Hall of honor of the Oldenburg artillery
The hall of honor of the Oldenburg artillery is a memorial to the fallen soldiers of the First World War of the East Frisian Field Artillery Regiment No. 62 , the Reserve Regiment 20, the replacement department of the FAR 62, the associated ammunition columns and other former members of the regular regiment. The memorial was inaugurated in 1921 and is located in Oldenburg at Ofener Straße 19 behind today's Jade University (former artillery barracks ).
Location and structure
The location of the monument was obviously chosen because of the proximity of the artillery barracks at that time, in which the FAR 62 was garrisoned. At the memorial site there was previously the stud garden and, up until the 1880s, the so-called manorial Haaren vorwerk , “a venerable building that shouldn't have disappeared”. A few oaks were still preserved from the stud garden , which now gave the hall of honor a worthy setting.
The idea for an artillery memorial had already arisen during the war and a fund had also been set up for the units concerned . Specific plans for the memorial were drawn up in January 1919. The government of the Free State of Oldenburg quickly approved the choice of location; construction itself was delayed in the course of 1920 due to general strikes in the construction industry.
Contrary to other sources, the monument was not designed by the Oldenburg city building officer Robert Charton , but, as the contemporary press clearly shows, by the Oldenburg architect Kurt Boschen. It consists of the hall of honor modeled on the Roman pantheon and a two-tiered altar stone as well as wooden panels with the names of the more than 800 fallen soldiers. The pantheon is laid out in a cross shape and has a dome that tapers upwards . It bears the inscriptions:
1. Outside: The fallen comrades
2. Inside: 1914-1918
3. Front wall:
Those / those from our ranks / in the second world war / for the people and fatherland / died / 1939 - 1945 / I./Ar.R. 58 / and war formations / only God knows names and numbers .
It is not known when the culture of remembrance was extended to the fallen of World War II ; probably the relevant inscription was engraved after 1953.
The structure consists of clinker brick and sandstone . Boschen had made it a point to use only local materials and only employ local artists and craftsmen. The wood carvings on the plaques on which the 800 names are carved were made by the sculptors Michaelsen senior and junior, Wernicke, Richter and Stückner. The older Michaelsen had already made the figure of Isern Hinnerk during the First World War . The clinker came from the Bockhorn brickworks.
The inauguration ceremony
The inauguration took place on Sunday, September 25, 1921. Already the day before, a good 2000 foreign guests had traveled by train and were received at the Oldenburg train station by the artillery club “Barbara” (named after Saint Barbara , the patron saint of artillery). A good 200 people attended the officers' dinner in the casino on Casinoplatz alone and were greeted by General Hohnhorst.
The city itself was adorned with flags and garlands, in the main quarters of the individual formations there was supposedly a lot of activity, especially in the "Mooriemer home", the regular bar of the "Barbara" association. In the “Union” and in the casino, there was a festival of commerse evenings . The "Union" was so overcrowded that an extra Kommers had to be held in the "New House".
The consecration speech on Sunday, September 25, 1921, was held by the Chief Pastor Rogge, who was most recently Chief Pastor of the 1st Army . This was followed by the laying of wreaths by General von Jordan for the abdicated Grand Duke Friedrich August von Oldenburg , who himself did not take part in the celebration for unknown reasons, Minister Otto Graepel for the Free State of Oldenburg, Lieutenant Colonel Barnstedt for the officers and Lord Mayor Theodor Goerlitz for the city of Oldenburg. Then the Hall of Honor von Barnstedt in the person of Goerlitz was handed over to the city of Oldenburg.
In his speech Goerlitz called for the reconstruction of the fatherland and assured "the beautiful monument" that the city of Oldenburg would be protected for all time. In addition to the absence of the Grand Duke, the absence of Prime Minister Theodor Tantzen , who had attended the inauguration of the 91st monument a week earlier, is striking .
In the afternoon there was a final gala concert in the “Union”. According to the “Nachrichten”, a “ migration of peoples ” had poured through the Ofener Strasse to the memorial by the evening , which was only praised and recognized by the “large audience”.
The hall of honor in the culture of remembrance up to the present
Together with the memorial of the Oldenburg Infantry Regiment No. 91 and the monument of the Oldenburg Dragoon Regiment No. 19 , the hall of honor formed a unit for commemorations first of the First and then of both World Wars for decades. In the mid-1980s, property damage occurred in the context of memorial events and the retrofitting decision. Even at that time, the memory of the First World War, for which the memorial was created, was completely faded out in the commemorative speeches, so that the actual purpose of the hall of honor was lost.
literature
- Oldenburg City Archives (ed.): Oldenburg 1914–1918. A source volume on the everyday, social, military and mental history of the city of Oldenburg in the First World War. Isensee, Oldenburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7308-1080-4 .
- Dietrich Hagen: Oldenburg stone harvest. Studies on the use of natural stone and documentation of the stone monuments, fountains and sculptures in the city of Oldenburg. Isensee, Oldenburg 1993, ISBN 3-89442-150-9 , p. 91.
- From our artillery. A memorial sheet for the consecration of the memorial hall of the field artillery regiment No. 62 and the 20th Res.-Regt. In: Nachrichten für Stadt und Land , No. 259 of September 24, 1921, p. 5.
- The festival of our artillery. In: Nachrichten für Stadt und Land from September 25, 1921, p. 2.
- The commemoration of our artillery. The evening festivals, field service, consecration of the memorial hall, parade march. In: Nachrichten für Stadt und Land from September 26, 1921, p. 2 f.
Individual evidence
- ^ News for town and country of September 24, 1921.
Coordinates: 53 ° 8 ′ 32.5 ″ N , 8 ° 12 ′ 3.4 ″ E