De Isdern Keerl van Emden

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Nail picture Isern Kerl in Emden after the likeness of frigate captain Karl von Müller. Design by Liebsch

De Isdern Keerl van Emden ( Ostfriesisches Platt : The Iron Man of Emden ), also popularly known as the Isern Kerl , was a nail picture and from 1915 to 1944 the symbol of the city of Emden for the First World War .

The figure

The nail picture was a man-sized wooden statue designed as a knight figure , designed by the sculptor Fritz Liebsch (* 1879 Dresden ; † 1957 Emden). In contrast to similar personal figures, as they were erected hundreds of times in the German Reich during the war, the face of Isdern Keerl was designed after a living person, the frigate captain Karl von Müller . Müller had become known around the world as the commander of the small cruiser SMS Emden and at that time was already an honorary citizen of the city, but was a British prisoner of war in Malta . The origin of the name Eiserner Kerl is unclear; it may have been derived from the Iron Heinrich .

The idea for the nail picture came from the North Sea Works and the city's magistrate . Originally, the city's patriotic women's association suggested nailing the city's coat of arms. The inauguration of the landmark took place on Sedanstag , September 2, 1915, before the Emden Town Hall . According to newspaper reports, the nailing raised around 10,000 marks in donations in the first few weeks . The total donation is unknown.

The figure also served as a template for a 5 cm long pendant. One copy was acquired by the Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum in 2004 and exhibited in September of that year as the “work of art of the month”. As is quite common in the context of the erection of war symbols during the World War, the Isdern Keerl of the Patriotic Women's Association also distributed a picture postcard on which a poem about the Isern guy was printed:

Isdern Keerl with isdern hand,
umbrella and true dat dütse land,
deck with't Schild de Heimat, dat sea,
before our lower vengeful army,
hard worried, isderne sense,
seeker us golden Freedens profit.

According to a newspaper article in the Emder Nachrichten of January 3, 1916, the figure was “wickedly damaged” and possibly also because of this incident later housed in the town hall.

Whereabouts

On September 6, 1944, in the context of the Second World War, an Allied air raid with aerial bombs took place on Emden , which completely devastated the city. During the attack, the town hall was also hit and set on fire, which also lost the nail image.

See also

literature

  • Gerhard Schneider : In the Iron Age. War symbols in the First World War. A catalog. bd edition, Schwalbach / Ts 2013, ISBN 978-3-941264-13-7 .
  • Gerhard Schneider: Nailing in Lower Saxony in the First World War. In: Lower Saxony Yearbook for State History. Vol. 76, 2004, p. 253 f.
  • Emder newspaper of September 3, 1915.

Web links

Coordinates: 53 ° 22 ′ 0.5 ″  N , 7 ° 12 ′ 24 ″  E