Gëlle Fra

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gëlle Fra
Gëlle Fra

Gëlle Fra

Data
place Luxembourg City
builder Sculptor Claus Cito
Construction year 1923
height 21 m

Gëlle Fra (German: Golden Woman) is the common name of the Monument du Souvenir , a memorial on the Place de la Constitution in Luxembourg (city) . It was created in 1923 by the sculptor Claus Cito .

Reason for edification

The monument was erected in 1923, after the First World War , to commemorate the Luxembourgers who voluntarily served in the French and Belgian armies and who died in the First World War. It represents peace, victory and the nation that reminds of its war heroes.

Comparable victory columns were known from Berlin and other (capital) cities. The Gëlle Fra is one of the last victorious columns in this series and is nevertheless not a copy of the previous statues, but an independent work of art by the Luxembourg sculptor Claus Cito.

The sculpture

The Gëlle Fra
Nike by Paionios
Mary with a wreath of stars in the Palazzo Barberini

The sculpture is a gilded bronze statue. The ancient model is the ancient goddess Nike des Paionios , excavated by German archaeologists in 1875 , which can now be seen in the Archaeological Museum Olympia . In contrast to the Nike of Samothrace excavated by the French in 1863 and its artistic variations in the form of numerous victory columns with victory angels, Claus Cito's antique model and his artistic interpretation has no wings. The Luxembourgish sculptor with Italian roots has depicted his Nike like a Mary with a star wreath, which can be seen on an Italian ceiling fresco by the Baroque painter Pietro da Cortona in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Instead of the star wreath, Cito has his wingless goddess hold the laurel wreath aloft in the same pose as the apocalyptic Maria . Cito's decision to also remember Mary with the wreath of stars when designing a goddess of victory is a well-thought-out message in terms of content, because Mary with the wreath of stars is considered the victor over sin and the evil of the world. The bronze figures on the base, a reclining fallen man and a seated mourner, are shown in classic antique clothing to avoid any political uniform and to give the memorial a universal validity.

The choice of the location on Bastion Beck, in the immediate vicinity of the Cathedral of the Dear Lady of Luxembourg , triggered violent criticism from the clergy in 1923 . It is important to know that the Luxembourg cathedral was consecrated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary in 1621 and that in the Baroque period the figure of Mary with the star wreath became the ecclesiastical symbol of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

For the Luxembourg clergy, Cito's mixture of Greek goddess and Mary with a star wreath was therefore an aesthetic and artistic outrage. The dress that stuck to the body of the sculpture was criticized as the purest nudity.

Until 2015, it was unknown which female body had served the sculptor Claus Cito as a model for the Gëlle Fra. Until then, a model from Brussels with an unknown name had been accepted as a template for the Gëlle Fra .

In 2015, a Luxembourg local historian published in the Luxemburger Wort that his own aunt, the then twenty-three-year-old baker's wife Suzanne Marx-Wildschütz from the baker directly across from Claus Cito's workshop in Niederkerschen, had in fact modeled him and that was a family secret until her death . It is also said to have been her husband, the baker Joseph Marx, who at that time carried the draft of the Gëlle Fra on his horse-drawn carriage to the capital.

history

From 1923 to October 21, 1940, the Gëlle Fra symbolized the freedom and independence of the Luxembourg country for the population. After the attack by the German Wehrmacht in 1940, Luxembourg was established as a CdZ area of ​​Luxembourg under the direction of Gustav Simon . From October 19 to 21, 1940 there were several attempts by the civil administration to destroy the monument of the Gëlle Fra , which repeatedly failed due to the civil resistance of the Luxembourgers. Luxembourg construction companies and their workers refused to demolish it, protest gatherings of mostly young Luxembourgers were violently broken up and a three-meter high wooden fence was built around the Gëlle Fra area. On the afternoon of October 21, 1940 the Gëlle Fra was knocked down with the help of a steamroller and steel cables. The bronze figures on the base were previously saved by a Luxembourg construction company, but the golden figure broke into three parts, but was rescued and hidden by unknown Luxembourgers. The Gëlle Fra was lost for 35 years until it was found again in January 1980 under the stands of the Josy Barthel municipal football stadium. After extensive restoration work, it was inaugurated on June 23, 1985 in the presence of the Grand Duke Jean and the government. The experience of the war and its history gave the memorial a new meaning. Today the memorial commemorates those who died in the First and Second World Wars, as well as those who died in Luxembourg during the Korean War . The Gëlle Fra is the national Luxembourg symbol for freedom and resistance of the Luxembourg people. In 2010, Gëlle Fra, well packed in a wooden box , traveled by plane to Shanghai for the world exhibition , where she stood in the Luxembourg Pavilion for six months. To be on the safe side, they had previously had an exact cast made and the figure itself re-gilded.

Artistic actions

In 2001 the Croatian artist Sanja Iveković had her pregnant version of Gëlle Fra as “Lady Rosa of Luxemburg” set up on an obelisk next to the original. This led to discussions and fierce criticism, because many Luxembourgers knew that the Gëlle Fra is partly a representation of Mary and that a pregnant Mary is an attack on the dogma of the virgin birth.

Similar victory statues

All other world-famous Greek and Roman goddesses of victory on columns, roofs and fountains are depicted with wings reminiscent of angels of peace, with one exception in the USA, the Dewey Monument, which is a mixture of the goddess Victoria with the attribute of Neptune represents.

The goddess of victory Nike on the victory monument in Freiburg im Breisgau has wings, but wears the victory wreath with both arms above her head and stands on a ball. That is why the Freiburg Nike is the first created goddess of victory with an allusion to a Maria standing on the globe with the star wreath. The Gëlle Fra Luxemburgs is reminiscent of the Italian Maria with the star wreath and is the only one of its kind in the world without wings.

Wreath-laying at the Gëlle Fra in Luxembourg (dates)

Annually on September 10th:

It is the date on which the capital Luxembourg was liberated by the US 5th Armored Division in 1944 . Every year on September 10th, the government and municipal administration of Luxembourg organize a commemoration with wreath-laying ceremony. Members of the government, the Luxembourg army with a military band, patriotic associations and special personalities are present.

Annually on September 21:

On this day, the customs administration celebrates its patron saint, Saint Matthew . Before the service in the cathedral there is a ceremonial wreath-laying ceremony on the Gëlle Fra by customs officers in dress uniforms.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benoit Majerus: D'Gëlle Fra. In: Sonja Kmec (Ed.): Lieux de mémoire au Luxembourg. Places of remembrance in Luxembourg. 2nd edition, Verlag Saint-Paul, Luxembourg 2008, ISBN 978-2-87963-705-1 , pp. 291-296. on-line
  2. ^ Nike von Paionios , Archeological Museum of Olympia, February 21, 2016
  3. ↑ Immaculate Conception ( Memento of March 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Kirchengucker, accessed on February 28, 2016
  4. ↑ Dr. Sabine Dorscheid, Jean Reitz: Claus Cito, a Luxembourgish sculpting career 1882-1965 ( Memento of March 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Agence Luxembourgeoise d'action culturelle, accessed February 28, 2016
  5. ↑ Nikolaus Anen, Jean Wildschütz: The Gëlle woman was my aunt . In: Luxemburger Wort, July 22, 2015.
  6. ↑ Paul Dostert: The destruction of the Gëlle Fra on October 21, 1940  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , In: Ons Stad, issue 60/1999, pages 16-18.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / onsstad.vdl.lu  
  7. ^ "Gëlle Fra" goes on a journey.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Luxemburger Wort, February 22, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.wort.lu  
  8. ↑ Josy Braun: Meng Gëlle Fra . In: Ons Stad, issue 60/1999, pages 28–29 ( PDF file  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / onsstad.vdl.lu  
  9. ↑ Lady Rosa of Luxembourg on NY at MoMA rtl, December 13, 2011
  10. ^ Remembrance of the liberation of Luxembourg in September ( Memento of March 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Musée national d'Histoire et d'Art, Luxembourg

Web links

Commons : Monument du souvenir Gëlle Fra  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 36 '28 "  N , 6 ° 7' 32"  E