Bismarck Column (Greifswald)

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Bismarckian column in Greifswald

The Bismarckian Column in Greifswald is a memorial erected in memory of Otto von Bismarck , the first Chancellor of the German Empire . It stands on Wolgaster Strasse on a small elevation ("Epistelberg") in an axis with the Volksstadion .

Building history

After Bismarck's death in 1898, a committee for the erection of a monument was formed in Greifswald under the chairmanship of the university rector Johannes Rehmke . Under the direction of Professor Wilhelm Kreis and the architect Heinrich Spruth , construction began on March 28, 1900; The foundation was set up in mid-April . The inauguration took place on June 23, 1900. The construction costs were around 8,500 marks . In 1911 the first repair work was necessary. After the end of the Second World War , a bronze plate with a relief of the imperial eagle was removed. On July 5, 1960, on the occasion of the Baltic Sea week, the column was renamed the Olympic column and a relief made of artificial limestone with an Olympic motif by the Greifswald sculptor Prutz was attached. On March 7, 1991 by resolution of the citizenship the renaming took place; In 1997 the column was renovated and the concrete relief removed. In 2004, members of the student body were unable to assert themselves with their demand that a relief with an imperial eagle be added again.

architecture

The column was the first Bismarck tower based on the "Götterdämmerung" type design, with which Kreis won a competition of the German student body in 1899 . According to this type design, 47 more Bismarckian columns were erected by 1911. The basic feature of the design is the square base with round three-quarter columns at the corners. Boulders made of granite were used as building material , which were carefully hewn and - except for the base - layered. On the 10 m high column there is a square fire bowl, in which a fire should be lit on special days.

Web links

Commons : Bismarck Column  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Die Pommersche Zeitung , No. 7/2012, p. 11.
  2. ↑ Bismarckian column Greifswald. In: bismarcktuerme.de. Retrieved August 24, 2012 .

Coordinates: 54 ° 5 ′ 33 "  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 58.1"  E