Körner Monument (Bremen)

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Körner Memorial

The bronze memorial on the Theodor-Körner -Wall in Bremen for the poet and fighter in the liberation wars was donated by the citizens of the Hanseatic city and erected in 1865. It has been a listed building since 1973.

Theodor Körner

As a young poet, Theodor Körner (1791–1813) had already achieved great success around 1810 with undemanding comedies and pathetic tragedies. He became extremely popular through exuberant war poetry, which he wrote under the impression of his participation in the campaigns of the Lützow hunters against the French in the wars of liberation ("Lützow's wild, daring hunt", collection of poems "Lyre and sword"). Körner's love of the country, but also his hatred of the French and his glorification of war suited the nationalism that flourished again in the 1860s.

History of origin

The fact that the first memorial erected in Bremen to a poet was dedicated to Körner is due to the coincidence of the personal preference of the initiator and main donor. Heinrich Carl Oldehoff, a Bremen building contractor, had released the Körnerwall on an area he built with terraced houses in the eastern suburbs , a street that leads from the Sielwall around a horseshoe-shaped square surrounded by Bremen houses . By erecting a memorial stone, he wanted to fulfill a promise made in his youth at Körner's grave to erect a memorial stone to this hero of the wars of freedom in his hometown . Before he could realize this, Oldehoff died. His friends took up the project again in 1863, when Bremen celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , the decisive event of the Wars of Liberation. There were 1,100 thalers in donations from Bremen's citizens, more than was needed for a simple memorial stone. Johann Andreas Deneys , a sculptor from Bremen who lives in St. Petersburg, finally delivered a bronze statue. The relatively modest size (the figure is barely life-size, i.e. significantly smaller than the usual standard of the time) was due to the limited amount of private funds available. The monument was inaugurated on November 26, 1865. After the Second World War , the statue was placed on a new, simpler base.

meaning

In contrast to many other Körner monuments from the second half of the 19th century, the Bremen statue is not very combative: the hero holds the sword down, the poet presses the lyre to his heart. The collar of the uniform barely peeks out from under the toga falling in a mighty bow . The poet, not the warrior hero, was wanted to be portrayed. A decade later, and only a few years after the Franco-Prussian War , Körner stormed the Dresden monument in a much more martial manner.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Monument database of the LfD
  2. ↑ The most important source for the history of the origin of the monument is the wording of a document enclosed in the foundation stone published in the Bremer Morgenpost of November 26, 1865 and reprinted in Mielsch, p. 21.
  3. ↑ The original base, which is better suited to the proportions of the statue, is shown in Mielsch, p. 79.
  4. ↑ see the picture comparison with the Dresden monument, in Selbmann, p. 109.

literature

  • Beate Mielsch: Monuments, open sculptures, fountains in Bremen 1800–1945. Bremen 1980, p. 17 f., P. 57, fig. 15-17.
  • Rolf Selbmann: Poet monuments in Germany. Stuttgart 1988, p. 108 f.

Web links

Coordinates: 53 ° 4 ′ 16.7 "  N , 8 ° 49 ′ 23.4"  E