Iron Hindenburg

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Iron Hindenburg (Postcard 1916)
Iron Hindenburg (Postcard 1919)

The Iron Hindenburg in Berlin was the largest German nail figure during the First World War . It was made after the full body likeness of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and was created in 1915 for a war nailing .

Design and execution

The figure was designed by the painter and sculptor Georg Marschall and executed by graduate engineer Kohlrausch. The proceeds of the nailing should be divided among the three donors of the figure, the Luftfahrerdank Foundation , the National Foundation and the City of Berlin.

The figure was made of 26 t of alder wood and was supported by a 6 t heavy iron frame; allegedly it was the largest wood carving in the world at the time. The figure was a good 12.50 m high, the height of the head was 1.35 m, the circumference of the (uniform) coat 9.50 m. The information varies considerably in different publications.

The figure was erected on Königsplatz and nailed for the first time on September 4, 1915. He carried a sign that read: “The iron Hindenburg of Berlin. Nailing daily. Even in the cold season. If the weather is nice, a military concert. ” This gave the Berliners a boost to donate. Together with Dä kölsche Boor en Iser in Cologne , the Iron Hindenburg was the most famous nail figure in the German Empire. Its inauguration was reported not only in the German, but also in the French and British press.

Nailing and whereabouts, public reception

By the end of the war, the nailing is said to have generated proceeds of over one million marks . But the collection campaign had a big mistake: The organizing association, Luftfahrerdank G. mb H. , went bankrupt and the donations were lost. The following process did not bring any solution and meanwhile no one was interested in the figure anymore. After the end of the war, the figure was stored in a shed in the north of Berlin and used as firewood. In 1938 the remains were discovered by the criminal police and the head was placed in the aviation collection at Lehrter Bahnhof . There he was burned in a bomb attack during World War II .

Trivia

See also

literature

Contemporary:

  • o. V .: War landmark to nail down. 69 designs from a prize competition of the Deutscher Werkbund , Munich 1915.
  • Hugo Ball : The nailed Hindenburg . In Freie Zeitung of May 4, 1918 (online reproduction).

Secondary:

  • Gerhard Schneider: In iron time. War landmark in the First World War , Schwabach im Taunus 2013, p. 137ff. ISBN 978-3-941264-13-7 . S. oA
  • Gerhard Schneider: On the mobilization of the “home front”: The nailing of so-called war symbols in the First World War , in: Zeitschrift für Volkskunde , 95th year, 1999, pp. 32–62.
  • Michael Diers: Nail men. Propaganda with ephemeral monuments in the First World War , in: Ders. (Ed.): Mon (u) mente. Forms and functions of ephemeral monuments , Berlin 1993, pp. 113–135.
  • Karl-Robert Schütze: The iron Hindenburg. Picture story in postcards. Chronology of events and reports . Schütze, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-928589-21-5 .

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