissen created a bronze sculpture, which, based on the Danish coat of arms, depicts a huge lion with a triumphantly raised head on a stone base. The Danish national coat of arms shows three crowned lions (the coat of arms of Schleswig-Holstein and the city coat of arms of Flensburg also contain two Schleswig lions as a determining factor). To create an anatomically perfect sculpture, Bissen traveled to Paris and carried out intensive studies on a lion that was kept in the Jardin des Plantes . In the German Empire the lion was known as the "tree frog".

In 1860, Bissen was able to complete a first plaster model. The bronze casting was completed in June 1862. The base for the lion was given four reliefs with the profiles of Generals Christopher von Krogh and Friderich Adolph Schleppegrell as well as Colonels Hans Helgesen and Frederik Læssøe. In order to create a solid foundation for the monument, 200 German coffins and tombs were destroyed. The skeletons came into a pit. The 7.20 meters (base: 3.80 m; bronze statue: 3.40 m) high victory monument was unveiled on July 25, 1862, the 12th anniversary of the Battle of Idstedt, in the old cemetery in Flensburg, where the lion after Looked south. The Danebrog was blowing in front of him . Votive plaques for the fallen Danish officers and soldiers were erected on the Kämpehoi, the fighting hill behind the memorial . The Danish sculptor Hans Klewing smashed the votive tablets for the fallen Schleswig-Holsteiners, including those for Colonel Julius Saint-Paul , who died in June 1849 outside Fredericia. The granite column for the Battle of construction fell during the Schleswig-Holstein army 4 feet was buried deep. It was excavated on February 8, 1864, a week after the Second German-Danish War began.

The German-minded Schleswig-Holsteiners viewed the statue as a disgrace, also because the statue was erected on the graves of Schleswig-Holstein fallen soldiers. Not a single Dane was there. Christian IX had declined to take part in the unveiling because he felt the monument as a break with the culture of the entire Danish state . The symbolism of the lion was clearly part of the program of the incorporation of Schleswig into a Danish nation-state, which the Danish national liberals had pursued since 1852 . On February 28, 1864, some German-minded Flensburg residents tried to overthrow the monument. The bronze sculpture was damaged and the tail was broken off; There is no further evidence for drawings that were published in the Deutsche Illustrirten Zeitung at the time and show that the monument was largely destroyed.

From Flensburg to Berlin

Original in Berlin (1942)

In the German-Danish War , in which Prussia and Austria supported the Schleswig-Holsteiners, the German side won at the fortress Düppeler Schanzen on April 18, 1864 . The general of the cavalry, Prince Friedrich Karl Nikolaus von Prussia , stormed the fortress after a Spandau pioneer, Carl Klinke , had blown a breach in Schanze II with a sack of powder. Klinke, who had sacrificed himself in the process, is supposed to use the legendary sentence Ick bin Klinke, ick open the gate! have exclaimed. After renewed peace negotiations failed, especially over the question of the future southern border of the Danish monarchy, the Prussian troops finally crossed over to Alsen on June 29th . Shortly afterwards Denmark asked for an armistice and had to accept a far more northerly borderline in the Peace of Prague: Almost the entire Duchy of Schleswig fell under Prussian and Austrian administration. After the Second German War of Unification , Schleswig formed the new province of Schleswig-Holstein in the Kingdom of Prussia in 1867 with the Duchy of Holstein .

Any attempt to overthrow the now heavily damaged lion completely from its pedestal was now prevented by the German commanders. At the instigation of Prime Minister Bismarck , the monument was dismantled, and some fragments were first stored in the city's government courtyard. In 1867 the bronze statue was transported to Berlin together with the four base reliefs at the instigation of Field Marshal Friedrich Graf von Wrangel .

On the Danish side, the view of the Idstedt lion changed considerably as a result of the transfer to Berlin. While it was initially quite controversial as a victory monument and when it was erected it was more the project of a limited national liberal circle, one felt offended by the removal of the lion. It was seen as the spoils of war and for many Danes, like no other monument or building, symbolized the loss of the southern parts of the country, which up to 1864 had made up two fifths of the area and which were home to almost half of the population of the Danish monarchy. Numerous miniatures were made of the lion, which were found in many nationally conscious households.

The restored lion was first set up on February 9, 1868 in the courtyard of the Berlin armory . When the armory was being rebuilt, the lion, dismantled again, traveled on to Lichterfelde near Berlin. There it was set up in April 1878 in the courtyard of the Prussian main cadet institute .

From Berlin to Copenhagen

Original in Copenhagen (2007)

After the end of the Second World War , the Berlin correspondent for the Politiken newspaper Henrik V. Ringsted campaigned for the US military authorities, in whose sector Lichterfelde was located, to transfer the lion monument, which remained undamaged during the war, to Denmark. The Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in Europe and later President Dwight D. Eisenhower arranged for the transport to be carried out to Copenhagen in autumn 1945, after he had previously asked the Danish government for an opinion. On October 20, King Christian X officially received the lion and expressed the hope that the memorial to commemorate the victims of the war from 1848 to 1850 and the time thereafter would one day be back in Flensburg, if that is there would be desired.

Thus the installation of the lion in Copenhagen was considered a makeshift. There the Idstedt lion had a place for many years between historical war equipment in the back yard of the Royal Danish Armory Museum, where it was not visible from outside the museum grounds. After the inauguration of the extension to the nearby Danish Royal Library in 2001, the courtyard was removed. From this point on, the lion stood alone on the wide and rather bare place that runs through a main road and which is open to the water on the south side. (Location: 55 ° 40 ′ 25 ″  N , 12 ° 34 ′ 51 ″  E ) But even this renewal did not stop the discussion about returning the monument to Flensburg . In Fredericia , where the brave soldier is another major work by Bissen, an association tried to win the lion monument for the fortifications there. Many other suggestions for a final location for the lion were made. To commemorate the dead in the battle of July 25, 1850, a small commemoration has been held every year since 2001 at the Lion Monument, as well as in Flensburg at the former location of the lion.

Discussions about returning to Flensburg

Pros and cons from the 1960s to the 1990s

After the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations of 1955, which put the relationship between Germans and Danes and the minorities in the border region on a new peaceful basis, the Danish minority continued to want the lion to be re-established. But also on the German side increased in the course of time - and the progressive normalization of the German-Danish relationship - the voices to repatriate the lion. In 1962, the Flensburg CDU politician, city president, editor-in-chief of the ' Flensburger Tageblatt ' and then chairman of the SHHB Hanno Schmidt said that a reorganization of the lion in Flensburg as an expression of a new spirit could help to overcome the historical contradictions. The chairman of the Grenzfriedensbund Hans Peter Johannsen, who comes from Northern Schleswig , agreed with him .

But nothing happened in the following years, except that the discussion about the return of the lion flared up again and again. In the 1980s there was still broad German rejection in the Flensburg council. There was a major controversy in 1992 when several German border region politicians campaigned for the transfer of the Idstedt lion. This year, Siegfried Matlok , representative of the German Nordschleswiger and editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Der Nordschleswiger , was the first German to give a speech at the Idstedt commemoration in Copenhagen, in which he campaigned for the repatriation. He received support from the chairman of the Grenzfriedensbund Artur Thomsen, who a few years earlier as mayor of the city had taken a reserved stance towards the lion. The meanwhile more positive mood towards the Idstedt-Löwen, especially in social democratic circles, was, however, still faced with violent rejection in the conservative camp. The advance in 1992 failed not least because of the protest from Flensburg citizens who considered the lion in the context of its nationalistic statement unsuitable to be a “future-oriented symbol” for border peace. A jointly conceived exhibition of the museums in Sønderborg and Flensburg on the history of the lion in 1993/94 was accompanied by sometimes violent polemics. Many proponents resigned, even if the discussion about the return of the lions was taken up again and again in connection with the annual commemorations. The arguments for and against return remained in principle the same, but a change in generation and attitude became increasingly apparent, which is to be seen against the background of a progressive normalization of the German-Danish relationship.

Votes for a return to Flensburg

With the transfer to Berlin, the symbolism of the lion had acquired a new dimension. For many nationally minded Danes, he had now become a victim who, in his own way, reflected the situation of the Schleswig Danes in the German Empire, which was perceived as foreign rule. After the border was drawn in 1920, this mainly affected southern Schleswig . As early as the late 1920s, representatives of the Danish minority campaigned repeatedly for the monument to be returned. Last but not least, they emphasized the importance of the watchful lion as a tomb for the dead from 1850 buried in the Old Cemetery. On the German side, however, they regularly met with rejection. Only after the end of the Second World War , the overcoming of the border war from 1945 and the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations of 1955 did the first German voices speak out in favor of a return of the Idstedt lion. As mentioned, these were first the chairman of the border peace union, Hans Peter Johannsen , himself a German from North Schleswig , and secondly Hanno Schmidt , editor-in-chief at Flensburger Tageblatt , member of the CDU council group and temporary chairman of the SHHB . He said that a lion rebuilt in Flensburg could be “the testimony of a new chapter in history, indeed of a new spirit that dominates international relations”. But it was not until the end of the 1980s that the votes for repatriation increased in German circles. Siegfried Matlok said that "a decision in Flensburg to take the lion will be a beautiful political gesture on the German side, which documents that Germans and Danes have learned from history" and that the myth about the lion will be demythologized by the reorganization could. Johannsen's successor at the Grenzfriedensbund , the former Mayor of Flensburg, Artur Thomsen , also changed his negative attitude until 1992 because he had learned from many conversations that "it would serve peace in the border region if it could be placed again in the old cemetery". Because as long as the lion stayed in Copenhagen, he would signal to the Danes that "there are German reservations about Denmark, which are derived from an event almost 150 years ago". Like many others, the spokesman for the Flensburg European Union, Gert Rossberg, urged “not to surrender the past to be forgotten” and to bring back the lion as a testimony to those times of conflict, from which one must learn. The SPD parliamentary group leader Knut Franck said that the lion above all stimulates thought and reminds of the conflict-ridden history, which is also a common one, and that it could become a symbol of new tolerance through a historically well-embedded reorganization. The then Mayor Peter Rautenberg also emphasized the educational value of the “city and cultural monument”. In Berlin, people were amazed at the long controversy and pointed out that the copy of the lion on the Wannsee had never been controversial. Danish voices also continued to mention its importance as a tomb and repeatedly stressed that the intended function as a victory mark no longer played a role at all. The German advocates saw it that way too. The repositioning of the lion on German soil, which was once planned as a Danish monument to victory, should set a symbol for overcoming the contradictions of the time. In addition, it had been a long time (and anyway only briefly) that the lion could play its role as a monument to victory. Since then, its symbolism had developed in many ways.

Votes against repatriation

The opponents of repatriation of the Idstedt lion almost consistently referred to the original function of a Danish national victory monument just mentioned and denied it any other historical significance. “His time is no longer ours; he can't tell us anything more [...] ”, wrote the editor-in-chief of the Flensburger Tageblatt and CDU councilor Hans-Wilhelm Pries, who also feared visits by Danish nationalists who could disturb the peace on the border. The lion is said to be "monstrously hideous". His group colleague Dieter Pust called for a museum display in Copenhagen because there was too little knowledge there about the lion. A technical installation in Flensburg would be "window dressing" and a new message of peace would be difficult to convey in Flensburg, especially since there are many contradictions in this "political question from beginning to end". Even Uwe Ronneburger , Chairman of SHHB , fearing a destabilization of the border peace and pointed like many others that we have eliminated irreverent graves in establishing 1,862th The newly erected lion would disturb the tomb peace. The Flensburg city archivists Hans Friedrich Schütt and Broder Schwensen called for a de-politicization and stronger "historicization" of the Idstedt lion and other monuments, whereby they saw the lion in its original message of national sole claim as a counterpart to the German Knivsberg monument. At the time, they did not consider an installation as a sign of new German-Danish cooperation to be sensible and suggested a museum installation at the Sonderburger Schloss, where it could have been included in an extensive regional historical collection. The Danish historian Steen Bo Frandsen (Universitet Syddanmark) once again described the discussed plans to repatriate and rededicate the lion in 2009 as a sign of a "spreading [historical] amnesia" among German proponents . The absurd rededication is the result of one

“Very German, politically correct way of thinking; [This] proves especially the opposite experiment, what would happen if someone would suggest the old Prussian monument of Dybbøl, which was blown up by the Danish resistance movement in the air shortly before the war ended in 1945, and which also destroyed Bismarck Monument Nordschleswiger on the Knivsberg restore . There is a strong asymmetry in the relationship between the two national identities after 1945. While the “national identity” is not a matter of course in Germany, the Danish one is completely intact, unproblematic and has never been questioned. On the Danish side, there is absolutely no reason to reinterpret national places of remembrance. If the lion is viewed by many today as a piece of cemetery interior with no nationalistic undertones, it is likely to indicate a spreading amnesia. "

Reinstallation, final discussion and ceremony in 2011

The lion in Flensburg after his return (2011)

On the occasion of the 725th anniversary of the city of Flensburg in 2009, all parliamentary groups in the Flensburg council assembly commissioned Lord Mayor Klaus Tscheuschner to examine the return of the lion to Flensburg. An application for repatriation was submitted to the Danish government with only five votes against, which the Danish government replied positively. With only three votes against, the council meeting decided on February 18, 2010 to re-erect it at the original location as part of a ceremony. The plan was to set up the lion again on September 12, 2010 (European Open Monument Day ) in the Old Cemetery, which today is part of the entire complex of the Flensburg Museum Mountain. A new plaque with the following inscription should be placed on the front of the base: Isted on July 25, 1850, Rejst 1862, rebuilt in 2010 as a sign of friendship and trust between Danes and Germans . After this deadline could not be met due to the extensive renovation of the bronze monument that was still carried out in Copenhagen, the return of the figure was planned for September 10, 2011.

In contrast to the early 1990s, there was no noteworthy controversy about repatriation. Some have criticized the fact that there was no public discussion prior to the list. Mayor Tscheuschner rejected this on the grounds that there had been a discussion for a long time in which the opposing points of view had remained unchanged. On the other hand, an emotionalization of the topic like 1992 and 1994 would not have been good. Nevertheless, there were a few critical comments justifying the reorganization. A Flensburg journalist threw the rumor that Lord Mayor Tscheuschner had arranged the return of the lion against the SSW's waiver of its own candidate in the next OB election. The regional historian Jan Schlürmann asked the critical question whether a rededication of the lion could be successful in view of the completely different national cultures of remembrance on both sides of the border, since the lion is still part of a specifically Danish remembrance. He went into court with some historians of the Grenzfriedensbund , who had previously refused to print his criticism in their magazine for “German-Danish Dialogue” because he suspected that his position did not fit into the desired, one-sidedly harmonized historical image from the German side . This contribution in turn triggered z. Sometimes violent reaction against, but also some more objective comments for the contribution, but did not change anything in the planned installation of the monument at its original location. As early as 2012, the authors Broder Schwensen and Lars Henningsen were able to prove that the rumors about Mayor Tscheuschner's intention to collect political points from the SSW with the return of the lions were true.

On September 10, 2011, the official unveiling of the newly designed memorial plaque by Prince Joachim of Denmark took place. The bronze plaque, a work of the renowned blacksmith Klaus Bösselmann , is on the front of the monument. It bears the originally planned lettering, but with the changed date 2011. On the back is a four-line plaque (also designed by Klaus Bösselmann) with the wording 1862 Flensborg • 1868 Berlin • 1945 København • 2011 Flensburg . In addition to Joachim von Denmark, the Mayor of Flensburg, Simon Faber , City President Christian Dewanger, the Danish Minister of Culture Per Stig Møller and the German Ambassador in Copenhagen were invited to speak at the ceremony at the Old Cemetery at the feet of the lion. Accompanying this was the exhibition Roaring well, lion! In the neighboring museum . Neighborhood takes place around the Idstedt lion . In his inauguration speech, Mayor Dewanger expressed doubts as to whether the reallocation would make sense:

“The change of meaning of the lion monument from the victory monument to the friendship symbol has been presented, explained and described again and again. But I believe that what we are doing today must not overlook or even ignore what happened in the past. I am convinced that firstly it is not possible and secondly it does not make sense to ascribe a new meaning to a monument. The lion is not a monument to friendship. The lion is a monument to an era of nation-state striving, a territorial claim to power and rule carved in stone - a monument to the victory of the Danish crown (...). And so the message of peace and friendship does not come from the lion, but from the act of his return and re-establishment. It is precisely the crossing of the border and the understanding as a common German-Danish region, the good friendship and cooperation across the border as well as between majorities and minorities that deserve the lion not as a distortion of history but as a recognized part of our history Region has come back. "

2012: "In friendship and trust"

Already in 2012, almost a year after the rebuilding, a book was published by the Flensburg historians Lars N. Henningsen and Broder Schwensen, which, in addition to the technical and financial background of the repatriation of the lions, reconstructs the political background using numerous sources. Both historians then share the assumption that Mayor Tscheuschner agreed to the repatriation for tactical reasons. The design of the monument, in particular the preference for a reconstruction instead of a well thought-out new concept, was largely based on Danish wishes. The German authorities involved in the negotiations complied with the Danish ideas on almost all points and thus thrown overboard their own concepts that had in mind a reinterpretation of the monument through a different installation site or artistic alienation. Ultimately, both were able to prove that the Flensburg official bodies wanted to avoid a public discussion - especially because they feared critical voices. Henningsen and Schwensen sum up that now the monument itself could no longer be an expression of “friendship and trust”, but merely the act of repatriation in this sense. In addition, voices from the Schleswig-Holstein state monument preservation show that the interpretation of the lion as a national Danish monument in Flensburg has held up to this day; so said the Schleswig-Holstein state curator Dr. Michael Paarmann :

“Apparently we have not been able to make it sufficiently clear to the Danish side what content we would like to combine with a contemporary design. […] The Danish side's strongly retarding approach may be understandable in view of an unbroken national self-image, but runs counter to the ideas put forward by the German side. If you don't want to risk entering into a controversial discussion with the Danish side in order to enforce basic German positions, the [...] lowest common denominator, the reconstruction [...]. "

A position that would correspond to the largely intact national self-image in Denmark to this day. So it is up to future mediation work to be carried out to finally wrest the monument from its one-sided national context and make it a monument to all Flensburg residents. The monument is still the only center of celebrations for the Danish minority, the "numerous visitors" come mainly from Denmark, where the lion - in contrast to Schleswig-Holstein - is well known and interpreted as a testimony to Danish history (and national presence) in the Schleswig region becomes.

Overall, the meticulous analysis of the sources in the book casts a clear shadow over the “return” action; it can serve as an example of how conflict-laden history must not be dealt with in a border region : namely, conflict-shy and without the participation of the population. As in 2012 the Danish part of the criticism was violent about plans to erect a specially designed reconciliation memorial on the Düppeler Schanzen for joint German-Danish remembrance, the asymmetry of the culture of remembrance in the border region is now reinforced by the installation of the "Idstedt Lion": while in Denmark almost all German monuments from 1848-1851 and 1864 were destroyed and even small gestures such as bilingual place-name signs are refused in areas with a German minority, Danish culture and its national memorials south of the border are always made extensive concessions.

In 2012, the renowned Danish folklorist and former director of the Sønderborg Museum, Peter Dragsbo, came to a similar conclusion. In a letter to the editor in the Danish minority newspaper Flensborg Avis , he showed understanding for the critical line expressed in 2010 by the historian Jan Schlürmann .

2014: Critical voices do not fall silent

Idstedt Lion (2018)

The former archivist of the Danish minority, Lars Henningsen, who was involved in the book In Friendship and Trust in 2012 , raised the question again in 2014 whether the lion had not been brought to Flensburg due to the wrong circumstances. In a letter to the editor in the Danish-language minority newspaper Flensborg Avis on September 24, 2014, he wrote that German local politics imposed “a new character on the lion in 2010.” However, the local actors, both the minority and the city of Flensburg, have so far had the national Danish The character of the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Lion Monument has not changed; a - as actually desired - joint German-Danish celebration on July 25th, Idstedt Day, would not take place. The historian and Hamburg MP (SPD) Loretana de Libero also devoted some very critical lines in a specialist article on the politics of history in 2014 to what she believed to be a failed reconstruction project:

“By resolution of the Flensburg council on February 18, 2010, the Idstedt lion returned to its original location in the old cemetery in Flensburg on September 10, 2011, 'as a sign of friendship and trust between Danes and Germans', as the wording says the new inscription says. As in the case of the eagle from Metz, to be dealt with below, a statue that is clear in its statement is neutralized by rededication. It is unclear whether such reuse of old, offensive memorials in public space can be traced back to a lack of knowledge of history, economic constraints determine cultural policy or whether contemporary monument art has simply entered a creative crisis. "

The lion monument after it was erected as a symbol of the Danish minority

The Flensburg lion - or "Idstedt lion" - became a symbol of the Danish minority in the Schleswig region after it was erected in Flensburg . It was the symbol of the 2011 annual meeting of the minority, which had the motto “How do we shape southern Schleswig ?”. In the context of the meeting, a song entitled Fra Løven i nord og til Ejderen ( From the lion in the north to the Eider ) was also presented; the lion (in Flensburg) and the Eider mark the northern and southern borders of the German part of Schleswig, which as Sydslesvig (southern Schleswig) represents the home region of the Danish minority in Germany. In 2011, a primary school group from the Danish minority school in Tarp performed a play entitled Istedløvens rejse ("The Idstedt Lion's Journey"). In the piece it says u. a. with reference to the establishment: “Bissen created a seated lion. The lion was supposed to show how capable the Danes were. The sculpture became so large that it could have seated 10 people. […] Question to the students: What does it mean when you choose a lion? This can e.g. B. mean that one has power or strength. ”The most recent contribution to the controversy, which outlines the state of the discussion until 2016, was again made by the historian Jan Schlürmann , who had already played a key role in triggering the debate in 2011.

The Berlin copy

Alsen and the lion villa colony

Monument place and copy on the Heckeshorn after the restoration

In 1863 the Berlin banker and director of the Berlin trading company Wilhelm Conrad founded the elegant villa colony Alsen on Wannsee , which quickly developed into one of the top addresses for wealthy Berliners. In 1873 Conrad chose the name of the colony - in a time of national enthusiasm after the establishment of the empire - in memory of the surrender of the Danish island Alsen in 1864, which sealed the German victory over Denmark. Conrad found the historically fitting monument for his colony just a few kilometers away in the Flensburg Lion, of which he had a zinc copy made in 1874 (older information 1869, on the monument base: 1865) and placed on the hill.

“The installation at this location was, in addition to the decorative purpose, also a sign of the admiration that Wilhelm Conrad had for Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, who lived on the nearby Düppel estate. Instead of the medallions of four Danish generals on the original memorial, the copy therefore had a portrait medallion of Prince Friedrich Karl in the base. "

- Information board

This relief disappeared in 1919 after a theft. After Conrad's death and the subsequent division and further expansion of the area at Bergpark, the memorial, which became the property of the City of Berlin in 1923, was left with increasingly less space. In 1938, according to reports in the Danish press and after a complaint from the embassy about the overgrown and unkempt plastic, it was moved to the Heckeshorn village on the west bank of the Great Wannsee . There the lion, which weighs around two tons , still stands today on a viewing platform on Tiefhornweg in a small park next to the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial . The elevated location on a hillside directly in front of the shore offers a wide view of the Havel chain of lakes and the opposite, listed bathing beach Wannsee from 1929/1930.

Comprehensive restoration in 2005

The statue lost its tail in the theft in 1919. A makeshift replacement and other urgent repairs were carried out for the first time after the implementation in 1938. The long overdue, comprehensive and four-month restoration took place in 2005 in a Berlin-Adlershof workshop. The restorer Bernd Michael Helmich dismantled the figure into around one hundred individual parts so that corroded seam strips and screw connections as well as cracks could be repaired. Modern glass fiber fabric now closes the seams and a stainless steel construction replaces the obsolete inner support corset. In order to authentically restore the tail, which was inadequately repaired at the time, employees of the workshop took an imprint on the Danish original, which was found in Copenhagen at the time and again in Flensburg since 2011.

The Steglitz-Zehlendorf district contributed around 10,000 euros to the total costs of around 90,000 euros, which also includes the renovation of the monument base and square . Half of the remainder was provided by the State Monuments Office and the Hinckeldey Foundation, which was founded in 1993 to commemorate the Prussian Police President of Berlin, Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Hinckeldey . The base received a new plaque that explains the history of the monument in eleven lines.

On September 1, 2005, the covers of the completely renewed and preserved zinc cast plastic fell at a ceremony . Eight new historical ham lights provide a suitable setting for the copy of the Isted lion.

literature

The quote and some other information come from the current information board from 2005 on site. Concept, editing, layout: Hortec Berlin, on behalf of and financed by: Hinckeldey-Stiftung, Landesdenkmalamt, Bezirksamt - based on an art-historical report by Jörg Kuhn. The bilingual board (German, English) also contains some historical photos.

  • Lars Henningsen: The Idstedt lion - history and politics. From distrust to friendship. In: Grenzfriedenshefte . 2/2010, pp. 109-126 ( online ).
  • Lars Henningsen, Broder Schwensen (ed.): In friendship and trust - The return of the Idstedt lion to Flensburg 2011. Flensborg / Flensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-925856-68-6 .
  • Olaf Klose (Ed.): Biographical lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. Volume 1, Wachholtz, Neumünster 1970, pp. 72-74.
  • Jörn-Peter Leppien: "Operation Lion". Henrik V. Ringsted and the Idstedt lion. Flensburg 1995.
  • Jörn-Peter Leppien: The Idstedt lion - a monument with many faces. In: Grenzfriedenshefte. 2/2010, pp. 127-150 ( online ).
  • Bjørn Poulsen and Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer (Red.): The Idstedt lion. A national monument and its fate. Herning 1993. Simultaneously and with the same equipment in Danish under the title Istedløven. Et nationalt monument og dets skæbne has been published.
  • Haavard Rostrup: The sculptor HW Bissen as a draftsman. In: From the collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek. Copenhagen, 1942, pp. 318-400.
  • Gerret Liebing Schlaber: Controversy about a monument. The Idstedt lion between provocation and provisional solution. In: Grenzfriedenshefte . 4 2002, pp. 259-290.
  • Jan Schlürmann : The "Idstedt Lion". Comments on history politics in Flensburg (PDF; 1.9 MB). In: Communications from the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History 79, 2010, pp. 43–57.
  • Jan Schlürmann : Hannemann and Röverbande: language dispute and nationality struggle. In: AufBruch & BürgerKrieg. Schleswig-Holstein 1848–1851. Volume 1, Kiel 2012, ISBN 978-3-941713-09-3 , pp. 116-133.
  • Jan Schlürmann : Five years of “Idstedt-Löwe”: A balance sheet . In: Communications from the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History 90 (April 2016), pp. 28–35.
  • Florian Greßhake: Germany as a problem for Denmark: The material cultural heritage of the border region Sønderjylland - Schleswig since 1864 . V & R unipress, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8471-0081-2 . GoogleBooks

Web links

Commons : Flensburger Löwe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herman Wilhelm Bissen: Flensburger Löwe, portrait at Kunst @ SH , accessed on September 27, 2017.
  2. ↑ Description, location, photos , accessed on November 13, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b c d Adelbert von Baudissin: Schleswig-Holstein Meerumschlungen: War and Peace Images from 1864. Stuttgart 1865.
  4. ↑ Flensburg (Old Cemetery, 1848-51 & 1864)
  5. ^ Robert Bohn : History of Schleswig-Holstein. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-50891-X , p. 95.
  6. ↑ Evidence e.g. B. with: Renate Kleffel: Lion discussion with pentrant scent brand. In: Moin Moin. 17th September 1992.
  7. ^ Hanno Schmidt : A monument in the course of time. In: Schleswig-Holstein. 2/1962, p. 29.
  8. ^ Siegfried Matlok : The chance for the Idstedt lion to return to Flensburg is never better than now. In: The North Schleswig . July 28, 1992.
  9. ^ Artur Thomsen: 50 years of the Grenzfriedensbund. In: Grenzfriedenshefte 1/2000, p. 32.
  10. ↑ Artur Thomsen: The time is ripe! The lion should return. In: Grenzfriedenshefte. 1/1992, p. 26.
  11. ↑ Quoted from: The return of the Idstedt lion of international importance. In: The North Schleswig. August 14, 1992.
  12. ↑ Istedløven er et symbol på tolerance i grænselandet. In: Flensborg Avis . March 2, 1993.
  13. ↑ Quoted from: Renate Kleffel: Lion discussion with pentrant scent brand. In: Moin Moin. 17th September 1992.
  14. ↑ Well roared, lion. In: Der Tagesspiegel . February 20, 1994.
  15. ↑ Hans Wilhelm Pries: His time is not ours. In: Flensburger Tageblatt. July 28, 1992. And: No monument to the border peace. In: Flensburger Tageblatt. September 10, 1992.
  16. ↑ Ders .: Historical base is missing. In: Flensburger Tageblatt . January 24, 1994.
  17. ↑ Quoted from: Flensburg CDU rejects Idstedt-Löwen. In: The North Schleswig. September 10, 1992.
  18. ↑ Quoted from: Uwe Ronneburger against Idstedt-Löwen. In: The North Schleswig. 20th August 1992.
  19. ↑ Quoted here from Gerret Liebing Schlaber: Controversy about a monument. In: Grenzfriedenshefte. 4/2002, p. 274.
  20. ↑ Steen Bo Frandsen: Schleswig: A place of remembrance for Germans and Danes? In: Bernd Henningsen, Hendriette Kliemann-Geisinger, Stefan Troebst (eds.): Transnational Places of Remembrance: Northern and Southern European Perspectives. (= The Baltic Sea Region. Volume 10). Berlin 2009, p. 46.
  21. ↑ For example from Carl Hermann Jensen: A lion on its way through time. In: Flensburger Tageblatt. July 25, 2011.
  22. ↑ Klaus Tscheuscher in an interview in Grenzfriedenshefte. 1/2011, p. 48.
  23. ↑ As hollow as a chocolate bunny. In: Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday. August 14, 2011.
  24. ↑ Jan Schlürmann : The Idstedt lion. Notes on the politics of history in Flensburg . In: Communications from the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History. 79, 2010, p. 43 f. (PDF; 1.9 MB) Responses to this: Statements and submissions to the contribution by Dr. Jan Schlürmann zum Idstedt-Löwen, MGSHG 79, October 2010 . (PDF; 10.4 MB). In: Communications from the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History. 80, 2011, pp. 38-75.
  25. ↑ "Isted" on the sign on the base of the lion
  26. ^ Kulturministeriet, Pressemeddelse: ( Memento of May 27, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Istedløvens hjemkomst til Flensborg fejres, September 10, 2011. May 25, 2011. (Danish, accessed August 4, 2011)
  27. ↑ Museums Nord, Museumsberg Flensburg: Exhibition opening, September 9, 2011: Well roared, lion! Neighborhood around the Idstedt lion . ( Memento from September 6, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  28. ↑ Christian Dewanger: “Part of the common history.” Greeting on the return of the Idstedt lion to Flensburg. In: Grenzfriedenshefte. 4/2011, p. 285.
  29. ↑ Both can be considered "unsuspecting" voices in this context; Lars Henningsen was the chief historian of the Danish minority in Flensburg for years, Broder Schwensen is still the city archivist in Flensburg and had already expressed himself critical of the reconstruction variant in 1995.
  30. ↑ Lars Henningsen, Broder Schwensen (ed.): In friendship and trust. Flensburg 2012, p. 28.
  31. ↑ Lars Henningsen, Broder Schwensen (ed.): In friendship and trust. Flensburg 2012, p. 36: For the Danish side, a different placement than the original was out of the question.
  32. ↑ Lars Henningsen, Broder Schwensen (ed.): In friendship and trust. Flensburg 2012, p. 29.
  33. ↑ Lars Henningsen, Broder Schwensen (ed.): In friendship and trust. Flensburg 2012, p. 42.
  34. ↑ Nej tak a symbolic handshake. In: Flensburger Tageblatt. October 12, 2011.
  35. ↑ For et års tid siden skabte det en hel tysk "Historikerstreit" i grænselandet, since historians Jan Schlürmann may need additional comments, at selv om Istedløven med sin placering in Flensborg var blevet omtolket til at være et symbol på fælles tysank samarbejde i grænselandet, ville det dog være en form for historieforfalskning ikke at Erkende, at løven var knyttet til den danske historie i Slesvig og dermed indtil videre i høj grad et stykke dansk kulturarv. Reactions from progressive tyske kredse var, at det nærmest var til fare for »grænsefreden« at opdele den historiske kulturarv i »dansk« and »tysk«. [German Translation: “A year ago this led to a German 'historians' dispute' in the border region, when the historian Jan Schlürmann actually commented in a very sensible way that the Idstedt lion with its installation in Flensburg has now been rededicated as a symbol for joint German-Danish understanding and cooperation in the border region, but succumbs to a form of historical distortion if it is not recognized that the lion is linked to the Danish history of Schleswig and is thus in the highest degree a part of the Danish cultural heritage. The reaction from progressive German circles to this was that there would be fear for the 'border peace' if the cultural heritage were divided into 'German' and 'Danish'. "] Flensborg Avis, October 10, 2012, accessed from http: // www .fla.de / article / Dansk-tysk-eller-faelles - e288.html
  36. ↑ I 2010 greb nutidspolitikken imidlertid fat i Løven. The blev flyttet to Flensborg and sat on a ny base. Her fik løven påtvunget en ny character. Fra at have været først dansk sejrs- and minemonument, så prussisk sejrstrofæ, and efter 1945 dansk-allieret monument blev the nu omdøbt til at være symbol på dansk-tysk venskab. […] Det betyder for mig at se, at the i dag gælder betingelser for benyttelsen af ​​løven. I said the et dansk-tysk venskabsmonument, and the can ikke used som del af en rent dansk minehøjtidelighed. Begge folk må være med, når der nedlægges kranse ved den nye løve. [German Translation: “In 2010, however, the politics of the present went wrong with the lion. It was brought to Flensburg and placed on a new base. Here a new character was imposed on the lion. Initially it was a Danish victory and memorial monument, then a Prussian victory trophy and after 1945 a Danish-Allied monument, it has now been renamed a symbol of German-Danish friendship. [...] For me that means that different conditions apply to the use of the lion today. Today it is a Danish-German friendship monument and therefore cannot be part of a purely Danish commemorative event. Both peoples must be there when wreaths are laid on the new lion. ”] Letter to the editor from Lars N. Henningsen, Flensborg Avis, September 24, 2014; Retrieved from http://www.fla.de/?UNF=1c
  37. ↑ Loretana de Libero : Vengeance and Triumph: War, Feelings and Commemoration in the Modern Age. Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-486-71348-0 , p. 90.
  38. ↑ Årsmødesangene 2012. Sydslesvigsk Forening , archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on September 11, 2015 .
  39. ↑ The Danish text can be found at http://www.graenseforeningen.dk/fra-loven-i-nord-og-til-ejderen.html
  40. ↑ Løverne huserer paa Treene-Skolen. In: Flensborg Avis. March 3, 2011, p. 8.
  41. ↑ The text - originally in Danish - was accessed on March 10, 2011 at http://syfo.de/ ; it has since been taken off the network.
  42. ↑ Jan Schlürmann: Five years "Idstedt-Löwe": A balance. In: Communications from the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History 90, April 2016, pp. 28–35. geschichte-sh.de
  43. ^ Berlin copy: original location , based on maps and development plans in 1883/1893 and 1923.
  44. ^ Berlin copy: Location after implementation in 1938

Coordinates: 54 ° 47 ′ 6.9 ″  N , 9 ° 25 ′ 47.1 ″  E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 19, 2005 .