Ernst August Memorial

Ernst August Monument in front of Hanover Central Station

The equestrian statue in front of the old post office; Postcard number 12, light pressure from Ludwig inhibitors , circa 1900

The Ernst August Monument is an equestrian statue in honor of the sovereign of the former Kingdom of Hanover , King Ernst August . It was created by Albert Wolff in 1861 and erected on Ernst-August-Platz in front of Hanover's main train station. Along with the Kröpcke clock, the memorial is one of the most important meeting places in Hanover , which is commonly referred to as “under the tail”.

description

The main train station in 1900 with fenced equestrian statue , Photochrom print from the collection of the Library of Congress

Medal of Münzgraveurs Friedrich Brehmer on the equestrian statue; Steel engravings from the Ernst August Album

The monument shows King Ernst August I in hussar uniform . The bronze equestrian statue stands on a granite base (from the Brocken ) with the inscription “Dem Landesvater / His loyal people” and “Geb. June 5, 1771. King June 20, 1837. Gest 18 Novbr 1851. Established September 21, 1861 ” .

Emergence

"Cover" of the Ernst August album created on the occasion of the inauguration celebrations of the monument ; Plate color lithograph by Carl Fink of Klindworth's Hofdruckerei to 1862

The inauguration ceremony in front of the “ Central-Bahnhof” (1875); one of the oldest documentary photographs Hanover; probably Friedrich Wunder

Inauguration of the Ernst August monument in 1861; Wood engraving from The Illustrated London News

In February 1855 a committee of civil servants, officers, nobles and church people was formed in Hanover around Oberhofmarschall Ernst von Malortie . The people were called to donate “in the everlasting memory of the tireless care and love that the most blessed king has dedicated to his country” for a memorial to the king who had died three years earlier. Since the donations were insufficient, King George V finally took over part of the financing of the monument's estimated cost of 35,000 thalers .

The order went to the Berlin sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch in 1856 , the design was carried out by his student Albert Wolff , the uniform and head were based on the design by the Hanoverian sculptor Heinrich Hesemann (1814–1856). It was cast by the bronze foundry Bernstorff & Eichwede . The cost was 11,000 thalers for Wolff's model, 12,000 thalers for the bronze casting and 8,400 thalers for the granite base. It was ceremoniously unveiled on September 21, 1861 with 23,000 festival participants, including 8,000 participants in a procession from Waterlooplatz . Originally, the monument was surrounded by a fence, typical of the 19th century, which kept the people at a respectful distance from the monument.

Because of the underground construction of the Hanover city railway under the Bahnhofplatz, the monument was temporarily moved to the Leineschloss in 1971 on today's place of the Göttinger Sieben , in 1975 it was brought back. The city of Hanover removed the stepped substructure on which people had often sat. The monument is also not exactly at the old location (in the alignment of Joachimstrasse), but slightly shifted towards the train station.

The country father his Göttingen seven

Copy of the base in Göttingen

As an ironic allusion to the slogan “To the country father, his loyal people”, a work by the artist and Berlin professor Christiane Möbus was offered to the city of Göttingen for donation in 2014 and was unveiled on November 19, 2015. This is a base identical in shape and size, but "without horse and rider", which - similar to Hanover - was set up in front of the Göttingen train station .

After the Nobel laureate for literature and sculptor Günter Grass and his publisher Gerhard Steidl had already donated the monument to the Göttingen Seven to the city in 2011, Christiane Möbus's empty plinth bears the inscription "To the father of Göttingen " on the one hand, and the names of the seven in some parts of the country on the other Referred Göttingen professors as well as the eighth name of the artist herself, who wants to express her solidarity with the Göttingen seven and their moral courage .

In addition to the seven names, adding that of the artist as the eighth name in the same font and font size, however, was perceived as a self-presentation and met with harsh criticism in various circles. According to an expertise by Philip Ursprung , the work offered to the City of Göttingen is a "formally excellent, inspiring, critical and at the same time easily accessible contribution to the discussion of the memorial in today's society."

The monument ends at the top with the bronze foot, but in the inscription the date when Ernst August began to rule on June 20, 1827 was given ten years too early. The mistake was corrected a good two weeks after the monument was unveiled.

Media coverage (selection)

• Michael Brakemeier: 41 cubic meters of granite and eight names / empty plinth planned as a memorial for Göttingen Seven at the train station , article on the additional memorial by artist Christiane Möbus at the Göttingen train station , in: Göttinger Tageblatt of May 13, 2014; last accessed online on November 17, 2014

literature

• Images from three centuries in Hanover . Described by Gert von der Osten . Recorded by Hildegard Müller. Edited by the Kunstverein Hannover on its 125th anniversary. Bruckmann, Munich 1957.
• Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Ernst-August-Platz. In: Hanover art and culture lexicon , handbook and city guide
  • 3rd, rev. Schäfer, Hannover 1995, p. 94. ISBN 3-88746-313-7
  • 4th, updated and revised new edition: zu Klampen, Springe 2005, ISBN 978-3-934920-53-8 , pp. 104f.
• Hugo Thielen: Ernst August Monument. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 164.

See also

• List of monuments in Hanover

Web links

Commons : Ernst-August-Denkmal (Hannover)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Simon Benne: 150 Years of the Ernst August Monument in front of the train station , www.haz.de, August 26, 2011, accessed on November 18, 2017
2. ^ Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Bernstorff, Johann Friedrich. In: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 55; on-line:
3. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Brakemeier: 41 cubic meters of granite and eight names ... (see under the section media coverage )
4. ↑ Hilmar Beck (responsible): Brunnen-Denkmale-Kunst in Göttingen / Göttinger Sieben on the page denkmale.goettingen.de of the city of Göttingen, last accessed on November 17, 2014
5. ↑ Gallery image at ( Memento of the original from November 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Göttinger Tageblatt , accessed on November 19, 2015 
6. ↑ Photo of the inscription on the monument base, taken on November 19, 2015
7. ↑ Ulrich Schubert: The X is here. In: Göttinger Tageblatt online. Göttinger Tageblatt GmbH & Co. KG, December 4, 2015, accessed on December 5, 2015 . 

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 34 "  N , 9 ° 44 ′ 26"  E