Cenotaph for the anti-fascist resistance fighters executed in the Brandenburg-Görden prison
The memorial to the executed in the penitentiary Brandenburg-Gorden anti-fascist resistance fighters in Brandenburg an der Havel , a memorial and a memorial cemetery for the penitentiary Brandenburg-Gorden by the Nazis murdered antifascists . With some additions, the memorial now also commemorates other victims of war and violence.
history
The memorial at the northern foot of the Marienberg was built in 1947. The memorial was designed by the sculptor Andreas Treyne . It was built not far from the city crematorium where the murdered were cremated . The prison operators had buried the urns in various places on the prison grounds.
In preparation for the memorial, an eight-meter-high memorial wall made of red clinker was erected, in front of which the bronze sculpture Der Gefesselte was placed. The sculpture comes from Threyne's workshop. At the same time, 365 urns with the ashes of some victims could be converted to the memorial. A large number of urns, around 1450, were given to the victims' homelands.
Numerous former prisoners, high-ranking politicians and delegations from schools and companies attended the inauguration ceremony.
On the initiative of a French resistance organization ( Federation of Déportés national du travail ), a 1965 granite inaugurated -Gedenkstein who perished French resistance fighters and forced laborers honors in Brandenburg armament factories. This stone, overturned in 1994, has been restored and repositioned. Following this example, Italians and other foreign organizations then put up more memorial stones.
In 1975 the memorial was extensively expanded and redesigned. The original central axis of the memorial, which ran between the memorial wall and the former crematorium, has been abandoned. The focus of the newly designed memorial complex was the former roll call area of the prison with now two clinker walls and another symbol, a stone-carved hand of oath by the Brandenburg sculptor Monika Spiess . Behind the memorial wall, people such as Gertrud Piter and “anti-Nazi resistance fighters, deserving party veterans and activists from the very beginning ” were buried, most of whom were not imprisoned here in the penitentiary.
Description of the memorial
The central element of the memorial is the large red brick wall , which is intended to symbolize the prison wall . The figure placed in front of it represents a resistance fighter who is led to the execution with his hands tied, his torso bare and prisoner trousers . Next to this is a bronze funeral wreath . On the front of the wall is written in large metal letters :
"LEAD TO DEATH
AND SEE
WE LIFE"
On the back of the wall is another inscription:
"YOUR FIGHT
IS OUR
OBLIGATION"
On the left and in front of the wall there is a bowl of the honoring flame , in whose inscription the twelve nationalities of the murdered are commemorated:
"RESISTANT • BELGIUM • GERMAN • FRENCH • GREEK • ITALIAN • YUGOSLAV • NETHERLANDS • NORWEGIAN • AUSTRIAN • POLAND • SOVIET CITIZENS • CZECHOSLOVAKS"
On the right side is a flatter wall made of also red clinker bricks with another inscription, which is divided in two by a stone oath hand by the sculptor Monika Spiess :
"Honorable memory
THE ANTI FASCIST resistance fighters,
IN FORMER PRISON
BRANDENBURG-Gorden KILLED
TO MURDERED
ARE THE OUTSTANDING FIGHTERS
Anton Saefkow Bernhard Bästlein
THEODORE NEUBAUER WERNER SOUL BINDER "
The memorial also includes 96 grave slabs in front of the row of urns with 365 names of the murdered, whose ashes remained in Brandenburg. The memorial is part of the Marienberg monument .
A cast of the hand of the oath was also placed in the memorial room of the prison.
Due to the memorial stones that were still being erected in the 1990s, the memorial complex was redesigned again: A memorial stone was erected in the middle of the axis, which now also includes those who died in the Wehrmacht (especially those who died in the hospital and those who belonged to the Hitler Youth ) and bears the following inscription:
"Remember the victims of wars and tyranny,
reconciliation and peace may be the message of this place."
The last (for the time being) addition was made to the memorial with the inauguration of a memorial stone for the victims of World War I, displacement and deportation , initiated by the Federation of Expellees and the Brandenburg City Administration.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Ivo Asmus, Heiko Droste, Jens E. Olesen (eds.): Common acquaintances: Sweden and Germany in the early modern period on books.google.de. Section: The memorial on the Marienberg by Stefanie Endlich, p. 37ff. Retrieved April 8, 2020. ISBN 3-8258-6616-5 .
- ↑ The memorial. In memory of those executed from prison. In: stadtmuseum-brandenburg.de. Brandenburg City Museum , accessed April 6, 2019 .
- ↑ List of monuments of the state of Brandenburg City of Brandenburg an der Havel. December 31, 2018, accessed April 6, 2019 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 25 ′ 4.5 ″ N , 12 ° 32 ′ 48.8 ″ E