Friedrich Franz III memorial

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Contemporary postcard from the monument

The Friedrich Franz III memorial in Rostock was erected based on a design by the sculptor Wilhelm Wandschneider and unveiled in 1901. It is not preserved.

description

The monument shows the bronze statue of the tall, unusually slender Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III. from Mecklenburg-Schwerin . The person depicted in a closed uniform coat rests with his right hand on an ornate pedestal slightly behind him, which shows a female figure on the outside, apparently the crowning personification of the state of Mecklenburg ( megalopolis ). The left hand grabs the belted belt at a slight angle . The right leg is slightly in front in the counter post, the gaze is directed slightly to the right over the viewer. The base made of polished red granite only bears the inscription "FRIEDRICH FRANZ III." At the bottom, the base is surrounded by a 28 cm high bronze relief. Between the laurel and oak leaves, a number of coats of arms were incorporated: (front) the motto of the Princely House " Per aspera ad astra " and the coat of arms of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, (left) the coats of arms of the County of Schwerin and the Princely House of Werle , (behind) the Coat of arms of the Diocese of Schwerin and the Principality of Ratzeburg , (right) the coats of arms of the Stargard and Rostock rulers . The total height was a little more than five meters, of which almost 2.70 meters (1½ times life size) were accounted for by the bronze statue.

history

Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III, who had been ruling since 1883 and had suffered from asthma and heart disease, died under circumstances that are still largely unexplained. on April 10, 1897 by a fall in Cannes . After an initial appeal for donations in August 1897, several sculptors applied for the execution of the monument, including the three Mecklenburg-born Wilhelm Wandschneider, Hugo Berwald and Ludwig Brunow . The latter withdrew his application after he had received the order for an equestrian monument of Emperor Wilhelm I for Erfurt.

Although Hugo Berwald was a protégé of the grand duke's widow, Wilhelm Wandschneider was able to convince the monument committee with two of his drafts and was awarded the contract. In April 1899 the artist submitted his auxiliary models on a scale of 1: 3 for approval, and in August the Wandschneider's committee approved the design, subject to a few minor changes.

The bronze casting of the statue and the relief frieze was done in the Lauchhammer art foundry , the base was made by the Berlin company Kessel & Röhl , which is known for numerous such works . The total cost was 31,000 marks.

revelation

Unveiling ceremony
Monument Square 1903

In preparation for the erection of the monument, the monument with the bronze bust of the African explorer Paul Pogge , which had been in the same location in the rose garden in front of the Ständehaus since 1885, had to be moved to another location. The monument to Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III, the first of a sovereign prince in the Hanseatic city, was ceremoniously unveiled on June 19, 1901. Numerous guests attended the celebrations, including the leading members of the grand ducal family, first and foremost Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV , who had only reigned since April 1901 , his grandmother, the widowed grand duchess Marie and his mother , the widowed grand duchess Anastasia , and also Duke Paul Friedrich with wife Maria , Duke Adolf Friedrich and Prince Christian of Denmark with his wife Alexandrine .

Sculptor Wandschneider received his first major award on the occasion of the unveiling ceremony, the “ Medal of Merit for Art and Science ” in gold from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

The weeks after the unveiling ceremony were dominated by a further horticultural design of the memorial complex in the rose garden near the stone gate. Shortly after the consecration, the Rostock architect Alfred Krause (Büro Krause & Korff, Rostock) gave the monument an architectural border in the form of a wall with stone benches.

Whereabouts

Monument Square today (2008)

So far, there have only been speculations about the whereabouts of the monument. However, the assumption that the plastic was only removed after the end of the war is wrong. In fact, the monument is said to have been dismantled and melted down as early as 1941 as part of the metal donation by the German people . It is at least certain that the sculpture was no longer on its base before the end of the war. The architect and conservationist Adolf Friedrich Lorenz, for example, in his "opinion on the conservation issues for planning the reconstruction of the city of Rostock" of January 15, 1945, proposes an architectural solution to "replace the horticultural facilities of the wall promenade with Friedrich-Franz -III.-Monument to give a permanent conclusion. " The base was moved to the premises of the Neptun shipyard after 1945 and only acquired there in the 1970s by a local stonemason and made into tombstones. The still-preserved OdF monument was erected on the steps of the monument in 1947 .

literature

  • Wilhelm Wandschneider: From my life. Plau 1939 (unpublished)
  • Alexander Schacht: Sculpture in public space in Rostock and Warnemünde in the period between 1860 and 1945. In: Lichtnau, Bernfried (Ed.): Fine arts in Mecklenburg and Pomerania from 1880 to 1950. Berlin 2011, pp. 394–411

Web links

Commons : Monument to Friedrich Franz III. Rostock  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 54 ° 5 ′ 10.6 ″  N , 12 ° 8 ′ 24.7 ″  E