Heinrich Heine Monument (Berlin)
The Heinrich Heine Monument in Berlin is a bronze figure of the poet Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) created by the sculptor Waldemar Grzimek . A special feature is that exactly the same monument can be seen as a result of cultural-political disputes in two different locations in the cityscape, only a few kilometers apart.
Grzimek had received the order in 1954 from the Kulturfonds Groß-Berlin , an institution of the GDR . The sculpture was to be set up in a representative location in Berlin, on the chestnut grove next to Unter den Linden , in the vicinity of the Humboldt University (where Heine was enrolled in the law faculty in 1821 ), the former armory and the Neue Wache . It was planned to inaugurate the monument on the 100th anniversary of the poet's death.
It didn't come to that. Grzimek's draft did not meet with the approval of the officials, who had the last word. Even after the sculptor had considered some objections and reworked the sculpture, the client refused their permission to set up the figure as planned. A campaign against Grzimek's work began in a state-affiliated Berlin daily newspaper. The criticism was less concerned with artistic than with ideological questions. In the GDR, Heine had been appropriated as a cultural and historical leading figure, his public representation should correspond to the expectations of the functionaries of this role. Grzimek had not lived up to these expectations. The sculpture was found to be “too little heroic”, “too introverted”, “too unrepresentative, without any solemnity”, “without pathos and monumentality” etc. Although a number of artists campaigned for the monument, it initially disappeared in public inaccessible construction site on Berlin's Museum Island , then there on Kupfergraben opposite the Pergamon Museum. In 1958, two years later, it was given a place in the comparatively remote park on Weinbergsweg (Brunnenstrasse, corner of Veteranenstrasse) ⊙ .
In 1997 a new chapter in this story began. The Berlin Wall had long since fallen, the GDR no longer existed, and the then Senator for Culture of Berlin, Peter Radunski , suggested that the exiled figure be erected on Heine's 200th birthday in the place for which it was created. Now, however, the residents of the park in which the plastic had stood for almost 40 years protested. And hesitant resistance came from the responsible district councilor Thomas Flierl , who argued something like this: the non-existence of this monument at the Kastanienwäldchen , an area in the center of the former Prussian militarism, was the real memorable thing and therefore preferable. A decision was only made years later. In the meantime, Peter Dussmann had found a patron who donated 125,000 euros for a new cast - and on December 13, 2002, the poet's 205th birthday, an exact copy of the monument was unveiled at the originally intended location.
With the help of the plaster mold, another copy of the sculpture was made on October 1, 2010, the Heinrich Heine monument in Bremen, which was set up next to the Kunsthalle Bremen ⊙ .
Reception in literature
The playwright and poet Peter Hacks dedicated his poem Der Heine auf dem Weinbergsweg to the memorial .
gallery
Heinrich Heine Monument, detail
Heinrich Heine monument, base relief, detail
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 57 ″ N , 13 ° 24 ′ 0 ″ E