Memorial to the flood of 1771
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The memorial for the flood of 1771 was a memorial in Hamburg .
background
The reason for the erection of the monument was a flood in the summer of 1771. Unusually heavy rains swelled the Elbe and caused it to overflow . On July 8, 1771, the Elbe dykes broke near Neuengamme ; the water flooded the Hamburg area and threatened the city itself. On July 21, 1771, the flooding reached its highest level at the Deichtor just outside the city, before the tide receded again.
The monument
Three years after the flood, a stone memorial was erected to commemorate the disaster. The place of installation was the foreland of the Deichtor, where the tide had reached its highest level. The monument in classicist style followed the design conventions for mourning monuments : an obelisk rose on a multi-tiered base , which in turn was crowned by an urn . The obelisk bore the inscription :
- The Elbe, swollen from the downpours of a dull summer, penetrated our corridors and rose to the line below. July 21, 1771 .
Although the monument was not outstanding in its artistic design, it was nevertheless of particular historical importance, as it was Hamburg's first public monument. It was also only the second in Europe Events Memorial after a hundred years earlier built monument in London.
Especially since it was Hamburg's first monument, it was occasionally mentioned in writings about Hamburg's buildings and sights in the following decades, but was slowly being forgotten. It was relocated several times and last stood at the Green Bridge in Billwerder . The monument survived the Second World War damaged, but was neglected in the following years and fell into disrepair until the Monument Protection Office had it removed and replaced with a memorial plaque . The memorial plaque is now on the corner of Banksstrasse and Oberhafenstrasse at the northern abutment of the Oberhafenbrücke ( → Lage ) and has been a listed building since 1961.
literature
- Volker Plagemann: Father City, Fatherland - Monuments in Hamburg . Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1986
Individual evidence
- ↑ Monument Protection Office in the Authority for Culture, Sport and Media (Ed.): List of monuments of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, as of April 13, 2010 (Pdf; 915 kB) ( Memento from June 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 915 kB ) , As of April 13, 2010. Hamburg 2010, p. 17, list of monuments no. 496.