Geutebrück monument

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The Geutebrück monument in Gotha ( Thuringia ) is a memorial stone in the castle park from 1820.

history

The Geutebrück monument in 1885
Remaining of the Geutebrück monument without the Sphinx in 2011

In 1817 , Duke Friedrich IV of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg had a monument erected in memory of the Ducal Council and archive secretary Christian August Geutebrück (1758–1817) on the path that leads through the park to the south of the "Parkpavillon" restaurant . Little is known of Geutebrück's life. In 1803 he donated 200 thalers to the Frankenberg'sche Hospital in Gotha. In the years 1804 to 1810 he was also active as a financial administrator for Frederick IV as long as he was in Rome. The Duke noted that Geutebrück ran the business "with exemplary order and loyalty". Until his death Geutebrück belonged to the Masonic lodge "Ernst zum Kompass". He found his final resting place in the Gothaer Alten Gottesacker (also called Friedhof I ), which was closed in 1904 ; his gravestone has not been preserved.

The monument to Christian August Geutebrück consists of a sandstone block in the form of a lying four-sided prism on which a sphinx once rested. The stone block bears two inscriptions on the long sides, which are now heavily weathered and almost illegible due to splinter hits : The memory of a brave honest man, Herzögl, who died on April 29, 1817. Saxon. Council August Geutebrück, dedicated by his grateful friend F. (F = Friedrich IV.) As well as: Beyond will solve the dark riddle of life , under which a butterfly was as a sign of resurrection and metamorphosis. The narrow sides are decorated with an inverted torch on the one hand, and a laurel wreath with a palm branch on the other.

The creator of the delicate, very finely formed sphinx made of Seeberg sandstone was the Gotha court sculptor Friedrich Wilhelm Eugen Döll . However, the Sphinx was not specially made for the base of the Geutebrück monument. It had already been made by Döll years before and was found in the estate of his stonemasonry after his death in 1816. The base of the Geutebrück monument was therefore made to match the existing sculpture.

Already at the beginning of the 20th century there were complaints about the "almost weathered inscription" on the monument and the "desecration by a rough hand". A bomb hit in 1945, not far from the memorial, tore off the head of the Sphinx and damaged the base, which has been attached to it since then. a. Larger parts of the lower corner edges are missing and countless splinter impacts are visible. From the 1950s there are eyewitness accounts of a badly battered sphinx. This was so badly damaged by a falling tree during a storm that it was removed in the spring of 1963 and disposed of on the rubble area behind the "park pavilion".

literature

  • Memorial books (volume II.), Gotha 1909

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Preview of the book: History of the Gothaic Land. 1870, p. 62 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

Commons : Geutebrück Monument (Gotha)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 '28.4 "  N , 10 ° 42' 5.7"  E