Isern Hinnerk (nail picture)

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Isern Hinnerk (nail picture) at the new location in the Oldenburg City Museum (2013)

The Isern Hinnerk ( Low German : Eiserner Heinrich ) is a sculpture carved from oak wood , from which a nail picture was created in 1915 through a war nailing with colored nails in Oldenburg . The figure served to raise donations for the Oldenburg Red Cross and is now in the Oldenburg City Museum .

Design and execution

Isern Hinnerk, picture postcard of the Red Cross in Oldenburg (Oldenburg) 1915. Knight figure in front of the blue and red flag of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg with a Low German appeal for donations: "Don't leave Isern Hinnerk unshod, it's good for the Red Cross".

On behalf of the Oldenburg Regional Association of the Red Cross , Bernhard Winter designed a wooden nail relief about 2.70 m high, 1.20 m wide and about 25 cm deep . The execution is a standing armored knight who supports himself with his left hand on his shield. The shield shows the simplified coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg . In his right hand the Isern Hinnerk carries a sword that points upwards with the tip. The figure has two side wings with which it can be closed if necessary.

The nail picture was made by the sculptor Rudolf Michelsen (1870–1941). Carpentry work was done by master carpenter Georg Diers (1878–1972).

The Isern Hinnerk was set up in an outside niche to the left of the main entrance to the Lamberti Church.

Reference to naming

In a newspaper article shortly before the inauguration of the Isern Hinnerk, the Oldenburg writer and local poet Emil Pleitner used mainly two historical personalities for the naming: Heinrich von Borch from Bremen and Count Heinrich II from Holstein .

Pleitner also points out other well-known Isern Hinnerk; so z. B. to the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm The Frog King or the iron Heinrich , the "iron chancellor" Otto von Bismarck and the iron Heinrich von Hessen . From the plant world, Pleitner connects this list with the bird knotweed or the toad rush .

In the first announcement of the work there was still talk of “De iserne Janhinnerk”. However, Pleitner has already noted in his article of August 14, 1915: "Perhaps we will decide to delete the 'Jan' and instead of the 'Janhinnerk' to choose the old common Low German form: 'isern Hinnerk'."

Inauguration of Isern Hinnerk

On September 5, 1915, just under a month after the first announcement, the Isern Hinnerk was ceremoniously unveiled in Oldenburg. An original invitation card from the Red Cross for the inauguration ceremony is on display in the Oldenburg City Museum. The relief was made after a speech by the chairman of the Red Cross, Colonel von der Marwitz, and the singing of the hymn of the Oldenburger Land , “ Heil dir, o Oldenburg ”, by Friedrich August, Grand Duke of Oldenburg and the princesses Ingeborg Alix and Altburg Marie Mathilde provided the first golden nails by Oldenburg.

According to contemporary newspaper reports, “the Grand Duke was the first (...) to hammer in a golden nail for himself, one for the Hereditary Grand Duke who was in the field and one for Princess Eitel Friedrich . Then the two princesses followed, each with a gold nail. Colonel vd Marwitz added a golden nail for Duke Georg, who was prevented by illness, and then Miss Thorade [deputy] followed. Chair of the Red Cross]. "

Emil Pleitner published a poem in Low German about the Isern Hinnerk on the occasion of the opening.

Nailing

Different colored and different types of nails were used to nail the Isern Hinnerk. So big "golden" nails for 20, - marks , small "golden" nails for 10, - marks, copper nails for 5, - marks, light iron nails for 1, - marks and dark iron nails for 50, - pfennig were sold and nailed . Later, when the nailing of the relief wore off, the prices of the simple iron nails were reduced.

According to a report by the Red Cross, there was also a list in which the names of the nailers were entered. Receipts for nail donations were also given.

The last nailing hours were on October 17, 1915, between 10:00 and 13:00 and 15:00 and 16:00. Isern Hinnerk's line-up in Oldenburg was therefore kept relatively short; It was only possible to drive nails in for six weeks. The Red Cross justified this short time with "bad weather".

Only on the occasion of the Grand Duke's birthday, on November 16, 1915, could nails be hammered in again. The opening times here were also kept relatively short: 12:30 to 13:00 and 15:30 to 17:00.

Promotional activities

In the days and weeks after the opening, the local press kept pointing out the donations for Isern Hinnerk. It read: “Drive in nails!”, “Whoever nails Hinnerk to the Isern, sacrifices to the fatherland!” Or “Drive in nails in thanks for the successes in the East! Exchange gold with Isern Hinnerk! An iron nail for every piece of gold! ”The Isern Hinnerk's opening hours were often combined with a concert by a military band.

So far, three different postcards with images of Isern Hinnerk have become known. The best known is the postcard, which was also designed by Bernhard Winter . It bears the image of Isern Hinnerk in front of the flag of the Oldenburger Land and the text LAT OK ISERN HINNERK JO NICH UNBESLAN. BEFORE DAT RODE KRÜTZE IS WOLGEDAN!

The second postcard is a photograph of Isern Hinnerk in the already nailed condition.

The third postcard appeared in the Oldenburger Land, but was to be offered for sale primarily in the German Empire. So on the postcard is “De“ Jsern Hinnerk ”van Oldenborg.” to read: “Anytime is ready to strike | Our victorious brave army. | To protect the rich, to defend the enemy. | And the emperor, in honor of the emperor! " This postcard was part of a series of several cards showing nail pictures of different cities.

Further use of the Isern Hinnerk

On the occasion of the war exhibition (June 25 to July 23, 1915) in the Grand Ducal Riding Hall, the Isern Hinnerk was exhibited again. The price of the nails was initially maintained. The price was later reduced to 20 pfennigs for iron nails. This lowering of the price probably also spurred schoolchildren to hammer in nails.

The Isern Hinnerk was brought to the Augusteum after the war exhibition ended and remained there until September 1919.

Initially, the Red Cross planned to exhibit the Isern Hinnerk "when our troops moved in again and to have his iron armor completed for him here, but the less glorious end of the war bore this hope along with so many others".

From 1924 to probably 1938 the statue was in the Museum for War Memories (also called War Memory Museum ) on Huntestr. 6 in the so-called Wardenburg House. In 1938 the museum was dissolved and parts of its exhibition were integrated into the newly founded Oldenburg City Museum (formerly the Heimatmuseum). From this point on, the whereabouts of the figure until the 1950s have not been clarified. Since the mid-1950s, possibly earlier, it was in Theodor Francksen's gazebo as part of the city museum.

When a shopping center and a street were built on this property in the mid-1960s, the Isern Hinnerk was loaned to the Museumsdorf Cloppenburg . Here it was stored in an attic of an old farm until 2007.

Total yield of the collection

The total of sales of nails, postcards and other donations up to September 1, 1919 amounted to a total of 25,218.38 marks. The largest result was already recorded in the first year; in 1915 it was a total of 19,932.10 marks. The first day of nailing alone produced a total of 3,000 marks. The proceeds from the nailing on the occasion of the war exhibition amounted to 1,196 marks. All proceeds went entirely to the Oldenburg Red Cross.

The Red Cross had certainly wished for a larger amount of proceeds from this campaign. However, the Isern Hinnerk was only nailed to a large extent in a few places. There are still many vacancies. The willingness of the population to donate had, however, been significantly weakened since 1914 by the collection of the Red Cross that had already been carried out (e.g. for the emergency hospital train 26 (Oldenburg)).

Rediscovery

In 2007, a representative each from the Oldenburg City Archives, the Oldenburg City Museum, the Cloppenburg Museum Village and a historian examined the condition of Isern Hinnerk on site in the Cloppenburg Museum Village. Despite long interim storage in various places, the state of preservation was astonishingly good. The Isern Hinnerk was completely intact. All that was left was a patina that could easily be removed by restoration. However, it was expressly pointed out that the Isern Hinnerk is not a symbol of war, but rather a "symbol for the social reality of a war" and is.

Usage today

At the beginning of September 2013, Isern Hinnerk returned to the Oldenburg City Museum. As part of the exhibition “Longing for the War? On the eve of the First World War, Oldenburg 1913 ”, it initially found its place in the Bernhard Winter department of the museum.

See also

literature

  • News for town and country . Oldenburg, period from August 8, 1915 to November 15, 1915.
  • Gerhard Schneider : In iron time. War symbols in the First World War. A catalog. Schwabach im Taunus 2013, ISBN 978-3-941264-13-7 , p. 377 ff.
  • Franziska Boegehold: The “Isern Hinnerk” - A symbol of war for Oldenburg. In: Longing for the war? On the eve of the First World War. Oldenburg 2013.
  • Karl-Heinz Ziessow, Juliane Schikade, Museumsdorf Cloppenburg: The First World War - War perceptions and memories in the region, Cloppenburg 2009
  • Udo Elerd (Hrsg.): Oldenburg: City history in pictures and texts. Oldenburg 2009.
  • Claus Ahrens, Gerhard Wiechmann, Klaus Saul: Oldenburg 1914 - 1918: a source volume on the everyday, social, military and mental history of the city of Oldenburg during the First World War. Oldenburg 2014.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c News for town and country. No. 243, September 6, 1915.
  2. ↑ a b c News for town and country. No. 220, April 1, 1915.
  3. ^ News for town and country. No. 214, August 8, 1915.
  4. ^ News for town and country. No. 239, September 2, 1915.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f The war activity of the Red Cross Oldenburg from 1914 to 1919. Berlin 1919, p. 87.
  6. ↑ a b News for town and country. No. 313, November 15, 1915.
  7. ↑ State Archives Oldenburg, Best. 270-48 No. 9.
  8. ^ News for town and country. No. 244, September 7, 1915.
  9. ^ News for town and country. No. 247, September 10, 1915.
  10. ^ News for town and country. November 20, 1915.
  11. ↑ dhm.de
  12. ^ The war activity of the Red Cross Oldenburg from 1914 to 1919. Berlin 1919, p. 117.
  13. ^ The war activity of the Red Cross Oldenburg from 1914 to 1919. Berlin 1919, p. 56.
  14. ^ The war activity of the Red Cross Oldenburg from 1914 to 1919. Berlin 1919, p. 90.
  15. ↑ Nordwest-Zeitung. No. 168, July 21, 2007.
  16. ↑ Nordwest-Zeitung. No. 207, September 5, 2013.