Tomb for Selma Halban-Kurz
Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 6.6 ″ N , 16 ° 26 ′ 18.9 ″ E
The tomb for Selma Halban-Kurz , also known as the Great Recliner , is a sculpture by Fritz Wotruba in the Vienna Central Cemetery at the grave of the married couple Selma von Halban-Kurz († 1933) and Josef von Halban († 1937).
history
The opera singer Selma Halban-Kurz died on May 10, 1933. Two days later she was buried in a grave of honor (Group 14C, number 8) in the Central Cemetery in Vienna. Next to it, with the number 7 of this group, was the grave of the theologian and Christian-conservative Federal Chancellor Ignaz Seipel .
Selma Halban-Kurz's widower, the physician Professor Josef von Halban , commissioned Fritz Wotruba - probably with the mediation of Carl Moll - to design a special tomb. On January 31, 1934, he submitted a sketch to the municipal department 13a, which was responsible for the approval of such monuments, showing a lying woman with a naked torso. The figure should be executed in Untersberg marble . After the authorities apparently did not agree with Wotruba's design, the sculptor visited the office personally on February 3, 1934. In a conversation that day a change to the grave border was agreed, which should harmonize with the honorary graves in the area. Wotruba agreed to the required modification of his design, as the actual tomb was not affected, and received approval for his plans on the same day. Apparently a little later the tomb was erected; it was unveiled on May 10, 1934.
During the planning and construction of the tomb the establishment of the Dollfuss regime and the prohibition of social democracy in Austria fell. In February 1934 the social democratic mayor of Vienna, Karl Seitz , was arrested and on April 7, 1934 Richard Schmitz , a former follower of Ignaz Seipel, succeeded him in office. Schmitz belonged to the Fatherland Front .
The political change also had consequences for the authorities, who had to deal with the design of the cemetery: From the beginning of May 1934, the mayor and the municipal administration received numerous complaints about the half-naked woman next to Seipel's grave of honor. In newspaper comments and even in threatening letters to the administration, the removal of the tomb, which was perceived as offensive to obscene, was demanded. On May 16, 1934, Municipal Department 13a, to which the plans had been submitted, asked the municipal authorities why a permit had actually been given for this grave figure. It was now declared that the vicinity of Seipel's honorary grave was only temporary, as Seipel's body was to be transferred to the Memorial Church, which was being built for this purpose. In addition, the permit comes from the "old era" from the time before the May constitution, with which the new regime was established on May 1, 1934.
After the new mayor had personally checked the situation at the cemetery, he ordered the magistrate to remove the statue. This in turn turned to Josef von Halban on June 9, 1934 with the decision to have the tomb removed at his own expense, as it was not appropriate to "the consecration and the seriousness of the place".
For the time being, the figure was covered with a wooden crate. The widower refused to obey the order to remove the sculpture. He argued not only with the approval given in February, but also with the high costs that the construction and erection of the tomb had already caused him. As a result, several compromise proposals were made, such as having the controversial body parts of the statue overgrown with ivy or sharing the costs between von Halban and the community. However, both solutions were not implemented. After a letter signed by 31 artists asking the mayor to leave the sculpture in place in June 1934, and Ignaz Seipel's body was transferred to the Memorial Church , Christ the King's Church in the 15th district, in the fall of 1934 , was apparently no longer insisted and the figure stayed in place. The wooden crate around the controversial sculpture is said to have existed until 1945 or it is said to have been hidden by thick bushes.
After the neighboring grave number was seven long not been established five years., Were after the takeover of the National Socialists of political memory location of the Fatherland Front removed again in the Christ the King Church Seipel and Dollfuss dead bodies out of this church and the resolution. Seipel's body was transferred to its previous grave, so that it came back to lie next to the opera diva and her tomb. Engelbert Dollfuss, murdered in July 1934, found his resting place in the Hietzingen cemetery .
Grave figure
The large reclining figure is 307 cm long, 74 cm high and 104 cm deep or wide and is made of Untersberg marble . The female figure is supported, half lying, half sitting, with a slight rotation of the hips, on her right elbow, while the left arm rests on the left of her body and the left hand on the buttocks and thighs. A covering cloth is indicated over the legs, which are crossed in the area of the lower legs, whereby the left one comes to lie over the slightly drawn up right one, the end of which can be seen over the right forearm. The upper body of the woman, however, is free. She holds her head upright with an implied curly hairstyle with lowered eyelids. It rests on a rectangular plate that is signed “Wotruba” in the front right, below the figure's feet. The actual grave slab with an inscription on the life of the buried is in front of the tomb.
Wotruba's work is now considered to be one of the outstanding artistic grave figures in Vienna's central cemetery. A model of the grave sculpture was shown in the exhibition Wotruba. Life, work, impact in the 21er house of the Belvedere, which ran until April 7, 2013.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fritz Wotruba, Great Reclining Legend
- ↑ a b Fritz Wotruba Private Foundation
- ^ History of the tomb ( Memento of the original dated February 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Description of a design called Little Reclining Lady from Wotruba's estate
- ^ Image of the grave on viennatouristguide.at
- ↑ Figure from above
- ↑ To the exhibition in the 21er Haus
- ↑ To the exhibition in the 21er Haus
