Empress Augusta Monument (Koblenz)

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Empress Augusta monument in Koblenz
Overall layout of the monument in the Rhine area

The Empress Augusta Monument in Koblenz was erected in honor of Augusta von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach , the wife of Wilhelm I and German Empress. The memorial stands in the southern section of the Rhine facilities in the Südliche Vorstadt district, which Augusta initiated as a landscape park, and was inaugurated on October 18, 1896, six years after her death. The Augusta sculpture in the memorial was made by Karl Friedrich Moest . The monument itself was planned and built by Bruno Schmitz , who is also the creator of the Deutsches Eck , two kilometers down the Rhine .

Location

Augusta statue in the memorial
Back of the monument with the inscription of the city of Koblenz
Central crowning of the monument with a golden crown

The Kaiserin Augusta memorial stands at the place where the Prussian Queen Augusta had a playground set up for her daughter Luise in 1856 , which was called Luisenplatz from the 1860s. It also marks the beginning of the historic Rhine facilities .

Until the monument was built in 1895, the Luise Temple, also named after Luise, stood on Luisenplatz . Behind the monument, Ludwigstrasse merges into Mainzer Strasse.

history

Decision to build the monument

Augusta stayed in Koblenz for a long time in the 1850s with her husband, who later became Kaiser Wilhelm I. From 1856 onwards, she had the Rhine facilities, later named after her, laid out as a landscape park and provided with statues and monuments. Every year until a few weeks before her death on January 7, 1890, Empress Augusta visited Koblenz.

Eight days later, on January 15, 1890, the city council proposed a monument to be erected. The decision followed on January 19. At the same time, negotiations took place for Wilhelm I. on the erection of a provincial monument for the Rhine province , whose provincial capital was Koblenz. In the event that Koblenz should not be awarded the contract, the city wanted to build a joint memorial for the imperial couple from its own resources.

The decision was supposed to be made in autumn 1890, but was repeatedly postponed, so that in 1891, on the first anniversary of the Empress's death, the city council declared 30,000 gold marks (€ 200,917) for the erection of a bust in an as yet undetermined location in the Empress Augusta complex To make available. In addition, a committee was set up to erect the entire Kaiserin Augusta monument. This committee mainly consisted of city councilors and artistic advisors Carl Cuno , Emil Hünten and August Reichensperger .

A week later, the first competition for the monument was announced and a seven-person jury was nominated, to which only celebrities from Koblenz belonged.

Competitions

On May 14, 1891, a competition was announced for a bust with an architectural substructure, which was won by the Karlsruhe sculptor Karl Friedrich Moest with a life-size sculpture of the Empress Augusta. Moest put the cost of this at over 120,000 gold marks (803,668 euros). In the course of 1891 and 1892, the heritage committee decided to erect an architectural monument with a monumental superstructure instead of a bust. Moests statue should be integrated into this.

Thereupon, on January 15, 1893, the monument committee announced another competition especially for the architectural superstructure. Conditions included:

  • The view of the portrait statue looking over the Rhine could not be covered.
  • The cost of the superstructure was not allowed to exceed 35,000 gold marks (234,403 euros).
  • The proposals had to be sent to the chairman of the committee by April 1, 1893.

On April 27, 1893, Mayor Emil Schüller declared the architect Bruno Schmitz the winner from among 41 applicants from all over the German Empire. He received 500 gold marks (3,477 euros) as a fee. Government architect Wilhelm Scholter from Stuttgart went second with 300 gold marks (2,086 euros) . The third place, the Poznan government builder Kothe, received 200 gold marks (1,391 euros).

In June 1893, the final decision of the monument commission followed on the execution of Schmitz's design with flanking wings on the left and right of the Augusta statue enclosed in a niche (see section Architecture ). Moest's proposal for the sculpture was slightly modified in order to reduce costs on the one hand and to create a connection to the superstructure on the other. The execution of the two reliefs on the wings was also awarded to Moest. For unknown reasons, this order was withdrawn a little later and given to the Berlin sculptor August Vogel . All three artists were then asked to draw up a schedule for the completion of the monument. According to Schmitz, the entire stonemasonry and sculpture work should be finished by March 1895 so that the building material could be delivered in June and the entire monument could be unveiled at the end of September.

Location question

In spring 1892 the deliberations on the choice of the location began. Three locations along the Rhine grounds came into question: the flower parterre in front of the Electoral Palace , where Augusta and her husband had resided, the place with the bust of Max von Schenkendorf and Luisenplatz in the southern Rhine grounds. The sculptor Karl Friedrich Moest, who had already been awarded the contract, also took part in the discussions about the location.

On June 20, 1892, the Monument Committee decided in favor of Luisenplatz on the corner of Ludwigstrasse and Mainzer Strasse. The temple of Luis standing there, an iron pavilion from 1866, was moved a hundred meters down the Rhine the following autumn to make room for the memorial.

financing

The first call for donations to the residents of Koblenz was issued in February 1891, one month after the city council passed the resolution to build a monument. After the competitions were completed in 1893 and all artists had received their orders, the total cost was put at 100,000 gold marks (695,455 euros). Of this, 55,000 gold marks (347,728 euros) went to the portrait statue of Karl Friedrich Moest and 44,000 gold marks (306,000 euros) to the architectural framing by Bruno Schmitz and August Vogel. The acquisition of donations was intensified parallel to the sculpting work .

In fact, the total cost of building the monument and the inauguration ceremony was 120,433.53 gold marks (847,731 euros). Most of this came together through donations, while the rest was covered by the city of Koblenz.

Inauguration ceremony

The inauguration of the monument took place on the birthday of Augusta's son, Emperor Friedrich III. , October 18, 1896. During the celebrations, the whole city was decorated with flags and garlands. Associations and school classes lined the streets that the pageant passed. To the right of the memorial stood officers, to the left the city councilors, while invited guests sat on a grandstand.

At twelve o'clock the ceremony began with a lecture, which was followed by a short concert by the United Male Choir with the songs Obituary to Empress Augusta by Franz Litterscheid and German Prayer (Lindlar). The eulogy by Mayor Emil Schüller concluded . As Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife attended the inauguration ceremony of the Kaiser Wilhelm monument at the Porta Westfalica , Prince Friedrich Leopold who had traveled as a substitute unveiled the monument.

During the inauguration ceremony, all members of the committee and Karl Friedrich Moest were awarded medals. The architect Bruno Schmitz was awarded the title of professor .

Further development

Inauguration of the restored Kaiserin Augusta monument by Mayor Joachim Hofmann-Göttig on June 1, 2014

The memorial survived the air raids on Koblenz in World War II unscathed, although over 87% of the city was destroyed in 1944 and 1945. Due to severe weathering , it was renovated in 1979 at a cost of 72,000 DM (83,450 euros). It was also suggested to put up an information board with the history of the monument and the Rhine facilities, because even then the extraordinary role of Empress Augusta was no longer present. The proposal was not implemented and was soon forgotten.

After the Upper Middle Rhine Valley was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002, the Empress Augusta Festival has been held every year since 2006 on UNESCO World Heritage Day , the first Sunday in June, at the Empress Augusta Memorial and in the Rhine grounds.

The monument was again badly damaged by weathering at the beginning of the 21st century. In December 2013 local craftsmen agreed to renovate it in 2014 free of charge. On June 1, 2014, the completely restored Kaiserin Augusta monument was presented to the public by Mayor Joachim Hofmann-Göttig as part of the Kaiserin Augusta festival .

architecture

Back of the monument with the Rhine in the background
Water-spouting dolphin grotesques and a water basin in front

The Wilhelminian-era Empress Augusta Monument is centered on the sculpture of Empress Augusta. It stands on a double stepped platform and is thus somewhat distant from the viewer. A chapel-like round building with a towering bell roof crowning forms the central axis. The front view of this building detail is largely determined by a round arch niche , which is bordered on both sides by Ionic columns. In this niche stands the larger-than-life sculpture of seated Augusta in her seventies in an antique robe. The sculpture made of Carrara marble has a height of two meters from the base to the top and stands on a 1.35 m high plinth. The actual monument was walled up with Istrian limestone and recently painted white. This greatly changed the appearance of the monument, originally the white marble statue stood out brightly from the light-colored architectural elements (red sandstone). Due to the homogeneous white coating, the sculpture merges with the architectural elements.

The main cornice above the Augusta figure bears the emperor's insignia, which is flanked at the base by four eagles. The central axis is flanked by two flat rectangular wing extensions, the horizontal axis structure of which guides the viewer's gaze to the sculpture of Augusta. At the top, the middle section is completed by the golden imperial crown . A wide flat staircase leads from the Rheinanlagen up to the monument.

There is a flat rectangular relief above each wing base . The left (southern) relief shows the foundation of the German Red Cross , which goes back to Augusta, among other things. A wounded soldier is cared for by two nurses, while a female figure holds the Red Cross emblem. The right relief is a stylized representation of the city of Koblenz with the Confluentia , patroness of Koblenz, the coat of arms of the city of Koblenz and the city itself with the Deutsches Eck , which was only erected a year after the Augusta monument was inaugurated. The floor above the reliefs provides window-like views, each created by four pillars. These support the end cornice of the side wings with slightly protruding plinths . The outer wing end is formed by a pillar with a water basin in front of the base, in which dolphin grotesques serve as gargoyles. The roof-like crowning of the outer pillars tower over the side wings and their shape relates to the roofing of the central axis.

The back of the monument bears the following inscription: "The unforgettable Empress Augusta, the grateful citizenship of the royal seat of Coblenz established 1895-1896". Underneath, a stylized lion head as a gargoyle feeds a fountain. All pedestals, the water basin and the stairs in front of the monument are made of white granite, the figurative parts are carved from Bavarian marble.

To the west of the main path opposite the monument there is a viewing point with a balustrade and a stone bench made of red sandstone .

Monument protection

The Kaiserin-Augusta-Monument is a protected cultural monument according to the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is located in Koblenz-Südliche Vorstadt in the Kaiserin-Augusta-Anlagen monument zone .

The Kaiserin Augusta Monument has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley since 2002 .

See also

literature

  • Energieversorgung Mittelrhein GmbH (ed.): History of the city of Koblenz. Overall editing: Ingrid Bátori in conjunction with Dieter Kerber and Hans Josef Schmidt. Theiss, Stuttgart 1992-1993;
    • Volume 1: From the beginning to the end of the electoral era . Theiss, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-8062-0876-X .
    • Volume 2: From the French city to the present . Theiss, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8062-1036-5 .
  • Herbert Dellwing (editor): Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Volume 3.1: City of Koblenz. Southern suburb and Oberwerth. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-590-31033-2 .
  • Helmut Kampmann: When stones speak. Memorial plaques and memorial plaques in Koblenz. Fuck-Verlag, Koblenz 1992, ISBN 3-9803142-0-0 .
  • Fritz Michel : The art monuments of the city of Koblenz. The mundane monuments and the suburbs. (= The art monuments of Rhineland-Palatinate. Volume 1). Munich / Berlin 1954, pp. 176-180.
  • Katharina Richter, Detlef Wahl: Rheinanlagen mit Rheinfront 1809 to 1983. In: Press and Tourism Office City of Koblenz: The Rheinanlagen Koblenz. From the beginnings till now. Self-published, Koblenz 1992.
  • Ulrike Weber (edit.): City of Koblenz. City districts (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany . Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Vol. 3, 3). Werner, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-345-9 .

Web links

Commons : Kaiserin-Augusta-Denkmal  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  • ( R ) Katharina Richter, Detlef Wahl: Rhine systems with the Rhine front 1809 to 1983. In: Press and Tourism Office City of Koblenz: The Rhine systems in Koblenz. From the beginnings till now. Self-published, Koblenz 1992.
  1. a b c d e f g p. 58.
  2. a b c d e f g p. 57.
  3. a b p. 61.
  4. a b c d p. 60.
  5. p. 84.
  • Other individual evidence
  1. a b c General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - district-free city of Koblenz (PDF; 1.5 MB), Koblenz 2013.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Becker: The royal palace at Coblenz. A contribution to the history of the last Elector of Trier Clemens Wenzeslaus and the city of Koblenz. Verlag von Wilhelm Groos, Coblenz 1886, p. 191. (online: urn : nbn: de: 1111-200606299 )
  3. Craftsmen renovate the Augusta monument in the Rhine complex in Koblenz for free. In: Rhein-Zeitung . December 9, 2013.
  4. The Empress Augusta Monument shines in new splendor. In: Rhein-Zeitung. 2nd June 2014.

Coordinates: 50 ° 20 ′ 46.5 ″  N , 7 ° 35 ′ 45 ″  E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 5, 2013 .