Memorial of the Sankt Marien Congregation (Lübeck)
The Kriegerehrenmal of St. Mary's church in Lübeck was on Remembrance Sunday in 1929 in memory of the First World War fallen inaugurated the community.
prehistory
The introduction to the creation of a memorial in St. Marien goes back to the war years themselves. It was planned to expand one of the larger side chapels into a hall of honor. Other suggestions related to the Ehrenfriedhof were also made. Over the years, the other main churches in Lübeck created memorial plaques or chapels for those who fell from the ranks of parishioners in the First World War.
In 1920 the Marien-Gemeinde also initiated the preparatory work for the creation of a memorial . Here there was already a plaque (destroyed in 1942) with the 38 names of the city's dead in the Hanseatic Legion in 1813, as well as the memorial for the city's 108 dead in the Franco-German War of 1870/71 . In contrast to the 19th century memorials in the church, which related to the entire city, this was only about the dead of this parish. On the one hand, there were practical reasons - there were 318 names only for the Mariengemeinde, and on the other hand, they reflected the separation of communal and parish after the end of the sovereign church regime. In response to the public invitation to tender among the artists or craftsmen who were born in Lübeck or who worked here , 48 designs from 38 applicants were submitted, and these were publicly exhibited in the mayor's chapel of the church.
From which members of the Church Council and several local and foreign art experts formed jury three designs were to award proposed, namely:
- by the government builder a. D. Blohm and sculptor Oskar Ulmer (1888–1963) ( Hamburg )
- by the architects Runge & Lenschow (Lübeck)
- by the architect Meyer (Lübeck)
However, none of the drafts was selected for execution, rather negotiations with the applicants named in the first place fell apart . The design by Ludwig Gies , which showed an expressionist Christ on the cross and which Gies carried out at the suggestion of Carl Georg Heise , was shown in Lübeck Cathedral , which led to a scandal and the decapitation of the figure of Christ.
There was a long interruption, and it was not until 1927 that the question of creating a memorial was taken up again through a project by the sculptor Kuöhl (Hamburg). In a limited competition, the church council decided on a memorial to be erected in front of the church based on the design of the Lübeck-born sculptor Hermann Joachim Pagels in Berlin and a plaque of honor with the names of the fallen, for those who were also from Lübeck, to be erected inside the church Hans Schwegerle in Munich had delivered a design in the form of a cross. Schwegerle's design was later to become the memorial of the Nikolai community in the Nikolai church in Stralsund .
Another design that was not implemented related to the expansion of the northern tower chapel into a hall of honor, with all war memorials and flags in the church being transferred to this chapel.
After further long negotiations, which related to the final execution, it was possible to finish both war honors by Sunday, November 24, 1929, except for small reworking, thanks to the accelerated work in the last few weeks.
monument
Granite block
The monument consists of a main block resting on a stepped substructure at the request of the monument council, which originally stood below the window of the mayor's chapel.
After no agreement was initially reached with either Bavarian , Baden or Saxon granite quarries , they all canceled due to the transport difficulties overland, and in autumn 1928 the Swedish Karlshälla works near Karlshamn were awarded the contract.
The main block , made of Gotland granite , reached the port of Lübeck on board the motor sailer Henny on June 25th after a three-day voyage under the large 40-ton crane on the tip of the Wall peninsula . There it was worked by the stone carving company Ludwig Bruhn . The stone corresponds roughly to the foundation stone of the church itself, which dates from the 13th century. Although it was even lighter than that in 1929, the darkening over time was taken into account for the color of the foundation stone. On closer inspection, the granite used for the memorial shows a light gray color mixed with mica . In the evenings these reflexes are evoked.
On Saturday, October 5th, 1929, the church council of St. Marien placed the certificate, in which the history of the memorial for the 318 war victims of the St. Marien community in Lübeck, was placed in the step substructure of the monument below the window of the mayor's chapel and on Tuesday, 8 October, which took place transportation of the main block of the monument from the port to the state port. The granite stone, which weighs 23,000 kg and has a side length of 1.80 m × 2.70 m × 1.57 m and a volume of approx.7.6 cubic meters , was made with a tank car from the Joachim Parbs company and a team of 16 Horses transported.
In the following weeks, the sculptural work by the Berlin sculptor Moserker was carved into both sides of the granite block and the writing was completed by the stonemasons from the Bruhn company. Subsequently, the globe surrounded by a wreath of thorns , which, as it were, indicates the mourning of the whole world for the war victims, and the bronze cross , as a symbol of Christian faith and hope , were put on.
The front of the memorial bears the Bible verse as an inscription :
such as
their dead
1914 1918
(added after the Second World War )
1939 1945
and on the back the work mark of St. Mary .
The narrow side facing west bears the image of the dragon slayer St. Jürgen with the inscription:
On the narrow side facing east the portrait of the patron saint of the Germans. St. Michael who symbolically killed the dragon of discord , with the inscription :
The granite block that stands on the church grounds is the only memorial for the fallen in a public square in Lübeck.
After it had become a meeting place for punks in the 1990s , it was separated from the Marienkirchhof by a wrought iron grating.
Roll of honor
The names of the 318 war victims of St. Mary's could not be affixed to the surfaces of the granite block because of its general character .
For this reason, a large bronze plaque in the shape of a cross, modeled by Prof. Schwegerle, was placed inside the church. Originally, their place in the south-eastern ambulatory chapel was intended for the memorial. The names of the 318 were recorded in gold letters on the cross cast in ore . It was the same day inaugurated . Next to her is the plaque of honor with the names of those who fell from the Lübeck teachers' college.
The plaque survived the air raid on Lübeck on March 29, 1942 , but lost the gilding of the names. It has been preserved to this day, albeit difficult to find due to an installation by Günther Uecker that was previously on permanent loan .
inauguration
While born in Lübeck Schwegerle the event attended, Pagels was by a commitment in the Villa Hugel to eat prevented.
In addition to numerous senate and citizenship members , such as B. their deputy spokesman Dr. Rudolf Keibel , the church and monument councils were present. The Reichswehr Infantry Regiment No. 6 , in whose 8th company the infantry regiment "Lübeck" (3rd Hanseatic) No. 162 continued to exist, and the National Warrior Association and the Association of Inactive Officers , among them Otto Dziobek (who now lives in Hamburg Authors of the Lübeck regimental history ), were represented. Karl Dieffenbach and General von Rettberg , s. Currently Colonel , could not accept their invitations.
The consecration of the two memorials took place in a funeral service on the Sunday of the Dead , November 24th, 1929. For that act , the bereaved were sent separate invitations, which reserved them places in the central nave .
The sermon , in which among other things the names of the 318 fallen parishioners were read out, was given by the senior pastor, Denker . After the service was over, the congregation gathered in the north aisle, following the church council, the numerous delegations of the corporations and the flags, around the ambulatory , past the honor plaque and stepping out of the south portal onto the church square .
Under the ringing of bells and the played by the regimental band song I give myself was funeral received on the Marienkirchhof.
The clock struck eleven as the festivities began with silent devotion. Then the chairman of the church council, Mr. Dahms , carried out the unveiling of the memorial, and the message of the memorial summarized as follows: May it bear witness for all time that our race indelibly remembers the dear dead.
The laying of wreaths , e.g. B. from Senator Eckholdt for the city or Mr. Schmidt for the National Warrior Association, followed the dedication speech of Pastor Pautke .
The memorial and unveiling ceremony concluded with the song I had a comrade , and a long procession of the bereaved passed the memorial.
literature
- Memorial consecration to St. Marien. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1929/30, No. 5, edition of December 8, 1929, pp. 17-20,
- Inauguration of the memorial of St. Marien. In: Lübeckische advertisements , No. 275, edition of November 25, 1929.
- War memorial to St. Mary. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1929/30, No. 1, edition of October 13, 1929, pp. 3–4.
- From the St. Marien Memorial. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1928/29, no. 20, edition of July 7, 1929, pp. 77–78.
- Lübeck address book from 1929.
Archives
- City archive of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jenns Eric Howoldt: The crucifix by Ludwig Gies. In: The car . 1988, ISBN 3-87302-048-3 , pp. 164-174.
- ↑ The draft was published in "Von Lübeck Towers", the illustrated entertainment supplement of the Lübeck General-Anzeiger , issue no. 25 of vol. 38 of December 14, 1928.
- ^ The Sunday of the Dead in 1929
- ↑ 1 Corinthians 13:13
- ↑ The closing words of We Come to Prayer
- ^ Deputy chairman of the parish church council.
- ↑ Owner of the print shop Gebrüder Borchers, which printed among other things the Lübeck advertisements and the father city papers .
- ↑ He was forced to retire in 1933 and appointed mayor of Reinfeld in 1945.
- ↑ Schmidt-Römhild
- ^ Treasurer of the church council of the community
Coordinates: 53 ° 52 ′ 3.3 ″ N , 10 ° 41 ′ 5.5 ″ E