The rescue act of Captain Igor Belikov
The rescue act of Captain Igor Belikov is a sculpture in Magdeburg's old town .
Location
The sculpture is on the south side of Ernst-Reuter-Allee across from house number 24. It was created in 1984, according to other sources as early as 1981, by the Magdeburg sculptor Heinrich Apel and is reminiscent of the so-called Kindersturz of 1969.
Child fall from 1969
On the morning of March 13, 1969, the Soviet Army pilot Igor Belikov, stationed in Zerbst , was visiting Magdeburg for a routine medical examination. While walking on what was then Wilhelm-Pieck-Allee in Magdeburg's city center, the then 28-year-old Belikov noticed a crowd in front of house number 24. A little girl was standing on a window ledge on the fifth floor of the house. The girl's mother had left the apartment briefly to queue up in the delicatessen store on the first floor of the house. Four-year-old Kathrin Lehmann had climbed unnoticed on the 22-meter-high window sill in her parents' apartment. First a slipper fell off , then the girl lost her footing and hung on the window ledge. Soon it could only hold on with one hand and then fell into the depths. Belikov opened his military coat and caught the falling girl with the coat. After a hard-sounding serve in her coat, the girl straightened up, crying but unharmed. Belikov suffered a minor wrist injury.
The process attracted a great deal of attention and media coverage. The Magdeburger Volksstimme reported on the front page the next day. Belikov's quick and courageous act and the happy outcome of saving a child met with great sympathy among the population. For the state authorities of the GDR this was a good opportunity to promote the German-Soviet friendship , which is part of the raison d'être , or at least to present it positively and to improve the tension-free relationship between the population and the Soviet occupying power. National prize winner Max Zimmering wrote a pathetic episode poem in March . Belikov was honored for his deed and received the golden badge of honor from the Society for German-Soviet Friendship . A 20-minute DEFA film A Hero in Seconds and a children 's book by Kathrins Thursday written by Gotthold Gloger deal with the event and each highlight a political component. By resolution of the city council on June 9, 1977, Igor Belikow was made an honorary citizen of Magdeburg . While several former politically motivated honorary citizenships were revoked after the political change in 1989 , Belikov remained an honorary citizen. Later he was also regularly visiting the city at Magdeburg's invitation. Belikov died in May 2015.
execution
The sculpture consists of a stone made, 2.20 meter high stele , which is provided on the front and back with a relief plate made of bronze . To the right of the stele is a life-size figure of a girl cast from bronze. With her left hand the girl points to the place on the stele in which the story of the lintel is explained. The right hand rests on the stele. The happening is depicted in a shadowy manner on the front bronze plate. There is the indicated facade of the house and the indication of the height. Under a small portrait of Belikov, in the style of a handwritten note, the inscription: Captain of the Soviet Army Igor Alexejewitsch Belikow caught the 4-year-old Kathrin Lehmann, who fell from the fifth floor, in his coat. 69 W.-Pieck Allee 24 . At the top left the falling child can be seen emerging, at the bottom left the figure of Belikov holding an open cloak, likewise emerging, can be seen. To the right of Belikov's portrait, unusual for an official work in the GDR, is the figure of an angel , Fortuna , the guardian angel .
Belikov's military cloak, also protruding from the bronze plate, is depicted on the back plate.
literature
- Helmut Asmus: 1200 years Magdeburg 1945-2005, Volume 4 , Magdeburg 2009, page 411
- Monument Directory Saxony-Anhalt, Volume 14, State Capital Magdeburg , State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology, Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86568-531-5 , page 189
Web links
- Barbara Bollwahn : A child falls from the fifth floor. In: Berliner Zeitung . April 11, 2009, accessed June 17, 2015 .
- A rescue act made him famous , Magdeburg mourns the loss of an honorary citizen Belikov, June 16, 2015.
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 51.9 ″ N , 11 ° 37 ′ 59.9 ″ E