Gelsenkirchen-Buer Memorial

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The memorial in Gelsenkirchen-Buer

The Gelsenkirchen-Buer memorial is a memorial in memory of the victims of the war in the Gelsenkirchen district of Buer .

shape

The memorial was built on a hill near the Berger See, in the Buerer green belt. It is aligned so that the northern footbridge of the three-beam floor plan points to the “Zum Ehrenmal” street. The 18 m high memorial consists of 34,000 clinker bricks and 2,500 fire-gilded names on the large memorial plaques. On the memorial there is the so-called sacrificial bowl, in which a flame was lit when the dead were honored. At the tips of the wings of the memorial there are three stylized imperial eagles made of clinker . There are two iron crosses on each side of the memorial and the inscription "Our fallen heroes" is located below the top when looking towards the Berger See. The memorial plaques contain the names of the soldiers who died in the war of 1870–71 and the soldiers who died in the First World War . In addition, on the tips of the wings there are the names of people shot or executed during the occupation of the Ruhr . The extensive surrounding facilities are oriented towards the building with several axes of view (e.g. “Zum Ehrenmal” street, various viewpoints south of the Berger See and terraces below the memorial).

history

The program for the inauguration of the memorial; next to the memorial the two German national flags , on the left with the imperial colors black-white-red and on the right a swastika flag. At the bottom of the picture on the left an iron cross and on the right a swastika .

The memorial in Gelsenkirchen-Buer was built with the intention of honoring those who fell in World War I and demonstrating the Germans' willingness to make sacrifices. The initiator of the memorial was the then fire director Buers and chairman of the Buer 1769 shooting club, Jean Neukirchen. He motivated the patriotic associations , e.g. B. the cavalry club Erle and some private individuals to donate for the construction of the memorial. On August 7, 1925, the first donation of 298.51 RM was paid into the memorial's account. From 1925 to 1931 a total of RM 6,183.27 was donated. Through the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists and the propaganda that followed (appeal: "Everyone who has come to the soul of the nation in its greatness should know that his honor is pledged to the completion of this work and should act accordingly. The fatherland expects everyone to do their duty ”.) citizens were asked to donate and the project's income skyrocketed. A working committee was formed to build the memorial, and then, in 1933, an honorary committee was set up to compile a complete list of all those killed in action. Jean Neukirchen was again chairman of the working committee. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on July 26, 1933, the foundation stone was laid on August 20, 1933 and the inauguration took place on May 13, 1934.

The inauguration of the memorial already showed the typical propaganda reinterpretation of the building. It opened with "Siegfried's Death and Funeral March" (allusion to the stab in the back legend ) from the Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner . This was followed by songs and speeches by clergymen and at the end the memorial was handed over to the Lord Mayor of Gelsenkirchen. The total cost was RM 25,300.

In 1955, the shooting club arranged for the memorial to be completely renovated. In the course of this, the inscriptions on the occupation of the Ruhr were removed and the victims of the Second World War were later commemorated with the inscription "The victims of the war urge peace".

Knickmann commemorations

As a member of the NSDAP, Ludwig Knickmann was involved in several acts of sabotage against the occupying powers during the Ruhr occupation in 1923, according to party propaganda. He was shot dead by Belgian occupation soldiers when he tried to illegally cross the border between occupied and unoccupied territory on the Lippe near Marl . According to other sources, he and his partner, Karl Jackstien, were caught smuggling food and killed. The National Socialists revered him as a “martyr” in order to be able to offer the population in the region their own, more direct identification figure than Horst Wessel from Berlin or the dead of the Hitler putsch in Munich. The anniversary of his death was June 21, 1923, which the Nazis also celebrated as Midsummer Night. To this end, Ludwig Knickmann was symbolically “re-buried” every year in the Buer cemetery and then his death continued to be celebrated at the memorial.

See also

Commons : Ehrenmal Buer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Hans-Jürgen Priamus: Heroes and funeral celebrations - standardized commemoration of the dead as a holiday. In: Hans-Jürgen Priamus, Stefan Goch (Ed.): Power of Propaganda or Propaganda of Power? Staging of National Socialist politics in the “Third Reich” using the example of the city of Gelsenkirchen. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-024-5 , pp. 21–41 ( series of publications by the Institute for Urban History. Contributions 3).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ehrenmal Buer Volume 2, 1925–1935, Gelsenkirchen City Archives, Ge / 0 1870
  2. ↑ "Riflemen provide for memorial", Ruhr Nachrichten of September 29, 1955.
  3. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Priamus: Heroes and funeral celebrations - standardized commemoration of the dead as a holiday In: Hans-Jürgen Priamus / Stefan Goch (eds.): Power of Propaganda or Propaganda of Power? Staging of National Socialist politics in the "Third Reich" using the example of the city of Gelsenkirchen. Essen 1993, pp. 21-41, 26-29.

Coordinates: 51 ° 34 ′ 6 ″  N , 7 ° 3 ′ 33 ″  E