Kaiser Friedrich Monument (Bremen)
The Kaiser-Friedrich-Denkmal , a bronze equestrian monument created by Louis Tuaillon on Hermann-Böse-Strasse in Bremen , was dedicated in 1905 to the memory of the German Emperor Friedrich III, who ruled for only 99 days in 1888 . dedicated. It has been a listed building since 1973.
Friedrich III. and Bremen
Even as Crown Prince, Friedrich Wilhelm (* 1833) was seen as a hope of the intellectual and liberal bourgeoisie, who were inclined to art and science and who had married Victoria , the clever daughter of the English queen of the same name , to transform the empire into a constitutional monarchy expected on the British model. In republican Bremen, which, like Friedrich, stood in a certain opposition to Bismarck's politics , this reputation was even more valid, even in 1905, although today, of course, it has been seen for a long time now that Friedrich “despite a certain liberal timeliness of his views” did was a person limited in the arrogance of class ” ( Golo Mann ).
When he was named Friedrich III in 1888 (" Dreikaiserjahr ") after the death of the 91-year-old Emperor Wilhelm . finally ascended the throne, he was already terminally ill and died after just 99 days, mourned above all by liberals and liberals . His son, Kaiser Wilhelm II , tied back to his grandfather's political ideals.
History of origin
An imperial monument was the statue for Friedrich III. already preceded: the (lost) monument to Wilhelm I from 1890 on the Domshof, an artistically irrelevant equestrian monument in the neo-baroque style, allegorically overloaded. Twelve years later, artistic ideas had fundamentally changed. They also captured Franz Schütte , who took the side of the “reform-oriented” Gustav Pauli in the long and bitter Bremen artist dispute and decided against the “conservative” Arthur Fitger . Schütte, probably the wealthiest entrepreneur in Bremen, founded a company from 1899 to develop the area between the railway , Hollerallee and Herdentorsfriedhof. A triangular square between Hermann-Böse-Strasse, Parkstrasse and Slevogtstrasse was left out of the terraced houses and was to be decorated with the Rosselenker , an outdoor sculpture by the sculptor Louis Tuaillon , which Schütte had acquired , which the artist declined. When Schütte had commissioned Tuaillon in 1902 to realize the already existing draft of a Friedrich memorial, but the artist sent a significantly revised model to Bremen, the anxious Senate hardly dared to make the draft, which Friedrich was now in “imperator costume”, almost " Heroic nudity " represented to be presented to the emperor in Berlin for the highest approval. However, the latter found that “he had never seen his father so beautifully” and he personally took part in the unveiling of the monument on March 22, 1905.
meaning
Like the Bremen Bismarck monument , the construction of which was discussed at the same time, the monument for Friedrich III. an artistically significant milestone in the history of Bremen's monument culture. The pomp of the Wilhelminian era has given way to a neoclassical austerity. The artistic statement and coherent urban development has priority over the political act of setting up a monument. “In contrast to famous models from the Renaissance, Donatello's Gattamelata or Verrocchio's Colleoni, the contrast between armor and horse's body is not emphasized here, but humans and animals also form a harmonious unit in the completely matching three-dimensional formation of the muscular body; the only hinted leather armor is hardly noticed by the viewer. The rider's posture and gestures are reminiscent of the ancient statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitol ” (Mielsch).
literature
- Beate Mielsch: Monuments, open sculptures, fountains in Bremen 1800–1945. Bremen 1980, ISBN 3-921749-16-6 , pp. 26-27
- Ottmar Struwe: 100 years equestrian statue of Emperor Friedrich III. in: Denkmalpflege in Bremen, Heft 3, Bremen 2006, pp. 71–73
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Monument database of the LfD
- ^ Golo Mann: German history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Frankfurt 1958, p. 484
- ↑ Mielsch, pp. 24-26
- ↑ Closed in 1903 and later given up
- ↑ set up today in the ramparts
- ↑ Mielsch, p. 26
Coordinates: 53 ° 5 ′ 3.5 ″ N , 8 ° 49 ′ 14.5 ″ E