Germania (Hamminkeln)

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The Germania was a war memorial in the Lower Rhine town of Hamminkeln . It consisted of a Germania statue on a high rectangular base and initially stood on the Hamminkelner Marktplatz before it moved to the city's Protestant cemetery. Although the monument has not existed since 1998, it is still included in the list of architectural monuments in Hamminkeln . A very similar war memorial by the same artist is at the Essen district center Borbeck .

history

On the initiative of the Hamminkelner Kriegerverein , founded in 1869, planning began in 1875 to erect a war memorial on the Hamminkelner Marktplatz. It was intended to commemorate the wars of 1866 and 1870/71 , which were victorious for Prussia , as well as the citizens of Hamminkelner who died in those years. A subscription campaign brought donations of 6,337.40 marks, so that on February 24, 1878, the official commission to the Düsseldorf sculptor Leo Müsch was made. He was supposed to make a Germania statue by July 15 of the following year. On July 8, 1878, the base for the future memorial was erected. After Müsch was allowed to deliver the statue at a later date, it was ceremoniously unveiled on August 24, 1879 as part of a two-day foundation festival.

Because the village center of Hamminkeln was to be modernized and redesigned in the 1960s, the local council decided in September 1967 to dismantle the war memorial. Parking spaces should be created in its place. The decision was carried out only a few days later by a demolition company, which disposed of the statue and its base at the rubbish dump in Bislich . However, the measure drew broad protest from the population. The Germania advocates were finally able to obtain a revision of the council resolution and a referendum in December 1967. At this, the majority of those who voted decided to re-erect the war memorial in a different location. The protest and the resistance of the population against the council decision found an extraordinarily large echo in the press. Not only regional but also national media reported on the case. The First German Television even made a film about the affair in January 1968.

In the meantime, Germania and its base were recovered from the Bislich landfill and stored on the property of the mayor at the time. In the spring of 1968, the heavily damaged statue and base were restored before they found a new location in the city's Protestant cemetery. By 1980, however, the ravages of time had gnawed at the monument so much that the culture committee recommended not only its inclusion in the list of monuments, but also that it be dismantled again in order to save the statue from further deterioration. Only later would it be decided where and how the war memorial was to be erected again. The local council followed the recommendation of the culture committee, but the preservation of the monument turned out to be too expensive. The renovation and conservation of Germania would have cost Hamminkeln DM 35,000  , money that the community could not raise. The then chairman of the Hamminkelner Verkehrsverein, Otto Schlebes, stored the dismantled monument on his company premises for years before he buried the "dying beauty" - irredeemably decayed - there in 1998.

description

The Borbeck Germania statue is very similar to the Hamminkelner Germania

Müsch's sandstone statue showed Germania in a victory pose. Her head was crowned by a laurel wreath . In her raised right hand she held a palm frond while her left hand held a sword propped on the ground . The Prussian eagle crouched at her feet . The statue stood on a rectangular base. It bore the inscription "Your sons who remained glorious in the campaigns of 1866, 1870–71 - the grateful community". A Germania statue made very similar by Leo Müsch has stood in Borbeck-Mitte since 1880.

While the monument stood on Hamminkeln's market square, it was surrounded by a low, square lattice fence. After he moved to Friedhofstrasse, the base stood on a concrete slab that was surrounded by gravel .

literature

  • Klaus Braun: Hamminkeln's "Germania". From a warrior club to a referendum. In: Hamminkelner Verkehrsverein (Ed.): Hamminkeln Ruft. Vol. 9, No. 55, 2011, pp. 4–7 ( PDF ; 16.4 MB), taken from the 2011 yearbook in the Wesel district. Mercator, Duisburg 2010, ISSN  0939-2041 , p. 18 ff.
  • Manfred Neulen: The “Germania” war memorial in Hamminkeln. In: Hamminkelner Verkehrsverein (Ed.): Hamminkeln Ruft. Vol. 9, No. 23, 1994, pp. 18-19 ( PDF ; 5.1 MB).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Neulen: The war memorial the "Germania" in Hamminkeln. 1994, p. 18.
  2. ↑ a b M. Neulen: The war memorial the "Germania" in Hamminkeln. 1994, p. 19.
  3. ↑ K. Braun: Hamminkeln's "Germania". From a warrior club to a referendum. 2011, p. 4.
  4. ↑ a b K. Braun: Hamminkelns "Germania". From a warrior club to a referendum. 2011, p. 5.
  5. ↑ Jarmila Nickel: The Germania - A monument disappears. In: Hamminkelner Verkehrsverein (Ed.): Hamminkeln Ruft. Vol. 16, No. 38, 2001, p. 10 ( PDF ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and remove then this note .; 5 MB). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hvv-hamminkeln.de
  6. ↑ a b c K. Braun: Hamminkeln's "Germania". From a warrior club to a referendum. 2011, p. 7.
  7. ↑ Otto Schlebes in a letter dated 24 March 1998 to the then city manager Hamminkelns. Quoted in Hamminkelner Verkehrsverein (ed.): Hamminkeln Ruft. Jg. 17, No. 40, 2002, p. 39 ( PDF ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and remove then this note .; 5 MB). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hvv-hamminkeln.de