Germania (Bad Kissingen)
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The Germania is a memorial created by the sculptor Michael Arnold , which was erected on the occasion of the German War of 1866 in Bad Kissingen, Lower Franconia ( Bad Kissingen district ).
The Germania is located opposite the Bad Kissinger Kapellenfriedhof , a theater of war in the context of the Battle of Kissingen during the German War . It belongs to the Bad Kissingen architectural monuments and is registered under the number D-6-72-114-30 in the Bavarian list of monuments .
history
Shortly after the German War , in September 1866, a committee was set up in Bad Kissingen to erect a monument; the founding members also included as an initiator of the District Officer and Badkommissär (spa director) Joseph von Parseval , that of the wealthy spa guests 4,000 guilders collected in donations. The start-up capital of 80 guilders was supplemented by donations from the regiments involved in the war, so that the committee's balance at the end of 1867 was 1,835 guilders and 60 kr. as well as on May 27, 1868 at 1,948 guilders and 29 kr. lay.
The widow Mathilde Panizza, mother of the writer Oskar Panizza and owner of the Russischer Hof (today: Kurhausstrasse 9 ), provided her field south of the Bad Kissinger Kapellenfriedhof as the location. The sculptor Michael Arnold , who received a fee of 3,000 guilders for the construction of the Germania, was commissioned with the execution of the monument . The conception of the monument expressed the feeling of the German population, who were opposed to the German war , that not only Bavaria but all of Germany had lost the war. This is made clear in the sculpture that two thirds of the eagle on the Reich coat of arms, on which Germania rests, is covered by its coat; only the eagle catches with the imperial orb and scepter can be seen.
According to the Festschrift of the Association for Christian Art , Arnold had the actual Germania sculpture with its 1: 2 model made by his student Valentin Weidner "to his great satisfaction" . According to Arnold's pupil Balthasar Schmitt , Arnold was only able to produce the models for his works for health reasons.
The Germania , completed in 1867/68, could only be inaugurated on September 8, 1869 (under Joseph von Parseval's successor, Clemens zu Pappenheim ), as it took three years for the names of all war victims who were carved on the base of the sculpture to be found out could become.
The Bavarian Queen Marie Friederike and the princes of the Wittelsbach family canceled their participation in the inauguration at short notice. Due to the autumn maneuvers taking place at the same time, only a few officers were present; some of them were in Kissingen for a cure. The public response to the inauguration of the mourning Germania, according to the local newspaper, "modeled by the local sculptor Mr. Arnold with known artistic mastery and executed in Tyrolean marble" met with little public response.
Theodor Fontane's war report “The German War of 1866” , published in 1871, contains a drawing of Germania made by Ludwig Burger with the naming of Michael Arnold as the author of the sculpture.
In 1891, the Bad Kissingen city magistrate and mayor Theobald von Fuchs suggested that Germania be moved between the chapel cemetery and the Liebfrauensee lake in front of it because of "the unsightly surroundings" . On August 11, 1891, the committee of the community plenipotentiary followed the argument of Badkommisär Freiherr von Braun that Germania was a grave memorial due to its location on a mass grave of more than 60 fallen dead, and rejected the proposal for reasons of piety.
When, in November 1891, the government's request as to whether the city was subject to maintenance by Germania was denied by Baron von Braun, the bath commissioner, the government instructed the bath commissioner to beautify the area surrounding the sculpture. These instructions were implemented by the court gardener Singer by planting a box tree in the shape of an iron cross .
As part of his state visit on the occasion of the inauguration of the Bad Kissinger Regentenbau in 1913, Prince Regent Ludwig III. laid a wreath at the Germania . The German Historical Museum in Berlin made a silicone cast of the Germania , which was exhibited in 1990 at the Bismarck exhibition “Prussia-Germany-Europe” and in 2000 at the “ Bavarian State Exhibition ” in Regensburg.
literature
- Denis André Chevalley, Stefan Gerlach: City of Bad Kissingen (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume VI.75 / 2 ). Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-87490-577-2 .
- Werner Eberth : Michael Arnold. A sculptor of the late classicism . Theresienbrunnen-Verlag, Bad Kissingen 2001, pp. 62–69
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 12 ' N , 10 ° 5' E