Kepler Monument (Regensburg)

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Kepler Monument
The Kepler Monument in its current location

The Kepler Monument in its current location

Data
place Fürst-Anselm-Allee, Regensburg
architect Emanuel Herigoyen
Architectural style Doric
Construction year 1808
Coordinates 49 ° 0 '50.3 "  N , 12 ° 5' 57.7"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 0 '50.3 "  N , 12 ° 5' 57.7"  E

The Kepler Monument is a memorial to Johannes Kepler , which was erected in Regensburg in 1808 and is now located in the green belt of Fürst-Anselm-Allee .

History of origin

plans

156 years after the death of the famous physicist Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) in Regensburg and his burial in the Petersfriedhof in front of the city wall, the plan was for the first time to erect a monument in his honor. Professor Philipp Ostertag, rector of the Regensburg grammar school in 1785, gave the first impetus for the construction of the Kepler monument with his work To the enlightened German public . However, this appeal proved unsuccessful. In 1806 Karl Theodor von Dalberg took up the plan to erect a memorial for Kepler again. On February 1, 1806, an appeal for donations was drafted for the construction of the Kepler monument. At that time, the authors of the appeal for donations already had two preliminary drafts of the monument by Emanuel Herigoyen . The monument was supposed to stand near the place where Kepler was buried in 1630 and where the epitaph erected for him had stood until 1633. Back in the Thirty Years' War, the commander of the city of Regensburg, which was occupied by Bavarian troops, had the Petersfriedhof with all its grave monuments destroyed and leveled in anticipation of the attack by Swedish troops in order to create a clear field of fire.

Establishment

The monument was completed in 1808 and inaugurated on December 27, 1808. On the occasion of the consecration, Father Placidus Heinrich wrote the commemorative publication Monumentum Keplero dedicatum Ratisbonae .

In 1809 the south-east of Regensburg and with it the area around the Kepler monument was badly affected by escaping Austrian troops and an attack by French troops . However, the Kepler monument was spared the fighting and formed the southern end of this street after the reconstruction of the southeastern urban area and the new construction of the straight Maximilianstrasse .

Transfer

When the main train station was built in Regensburg in 1859 , the monument had to be moved to the west because it stood in the way of the straight extension of Maximilianstrasse to the train station. This is how the memorial came to its present location, in the Fürst-Anselm-Allee created by Karl Anselm von Thurn und Taxis .

architecture

The bust of Kepler by Friedrich Döll

The two above-mentioned designs by Herigoyen were on the one hand a monopteros and on the other a cenotaph . The decision was made for the Monopteros. The temple is supported by eight Doric columns . A domed roof rests on the pillars, on which a gold-plated armillary sphere was attached. The architrave with planets and zodiac signs from bronze decorated.

In the middle of the round temple there is a pedestal made of red marble , which bears the bust of Kepler. The front of the base is decorated with a relief by Heinrich von Dannecker , which depicts Kepler as the genius who lifts the veil of Urania .

The life-size bust made of Carrara marble was made by the sculptor Friedrich Döll after the original bust by Philipp Jakob Scheffauer , which is set up in the vestibule of the Kepler Memorial House in Regensburg. It was made from historical copperplate engravings and was originally intended for the Walhalla .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Bauer: Regensburg Art, Culture and Everyday History . 6th edition. MZ-Buchverlag in H. Gietl Verlag & Publication Service GmbH, Regenstauf 2014, ISBN 978-3-86646-300-4 , p. 241 f .