Labor Memorial (Zwickau)

A miner's statue by Hermann Alfred Raddatz , which stood at Zwickau's main train station from 1938 to 1943 , was designated as a work monument (also known as miner and departure ) .

Details

The monument to the work of the Dresden sculptor Hermann Alfred Raddatz was created between 1936 and 1938 and was donated by the Zwickau publisher Horst Kausche. The bronze statue was inaugurated on May 27, 1938 and was located on the station forecourt between two roundabouts that still exist today within a green area opposite the Zwickau main station. The terminus of line 1 of the Zwickau tram was between the monument and the train station .

Depicted was a advancing miner with a wing iron in the raised right hand and a miner's lamp in the left chest- high hand, who stood on an obelisk-like column. The bronze figure with a flat pedestal was seven meters high, the stone stele eleven meters, giving the monument a total height of around 18 meters. In the direction of the train station, there was a coat of arms-like bronze plaque on the stele, suggesting an eagle.

The reasons for the removal are unknown. The occasional assertion that the National Socialists regarded the sculpture as "degenerate" and was therefore melted down in 1943 is countered by the fact that the campaign against " degenerate art " was already in full swing when the monument was inaugurated in 1938, and art that was ostracized in this way was public Room was no longer given space. In addition, the monument did not have any stylistic features that corresponded to those of art that was considered “degenerate”. The statue was probably - like numerous bells and monuments during this time - dismantled as a “ metal donation ” and melted down for armaments production. The same fate overtook the Bismarck monument in Zwickau , which was probably dismantled and melted down in the same year.

literature

M. Holzhausen: A work monument is being created . In: Heimatwerk Sachsen (Hrsg.): Journal of Heimatwerk Sachsen, 2nd year, issue 1 . JJ Weber, Dresden February 1938. (With three photos of the workers' memorial by the sculptor Hermann A. Raddatz / Dresden for Zwickau: “The three phases of memorial design from the model to the intermediate form to the final size” .)

Ute Schmidt, Steffi Haupt: Zwickau the way it was . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1992, ISBN 978-3-7700-0981-7 .

Web links

Photo of the monument on freiepresse.de

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Torsten Kohlschein: Where was the miner from Zwickau's train station? In: Free Press . November 8, 2018, p. B2 ( online ).
↑ ^a ^b Hermann A. Raddatz, 1906–1962 . In: Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf (Hrsg.): Painting graphics: August 14-22, 1985 (exhibition catalog) . Self-published, Düsseldorf 1985, p. 7 .
↑ ^a ^b Norbert Peschke : There are many reasons to remember . In: Free Press . December 21, 2018 ( online ).
↑ Sieglinde Seele: Lexicon of Bismarck Monuments. Towers, statues, busts, memorial stones and other honors. An inventory in words and pictures . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2005, ISBN 3-86568-019-4 , p. 424 .

[FP-1] Torsten Kohlschein: Where was the miner from Zwickau's train station? In: Free Press . November 8, 2018, p. B2 ( online ).

[Düsseldorf-2] Hermann A. Raddatz, 1906–1962 . In: Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf (Hrsg.): Painting graphics: August 14-22, 1985 (exhibition catalog) . Self-published, Düsseldorf 1985, p. 7 .

[Peschke-3] Norbert Peschke : There are many reasons to remember . In: Free Press . December 21, 2018 ( online ).

[Bismarck-4] Sieglinde Seele: Lexicon of Bismarck Monuments. Towers, statues, busts, memorial stones and other honors. An inventory in words and pictures . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2005, ISBN 3-86568-019-4 , p. 424 .