Angel monument

The Engels Monument is a larger than life bronze statue of the German philosopher , social theorist , historian , journalist , communist revolutionary and textile entrepreneur Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). It is located in the Engelsgarten in the Wuppertal district of Barmen between the Engels house , where Engels spent his childhood, and the former location of his birthplace, which was destroyed in the war.

There is currently no uniform naming. The monument is also known as the angel monument, angel sculpture, Friedrich Engels monument or Friedrich Engels statue.

description

The larger than life statue is the work of the Chinese sculptor Zeng Chenggang . The qualified Zeng Chenggang is also the director of the Chinese Sculpture Institute. The statue has a height of 3.85 meters with a width of 1.18 meters and a depth of 1.12 meters. Weighing 868 kilograms, it stands on an approximately 40 cm high pedestal in the form of a truncated pyramid with external dimensions of 2.40 × 2.42 meters. In the steel pedestal, which weighs two tons, there are inscriptions on the front and back. There is a quote from Engels on the front . On the back there is another inscription as a reminder of the handover of the monument. Both are written in German and Chinese:


Inscription in the pedestal (front)		and back

" Gift of the People's Republic of China on the occasion of the visit of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Chinese State Councilor Ma Kai in the Engels House on November 28, 2010. A work of the President of the Chinese Institute for Sculpture Art, Professor Zeng Chenggang, erected by the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Berlin on June 11, 2014 "

The angel quote on the front:

“ Work is the source of all wealth, say the political economists. It is this - alongside nature, which supplies it with the material which it transforms into wealth. But it is infinitely more than this. It is the first basic condition of all human life to such an extent that we have to say in a certain sense: it created man himself. "

- Friedrich Engels " Dialectic of Nature ", 1876

The memorial shows Engels as a thoughtful and somewhat "aging" philosopher. Engels takes on the so-called thinking pose. The statue was deliberately turned with its back to the angel house in order to offer the expected and hoped-for tourists (and business partners) from China a photo opportunity with both objects at the same time.

Just a few meters away is the sculpture “ Die stark Linke ” by the Austrian sculptor Alfred Hrdlicka (1928–2009).

history

Angel monument

The memorial is a gift from the People's Republic of China to Engels' birthplace, Wuppertal, the largest city in the Bergisches Land in North Rhine-Westphalia . The idea goes back to a visit by a Chinese government delegation who visited the Angel's House on November 28, 2010 on Engels' 190th birthday. The delegation included the politician Ma Kai , who at that time held the function of General Secretary of the Central Council of the People's Congress of the PRC. For the first time, the idea and promise of giving the city a large statue of Engels came up.

In October 2011 there was a return visit from Eberhard Illner , the director of the historical center, who toured Zengh's workshops near Beijing and discussed various designs with him. During this encounter, the final design emerged. The Council's Culture Committee was kept informed of this development by Councilor Nocke. City director Johannes Slawig briefed the responsible district representative in Barmen and the council groups in the summer of 2012 . The location as well as the size and materiality of the sculpture should be suggested by the city of Wuppertal. Four locations in the Engelsgarten were considered, which were inspected during an on-site visit in January 2011.

The City Council of Wuppertal voted on the donation on November 18, 2013, and the large CDU / SPD coalition voted to accept the donation.

The statue was flown in from China in early May 2014.

On June 11, 2014, the memorial was presented to the public in the presence of around 250 guests, including Zeng Chenggang, Shi Mingde (Ambassador of the PR China in Germany), Peter Jung (Lord Mayor of Wuppertal) and Eberhard Illner.

criticism

The "thoughtful" angel

The plan to accept the donation of the statue received critical support from the press from the start. In his unveiling speech and in his blog post, Jung tried to point out the changed role of Engels in Germany:

“ I thank you for this great sculpture. In Germany, Engels is viewed critically, but you have to take a differentiated look at his work from his time. "

It is emphasized that Engels does not stand on a pedestal, but only on a 40 centimeter high pedestal. Engels were, so to speak, taken from the pedestal. Ulrich Klan , chairman of the Armin-T.-Wegner-Gesellschaft , and Hajo Jahn , chairman of the Else-Lasker-Schüler-Gesellschaft , refused to accept the gift or were very critical in their attitude towards the gift.

The portrayal of the older angel was also criticized, although he had only spent his childhood and youth in Wuppertal. Illner justifies the portrayal of age as follows: because it is a gift from the People's Republic of China, and Marx and Engels are great wise teachers alongside Confucius and Laotse. The Chinese can only think of such wise teachers as old men. It would also be found that the representation shows Asian facial features. Criticism also had to endure the inscription, which is very difficult to read in the corroded steel.

During the unveiling of the statue took place near a demonstration by Amnesty International to continue existing human rights violations in the PRC instead. Protest rallies were previously called on social networks on the Internet. A small, registered demonstration by the Tibetan Friends was also nearby; Demonstrators from the Marxist-Leninist Party (MLPD) mingled with the guests to protest the statue.

There was also criticism in 2018 of the donation of the Karl Marx monument in Trier .