Karl Marx Monument (Dresden)

Karl Marx Monument in Dresden, March 1953

Side view, 1953

The Karl-Marx monument in Dresden was in 1953 in memory of Karl Marx created monument . It stood for a short time on the Unity Square (today Albertplatz ) next to the entrance of the Pavilion of German-Soviet Friendship (DSF) at the beginning of Bautzener Straße.

history

The more than two-meter-high statue of Karl Marx, which was created by the local artist Otto Rost , stood on a raised, brick-built stone base . The monument showed Karl Marx with an open coat. In his left hand he held an open book that was supposed to represent his most important work, Das Kapital . His half-open right hand pointed to this book. The base of the monument bore no inscriptions or inscriptions.

The erection of the Karl Marx memorial in Dresden was commissioned by the local district leadership of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Karl Marx's death. The ceremonial unveiling of the monument took place on March 14, 1953. The consecration of the monument was linked to an exhibition on the life and work of Karl Marx, which had been presented to the public for several months in the adjacent pavilion of German-Soviet friendship.

Shortly after the monument was consecrated, critical voices began to accumulate about the way the statue of Karl Marx was depicted. Otto Rost depicted Karl Marx in natural proportions and only slightly larger than his normal body size, which made the statue look relatively small and stocky. The portrayed Karl Marx was therefore occasionally mocked and denigrated as "root dwarf" and with similar names. Therefore the memorial was removed and probably destroyed a short time later, at the latest in the course of the demolition of the DSF pavilion.

Specialty

The Karl Marx Monument, consecrated in 1953, was the first monument of its kind in the German Democratic Republic . After the removal of this memorial in Dresden, the Karl Marx memorial in Wernigerode claimed to have been the first Karl Marx memorial in the GDR until 2017.

literature

• Ernst-Günter Knüppel : Otto Rost. Life and work 1887–1970. Saxon sculptor in Dresden and Döbeln. Leipzig, Sachsenbuch, 2006, ISBN 978-3-89664-045-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ernst G. Knüppel: Otto Rost. Life and work 1887–1970. Saxon sculptor in Dresden and Döbeln , Leipzig, Sachsenbuch, 2006, p. 66 ISBN 978-3-89664-045-1 . ( limited preview in Google Book search).