Deer pillar
The deer column in Magdeburg is a statue on the city's old market .
It has been located southwest of Magdeburg City Hall since 2012 , but it goes back to an older tradition.
history
The original column was not far from its current location in front of Alter Markt No. 14, in the southeast corner of the square, roughly near the confluence of Hartstrasse . In addition to the Roland and the Magdeburg rider , it was the third statue on the square. The statue is easy to recognize on old drawings of the city, including a woodcut by Hans Renz from 1552. It was first mentioned in 1429. There A Hirschstrasse is mentioned in a later chronicle as early as 1425 , an even earlier origin is possible. A renewal took place in 1503. Other details give, probably incorrectly, the year 1513. A contemporary illustration of the deer column from the 16th century can be found in the Chronika der Sachsen und Nidersachsen by Johannes Pomarius from the year 1589. In the Magdeburg city chronicles of 1587 Pomarius mentioned the in one sentence Deer. When Magdeburg was destroyed in the Thirty Years War in 1631, the deer column was also destroyed and later not rebuilt.
layout
The historical statue was described as a deer with a gold collar, which stands on a probably round column and looks over to the Roland. The column could have been made of wood or stone. The deer is believed to be cast from metal. The statue may have been colored. A similarly colored deer column has been handed down from Lübeck for the year 1641 .
meaning
The meaning of the deer is controversial. Possibly it goes back to an old legend according to which Emperor Charlemagne caught such a deer. According to another version, the emperor is said to have adorned the deer with the collar and released it back into the wild. On the collar it said: Dear hunter, let me live, I want to give you my collar . The stag was then seen again almost 400 years later in the reign of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa . Similar traditions can be found in numerous myths from different epochs and regions, so that the reason for the erection of the stag column in Magdeburg remains in the dark.
For the year 1550 there is a report that several deer lived in the city's fortification moat. During the siege by Moritz von Sachsen on December 5, 1550, someone is said to have fallen into the ditch from Neustadt and then attacked by one of the deer for a long time and finally killed. A connection with the deer column is rather unlikely, as the deer statue had existed for a long time at this point in time.
In 1678, 47 years after the column had disappeared, Gottfried Gengenbach reported that there was originally a brandy tavern in front of the Magdeburg house, which caused a lot of trouble and quarrels. This building was later demolished and a wooden deer was erected on a pillar as a souvenir, but it no longer exists.
Other assumptions see the deer as a right symbol with reference to the Magdeburg jury chair .
Another conjecture sees the deer as a symbol for the promise of heavenly paradise and the Christian faith, a symbol known during the Renaissance . Then the three monuments of the market place Magdeburg Roland , Magdeburger Reiter and the deer column formed a related constellation. The Roland then stood for the jury's chair and thus for the city's own jurisdiction and independence, while the rider stood for the imperial immediacy sought by Magdeburg . The stag completed the ensemble with the aspect of faith, although he turned his back on the Magdeburg Cathedral and thus also on the archbishop.
memory
The Hartstrasse, which still exists today, owes its name to the deer column. Probably because of its confluence with the Old Market at the height of the column, it was originally called " Hirschstrasse " colloquially . Later misunderstandings resulted in the current name Hartstraße. The deer is also said to have been in use for a long time as a house sign, but there is no known direct reference between the house signs and the original deer column.
reconstruction
In April 2007, a Friends of Magdeburg Symbols started an initiative to rebuild the deer figure at a historical location. With a strong public relations work, sponsors were sought for the project. Most of the financing came from private funds. In 2011, a substructure for the deer column was created southwest of the town hall. The unveiling of the new deer figure took place on November 9, 2012 at around 4 p.m. in the presence of the Lord Mayor Lutz Trümper and the former Lord Mayor Willi Polte .
literature
- Karl-Heinz Kaiser: A “great guy” gets company: the stag returns to the market. In: Magdeburger Volksstimme . April 18, 2007.
- Hanns H.-F. Schmidt: A stag with a gold ribbon on a stone column. In: Magdeburger Volksstimme . June 15, 2006.
- W. Schulz: The stag with the golden collar in medieval tradition and the stag image of Magdeburg. In: Annual journal for Central German Prehistory. 40, Halle / S., Pp. 251–260.
- Monument ensemble Alter Markt eV (Ed.): A deer for the old market. around 2007, DNB 98748740X .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c A stag for the old market , publisher: Denkmalensemble Alter Markt eV, no year, p. 6.
- ↑ a b c Kaiser, Volksstimme of April 18, 2007.
- ↑ A stag for the old market , publisher: Denkmalensemble Alter Markt eV, no year, p. 5.
- ↑ a b A stag for the old market , publisher: Denkmalensemble Alter Markt eV, no year, p. 20.
- ^ Günter Hammerschmidt , Houses with house signs in the former old town of Magdeburg , 2004.
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 7 '52.4 " N , 11 ° 38' 22.2" E