Frankfurt angel
The Frankfurter Engel is the "Memorial to the Persecution of Homosexuals" in Frankfurt am Main . It was opened to the public in 1994 as the first fully plastic memorial to commemorate the persecution of homosexuals in Germany .
initial situation
The persecution of homosexuals in Germany did not end with the liberation from National Socialism . The Federal Republic of Germany adopted Section 175 of the Criminal Code in the form drastically tightened by the Nazis. There were initially memorial plaques of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals in the former Mauthausen and Neuengamme concentration camps . The memorial plaque on Berlin's Nollendorfplatz was the first public commemoration of the homosexual victims of National Socialism in a city in 1989.
Realization
After a group of gays went to an unannounced memorial event at the Alte Oper on December 1, 1990 and there they carved wooden crosses with the names of the deceased in a green area, which the Mayor of the time Volker Hauff subsequently approved and temporarily tolerated, arose a first temporary memorial in Frankfurt, where relatives and friends could lay flowers, put candles and commemorate the deceased.
The project to create a permanent memorial in Frankfurt was carried out by the Mahnmal Homosexual Persecution eV (IMH) initiative founded in 1990 . In 1990 she presented herself to the public with a memorandum calling for a memorial for the homosexual victims of National Socialism. The political situation was favorable: Since 1989, a red - green coalition has had political responsibility in Frankfurt am Main and the Greens had introduced the promotion of gay and lesbian projects into the coalition paper. The city council and city council approved the erection of the memorial in 1992, but without financial support because of the lack of city finances. The invitation to tender for the artistic competition and the construction had to be carried out by the IMH.
On July 20, 1992, she launched a competition to design the memorial. On January 25, 1993, the jury of the competition met in the Museum of Modern Art and decided in favor of the Engel design by Rosemarie Trockel . The estimated costs for their design amounted to 361,000 DM. The Hessische Kulturstiftung promised 105,000 DM. The Hannchen multi-purpose foundation contributed 10,000 DM . The initiative raised the remaining sum of around DM 240,000 with the help of a nationwide fundraising campaign , which at the end of 1993 triggered great solidarity within and outside the gay and lesbian scene. A major sponsorship campaign at banks, insurance companies and large industries had previously produced the sobering result of DM 2,000. At the end of June 1994, the financing of the memorial was finally secured through the donations.
layout
The model for Rosemarie Trockel's work is an angel with a tape , which originally belonged as an eyelash figure to a group of 11 angels that adorned the west portal of Cologne Cathedral . The original by Peter Fuchs from the end of the 19th century no longer exists, just a damaged plaster model. This was reproduced on a 1: 1 scale as a wax cast. Rosemarie Trockel cut off the angel's head and put it back on, shifting it slightly so that the breakage remained visible as a scar. From the modified wax cast , the sculpture was cast in black-patinated bronze in the Rincker bell foundry in Sinn together with an octagonal base, which is part of the sculpture, on November 29, 1993. On the base is an inscription formulated by the initiators of the memorial, which names the crimes of the National Socialists against homosexual men and women:
Homosexual men and women were persecuted and murdered under National Socialism. The crimes were denied, those killed were kept secret, the survivors despised and condemned. We remember this, knowing that men who love men and women who love women can be persecuted time and time again. Frankfurt am Main. December 1994
Location
The memorial is on Klaus-Mann-Platz , at the intersection of Schäfergasse and Alte Gasse . Before the memorial was designed, the area was barely perceptible as a square. The square is in the city center and at the same time in the center of homosexual culture and subculture . To the west it is limited by the sports hall of the Liebfrauenschule . Its undesigned facade with windows that are walled up by glass blocks represents the greatest artistic deficiency in the overall design. The northern development of the square is an architecturally heterogeneous row of buildings. a. a gay scene café, cinema, hotel and bank are located. Schäfergasse runs on its southern side, to the east it meets Alte Gasse in an acute-angled triangle and enables a view of a building of the Frankfurt court. With its proximity and orientation to the courthouse, it also refers to the role of the judiciary in the persecution of homosexuals.
The Amsterdam Homomonument , a memorial in the heart of Amsterdam near the Westerkerk, created on the initiative of Dutch gay and lesbian groups in 1987, served as a model for the design of the memorial and its location . The memorial to commemorate the homosexual victims of Nazi-fascist racism in Bologna , which was created in 1990 on the initiative of the Italian gay association Arci Gay , also influenced the design of the Frankfurt square.
The sculpture of the angel forms the center of a square in a cross-circle shape: four benches form the inner circle, box hedges form an outer circle. They should give the place intimacy and tranquility - a place of remembrance in the middle of the city.
One year after the memorial was erected, the square was named Klaus-Mann- Platz on the initiative of Local Advisory Board 1 of the City of Frankfurt - a square that is not assigned a single house number . In the nationwide competition for the design of public spaces organized by Deutsche Bank Bauspar AG in 1995, he received "honorable recognition". Today it is a popular meeting place in the gay and lesbian scene. The memorial, together with the neighboring AIDS memorial, is the traditional point of contact for the procession of the ecumenical opening service to the Frankfurt CSD .
handing over
On November 24, 1994 the angel arrived in Frankfurt and was installed. On December 11, 1994, the "Memorial to the Persecution of Homosexuals" was opened to the public with a ceremony in the Paulskirche and at the site of the memorial.
effect
Already from December 11, 1993 to February 20, 1994, the exhibition Resistance - Thoughts for the Future with Rosemarie Trockel's sculpture Engel and a representation of the project memorial homosexual persecution was shown in the Haus der Kunst in Munich . From December 10, 1994 to February 7, 1995 the exhibition GEWALT / Shops of the New Society for Fine Art eV with Rosemarie Trockel's model and draft of the memorial as well as photos and texts of the other designs of the competition took place in the Schwules Museum , Berlin .
In 1997 the initiative was published under the title “Der Frankfurter Engel. Homosexual persecution memorial ”is a book that presents all five drafts of the design competition, traces the changes in the square from the 17th to the 20th century in drawings and photographs and documents the handover of the memorial in the speeches of December 11, 1994 in the Paulskirche. In addition, a number of authors reflect from different perspectives on space, sculpture and the persecution of which the Frankfurter Engel commemorates.
In 2013 the place looked neglected. After the neighboring scene - Café , had given place and benches around the monument to stay for homeless people , trashed the place and the monument surrounding hedge. As a result, the “Frankfurter Engel Freundinnenkreis” was founded, which meets once a week on the square during the warm season, tidies up and also organizes cultural events there.
See also
- List of monuments to homosexual victims of National Socialism
- List of stumbling blocks in Frankfurt am Main
literature
- The Frankfurt angel. Memorial to the Persecution of Homosexuals. A reader . Frankfurt 1997. ISBN 3-8218-1445-4
Web links
- Art in public space Frankfurt: Frankfurter Engel
- Frankfurt angel
- Rosa-Winkel-Cologne
- Memorial Berlin
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau of August 2, 2013, p. F11.
Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 0.5 ″ N , 8 ° 41 ′ 6.9 ″ E