Monument to Catherine II (Marx)
The monument to Catherine II was erected in Marx in the Russian Oblast of Saratov in 1851 . It was melted down during the Second World War and rebuilt in 2007.
Marx was founded in 1767 as a Volga German colony with the German name "Katharinenstadt". In honor of Catherine II (born as Princess Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst), who had given them many privileges to settle on the banks of the Volga with a manifest of invitation , the residents of Marx collected money to erect a memorial for her. The monument designed and manufactured by Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg was erected in 1851 on what was then the main square.
The bronze monument shows Catherine sitting on the throne. She holds the invitation manifest in her drooping right hand. It stood on a marble pedestal . From its two sides was the inscription in Russian and German:
"To Empress Catherine II out of gratitude from the foreign settlers of the Saratov Governorate."
chiseled in.
At the beginning of the 1930s it was removed and stored in the courtyard of the local history museum. After the Volga Germans were deported to Kazakhstan, it was the only remaining trace of the former German presence in the village. It was later melted down in the local tractor factory to extract raw materials for war purposes. Mainly small figures and busts with a Soviet theme were made from it.
After local history researchers had searched for photos and documents on the monument for more than fifteen years, including the original designs in St. Petersburg , the district administration allowed the monument to be rebuilt in 2005 without budget funds being made available. Ten million rubles were donated within two years and the sculptor Jurij Kisseljow from Saint Petersburg recreated the monument true to the original. It was re-inaugurated on September 26, 2007. Due to changes in the cityscape, a new location had to be found. Today it is located at the end of Lenin Prospect between Kirov Street and Communist Street, where the city had already created a square with a rotunda for concerts by the Music Academy.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c György Dalos : History of the Russian Germans. From Catherine the Great to the present. Translated by Elsbeth Zylla. CH Beck, Munich 2014. ISBN 978-3-406-67017-6 ; P. 181.
- ↑ a b Back to the Volga - In Marx there is again a monument for Catherine the Great , ornis-press.de, accessed on April 6, 2019