The light bringer

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The Light Bringer by Bernhard Hoetger, 1936

Der Lichtbringer is the title of a large, gilded bronze relief by Bernhard Hoetger from 1936 above the entrance to Böttcherstraße in Bremen. The property is under monument protection.

The representation

The large-format, square relief (383 × 383 cm) is dominated by the elongated figure of a curly, sword-holding, unclothed young man who, falling diagonally from the top right corner, directs sword and rejecting hand at a three-headed serpent or dragon. All other details are blurred in the background: an excited crowd, some landscape elements, the indistinctly modeled hints of wings or a waving cloak in the back of the lightbringer and the sun with its rays.

Entrance on Böttcherstraße 1927

History and interpretations

Attempts to interpret the relief placed in a prominent place require an examination of the circumstances in which it was created:

The place of installation is the market-side entrance to Böttcherstrasse, where Hoetger built a facade-like bridge in 1927 to bridge the gap between the Paula Modersohn-Becker-Haus (Hoetger, 1926/27) and the Sieben-Faulen-Giebel of the HAG-Haus ( Eduard Scotland , 1924–1927 ) had closed. Originally this wall consisted only of detailed modeled and figuratively enriched brick masonry, the remains of which can still be seen above today's light-bringer relief.

Entrance on Böttcherstrasse 2015

Since 1933 and increasingly around 1935/36, Ludwig Roselius , the builder of Böttcherstrasse, and Hoetger, its leading architect, were attacked by the National Socialists because of their conception of art. Above all, the Black Corps , the propaganda of the SS , agitated against the variety of the Nordic-Romantic world of thought expressed there. Roselius therefore arranged for the lower half of the clinker brick wall to be replaced with a relief by Hoetger, which was carried out in April 1936. Roselius interpreted the illustration to Lord Mayor Otto Heider as follows: “ I changed the entrance to Böttcherstrasse at the suggestion of Professor Horn . The large bronze now attached there represents the victory of our Führer over the powers of darkness . ”Hoetger himself wrote to a friend in Switzerland about what he specifically called the“ light bringer ”: “ With that I finally believed I could prove to the world How much I adore our Führer and his deeds ... How gladly we would have carved the year 1933 into the relief, if we hadn't feared that this could be imputed to us as a conjecture ” . The ingratiating redesign brought neither Roselius nor Hoetger the longed-for recognition. Rather, Hitler attacked " this type of Böttcherstrasse culture " at the Nuremberg party congress on September 9, 1936 . Around 1936, Hoetger was expelled from the NSDAP and the entire Böttcherstraße was included in the list of Bremen monuments (protected on May 7, 1937) at the express request of Hitler, who would like to preserve the “ buildings of Böttcherstraße for posterity as a chilling example of what had been passed off as culture and architecture in the time before we came to power. “After the Second World War, the figure was mostly passed off as St. Michael . The work must have had great significance for Hoetger himself. A smaller version, probably a draft for the bronze casting, adorned his house in Berlin-Frohnau, Gollanczstrasse 40 from 1938/1940 and has stood on his grave in Dortmund since 1969.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The gilding was last renewed in 1993. (Weser-Kurier September 18, 1993)
  2. ^ Monument database of the LfD
  3. ↑ Signed lower right: "BH". Bernhard Hoetger. His work in Böttcherstraße Bremen , Worpswede 1994, p. 234
  4. ^ Description from Walter Edmund Wolfgang Saal: Bernhard Hoetger as the architect of North German Expressionism. Diss. Bonn 1989, p. 213f.
  5. ↑ For the remark that there was a draft by Hoetger from 1920 (Hans-Christoph Hoffmann: Bremen , Köln 1986, p. 130), no evidence has been found so far.
  6. ^ Dieter Golücke: Bernhard Hoetger - sculptor, painter, architect, designer. , Exhibition catalog Worpswede, 1982, p. 86
  7. ^ Letter from BH to Herbert Helfrich, Beatenberg of September 16, 1936, printed in: Maria Anczykowski (Ed.): Bernhard Hoetger, Skulptur, Malerei, Design, Architektur, Bremen 1998, p. 489
  8. ↑ not, as can be read in 1935
  9. ^ Confidential report to the senators from Lord Mayor Heider, 1936, State Archives Bremen, quoted in after Golücke, pp. 98 and 127, note 20
  10. ↑ Eugen Thiemann: Bernhard Hoetger , Worpswede 1990, p. 79 (with ill.)

literature

  • Suse Drost: Bernhard Hoetger 1874–1949, his life and work , with a catalog raisonné. Bremen 1974, cat.no.138
  • Bernhard Hoetger. His work in Böttcherstraße Bremen , Worpswede 1994, p. 234
  • Hans-Christoph Hoffmann: Bremen , Cologne 1986, p. 130
  • Dieter Golücke: Bernhard Hoetger - sculptor, painter, architect, designer. , Exhibition catalog Worpswede, 1982, p. 86
  • Thomas Hirthe: Bernhard Hoetger in National Socialism , in: Maria Anczykowski (Ed.): Bernhard Hoetger, sculpture, painting, design, architecture , Bremen 1998, pp. 286–299.

Web links

Commons : Der Lichtbringer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 4 ′ 31.3 "  N , 8 ° 48 ′ 22.8"  E