Holderlin in the roundabout
Hölderlin in the roundabout is a roundabout work of art by Peter Lenk , which has stood in Friedrich Hölderlin's hometown Lauffen am Neckar since 2003 .
Basic structure
The commissioned work, costing 130,000 euros, is made of cast stone and metal. The scaffolding on which the figures are attached has the shape of a large H , inclined slightly to the right , the horizontal line of which protrudes over the side panels and rises from left to right. Although the composition does not actually have a front side, depending on its location, a front can be made out through this letter-shaped framework. This front side faces the city center or the thoroughfare that crosses under the railway line. Another axis is a large quill pen , which balances on the crossbar of the H and carries several figures - above all those of the work of art that gave its name. The tip of the 7.32 m long quill pen also points towards the city center. The construction of the plant is intended to create a line of sight to the cloister courtyard area where Hölderlin spent his early childhood.
characters
Hölderlin is represented twice in Lenk's composition, once in the form of a toddler sitting on the end of the quill pen, looking at the sky and spreading its arms, once as an adult. The adult Holderlin forms the center of the front view. He sits astride, with bowed head and hands crossed on his back, on the front end of the quill pen and lets his feet hang - the body language of the two Hölderlin figures thus forms a clear contrast.
While Hölderlin is fully and contemporary dressed in both depictions, the dioscuri Schiller and Goethe , who stand behind him on the pen, act naked. They form a peculiar double being, a kind of Siamese twin who only have one common abdomen. This fits anatomically to Goethe's upper body, which is turned towards the adult Holderlin in one step. With the left thumb pointing downwards, the figure of Goethe signals the rejection of Hölderlin's works. The right hand is placed in a somewhat violent gesture on the upper arm of the Schiller figure, which grows out of Goethe's back above the hips and points in the opposite direction. Schiller, who is turned towards the looking up Holderlin in the form of a child, holds up a laurel wreath. In this double figure you can see a quote from the Goethe-Schiller monument in Weimar and in the representation of Schiller's echoes of the Dannecker statue.
Another naked figure stands on the lower end of the crossbeam and turns her back to the quill: Susette Gontard as Diotima leans casually on the left side of the H, her hands crossed behind this strap.
From the upper end of the crossbar, Friedrich Nietzsche is riding an ancient bicycle towards the group, his left hand on the handlebars and his raised right holding a kind of thyrsos with grapes. In contrast to the three people just mentioned, he is again clothed.
On the tip of the right, higher girder lies the slain Württemberger stag with hanging legs and hanging head . The former sovereign Carl Eugen stands on the animal, legs apart and in a self-confident pose . It forms the upper end of the work of art and faces in the same direction as the two Hölderlin figures. He looks down at the adult Holderlin with a stern expression.
Interpretations and reactions
The city of Lauffen, in which Hölderlin spent the first four years of his life, commissioned the work as their second monument for Hölderlin. At the inauguration of the group of figures, Peter Lenk himself pointed out that poetry as well as love and power are all about balance; all three elements are represented by the figures of the work of art. The journalist Siegfried Schilling saw in the work of art an invitation to criticism as well as tolerance and liberality. As a heaven-storming metal sculpture was Hölderlin at the roundabout - not entirely correct - in the Berliner Morgenpost called.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.peter-lenk.de/html/obj/hoelderl.htm#
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2009 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.
- ↑ http://www.peter-lenk.de/html/obj/hoelderl.htm# Express, June 4, 2003
- ↑ http://www.morgenpost.de/printarchiv/reise/article229405/Kulturschaetze_im_Kraichgau.html
literature
- Bettina Kessler: Art in the roundabout: “Hölderlin in the roundabout”. In: Die Gemeinde 18, 2006. ZDB -ID 123867-x
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 4 '43.2 " N , 9 ° 9' 0.6" E