Bismarck Column (Rengsdorf)
The Bismarcksäule of Rengsdorf in the district of Neuwied in Rhineland-Palatinate was in honor of the first German Chancellor Prince Otto von Bismarck built (1815-1898). The tower , built according to a design by the architect Hans Bloemers , is 13 meters high and was inaugurated in 1903. In contrast to many other Bismarck towers, the column, which is not planned as a lookout tower, is a listed building and normally cannot be climbed. In the meantime, it is already dominated by the trees in the small park that surrounds it, so that the structure hardly offers a view.
history
Planning time
After Bismarck's death in 1898 there was a broad movement in the German Empire that erected monuments for the former Chancellor. In Rengsdorf, the beautification association for the lower Westerwald suggested in the summer of 1901 that a Bismarckian column be built there. In March 1902, a so-called committee for the construction of the Rengsdorf Bismarck Column was founded.
The committee commissioned the Bonn architect Hans Bloemers, who agreed to take over the construction management free of charge. He had previously been the Bismarck Tower in Bonn-Gronau executed after the type design Götterdämmerung arose with the architect Wilhelm Kreis in 1899 a competition of German students had won. Bloemer's design for the Rengsdorf Bismarck Column is based in its main features on the type design by Kreis; despite the unpaid construction management, the cost estimate was 14,000 marks .
The Kaisereichenplatz was chosen as the construction site for the Bismarck Column in Rengsdorf because from there you have a good view of the Rhine Valley . Financing for the building was quickly secured because the population was very willing to make donations . The citizens of Rengsdorf and the neighboring communities of Neuwied and Anhausen alone collected more than 7,800 marks. In addition, there were 2,000 marks from the city of Rengsdorf's reserves and 5,000 marks from a loan .
_002.JPG)
construction time
On July 30, 1902, the fourth anniversary of Bismarck's death, the foundation stone was laid for the pillar of fire and construction began. The construction work was carried out under the direction of Bloemers by master bricklayers Wilhelm Kestner and Peter Jung from Rengsdorf , while the stone carving work was carried out by Bochem & Co. from Königswinter .
The construction work progressed quickly, so that the Bismarckian column in Rengsdorf could be inaugurated on June 21, 1903, the day of the summer solstice . The fire bowl on the tower was lit for the first time on the evening of the inauguration day. At the front of the column one and a half meters high Bismarck was relief from bronze mounted, which designed by Bloemers and by the art foundry of Hermann Gladbeck in Berlin-Friedrichshagen was made. The total cost of the building was a good 15,500 marks.
First decades
After the inauguration, the fire bowl on the pillar was lit regularly on certain days in the evening - for example on January 27th (the birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II. ), On April 1st (Bismarck's birthday) and on September 2nd ( Sedan Day ). However, these memorial fires were no longer held after a few years and probably not resumed after the end of the First World War and the occupation of the Rhineland .
The Bismarck Column survived the following decades and the Second World War largely unscathed. However, the large Bismarck relief was removed from the front of the column. It is unclear whether the bronze plaque for a metal collection was melted down during the war or was only dismantled afterwards by the French occupation forces .
.jpg)
Time after World War II
After the Second World War the Bismarck Column was repaired several times by Rengsdorf and in September 1963 it received a new Bismarck relief with the inscription OTTO V. BISMARCK / 1815-1898 . In the 1990s the building was completely renovated and since then it can be illuminated with the help of a lighting system. The hundredth anniversary of the inauguration of the Bismarck Column was celebrated in June 2003 with an anniversary celebration , a commemorative publication and an exhibition on the history of its origins.
architecture
The Bismarck Column from Rengsdorf was erected on a square floor plan , like the Götterdämmerung design by Wilhelm Kreis. The column itself is designed in a similar way and is square. As in the original, the massive effect is softened by three-quarter columns at the corners of the column body. The main building material used was light and dark gray trachyte from nearby quarries in the Siebengebirge and Westerwald .
The Bismarckian Column is divided into four parts: The lowest part is a nearly one meter high platform that has a square base of seven by seven meters. On the pedestal stands the almost two meter high base of the column, which tapers slightly towards the top. The pedestal and basement are made of dark gray trachyte. At the back there is a door in the middle, to which two steps lead and through which one can get into the interior of the building. The platform is interrupted at this point over a width of one meter.
The actual tower, around seven meters high, rises above the basement and was made of lighter trachyte. It is set back from the basement and rounded off at the corners by three-quarter columns. At the upper end of the tower body there is a surrounding frieze with oak leaf motifs, which was designed by Bloemers himself. On the back of the column, below the frieze, there is a narrow window that looks like a loopholes . The front is decorated with a Bismarck relief made of bronze .
Above the tower body follows the approximately three meter high upper floor, which consists of an architrave and a two-tier superstructure. The superstructure is set back a little compared to the tower body and was crowned by a large square fire bowl made of refractory fire bricks . The column is 13 meters high.
To fire the so-called pillar of fire, the bowl on the pillar was filled with wood and petroleum and set on fire . Today the building is no longer used as a pillar of fire and the fire bowl is no longer lit.
You can enter the inside through the door on the back of the column and get to the top of the tower with the help of iron rungs on the walls. On the upper floor there is a round arch-like opening on the back of the building, which opens onto the architrave and from which the fire bowl was previously reached.
literature
- Günter Kloss, Sieglinde Seele: Bismarck Towers and Bismarck Columns. An inventory. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 1997, ISBN 3-932526-10-4 .
- Sieglinde Seele: Lexicon of the Bismarck Monuments. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2005, ISBN 3-86568-019-4 .
Web links
- Website on the history of the Bismarck Column from Rengsdorf
- The Bismarck column from Rengsdorf on bismarcktuerme.de
- About the history of the Bismarckian column
- General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (publisher): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Neuwied district. Mainz 2019, p. 55 (PDF; 6.4 MB; see Westerwaldstrasse).
Coordinates: 50 ° 29 ′ 55.4 ″ N , 7 ° 29 ′ 54.2 ″ E