Brahms monument (Meiningen)
The Brahms monument in Meiningen , a city of art and culture, is dedicated to the composer and conductor Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) and was erected in 1899.
location
The monument is located in the southeast of the English Garden in the center of the city . It is located on a side road in the immediate vicinity of the old cemetery and the ducal crypt chapel .
history
The Meininger Brahms memorial was donated by Meininger Musikfreunde on the initiative of court conductor Fritz Steinbach . The memorial created in 1898/99 is the work of the sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand (1847–1921) from Munich and at the same time the first monument erected for Brahms after his death in Germany. For the unveiling ceremony of the monument on October 7, 1899, Josef Viktor Widmann wrote an eight-verse or 64-line prologue:
Mixed from suffering and joy
every fate has to come true on earth.
Even in front of the picture that we are unveiling today,
not only admiration shines in our eyes,
not only joy that - full of life -
the artist gives us the dear master ...
... Oh! We lost him before he grew old!
That's what everyone thinks mournfully today.
[...]
And yet complaint must not overtake us.
Not here! Not in the place where we stand!
He himself would admonish us to banish them.
He would say: “It has happened too well for me here.
In Meiningen, I was with my family;
And the whole world was open to me,
many a loyal heart with big and small, -
Here was my peace and quiet dearest tent. "
[...]
So not a complaint about the great dead,
A feeling of joy should be alive here,
Where honor ' and love was commanded only to him, who
we also today faithfully and heartily Christmas him.
We push ourselves to him, we stand and woo
for the understanding of his high art,
enjoy his works that do not die, the
stars are high above the haze.
And so the shell of the picture may sink
and the majestic face
flashed
familiarly towards us in noble ore,
this face that no longer speaks any earthly word.
It is encompassed by silent eternity,
Where the purest sun of all beauty flames,
Where it has entered as a perfector,
As in the home from which it comes itself.
[...]
In the last sixteen years of his life, Johannes Brahms was closely associated with the duke couple Georg II and Helene Baroness von Heldburg , the Meiningen court orchestra and the city of Meiningen. The connection to Meiningen came about in 1881 through Brahms' friendship and cooperation with the Meiningen court conductor Hans von Bülow , which was followed by 14 longer stays in Meiningen and joint concert tours with the court orchestra. Johannes Brahms had his 4th symphony premiered in Meiningen , wrote three compositions especially for the Meiningen clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld and worked closely with the court orchestra under the direction of Fritz Steinbach. The 1st Meiningen State Music Festival was held in honor of Brahms in his presence in 1895 . So in Meiningen the understanding of a Brahms town developed and very soon the suggestion to build a monument.
In 2015 the monument was completely renovated. It was inaugurated again on October 24th with an event. On this occasion, the Meiningen court orchestra performed Brahms' 4th Symphony, which was premiered on October 25, 1885 in Meiningen.
Building
The monument complex is formed by a semicircular exedra complex with decorative elements, consisting mainly of limestone . The high stone pedestal with the composer's bronze bust forms the center, flanked on both sides by stone benches. The system is closed at both ends with a fountain with a stone overflow basin and a stone collecting basin. Adolf von Hildebrand provided the interior of the facility with a paved terrace that can be reached via a wide, curved and flat two-step staircase. The terrace is adorned with a mosaic compass rose, composed of elements of limestone, anthracite-colored basalt and red sandstone. In front of the monument is a semicircular forecourt.
literature
- Kuratorium Meiningen (Ed.): Lexicon on the history of the city of Meiningen , Bielsteinverlag, Meiningen 2008, ISBN 978-3-9809504-4-2 .
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 34 ′ 19.4 ″ N , 10 ° 25 ′ 8.5 ″ E
Individual evidence
- ↑ Josef Viktor Widmann: Prologue for the unveiling ceremony of the monument to Johannes Brahms in Meiningen on October 7, 1899 (1st, 3rd, 6th and 7th stanza). Published in: J. V. Widmann: Gedichte. Huber, Frauenfeld 1912, p. 92 ff.
