Colonial monument (Braunschweig)

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Colonial monument in Braunschweig

The Braunschweig colonial monument was erected on June 14, 1925 in the city ​​park on today 's Jasperallee , where it is still located today.

Association of former East Asians and Africans

The "Association of Former East Asians and Africans", an association of 75 former members of the German colonial troops, based in Braunschweig after the First World War , had collected donations for this monument. The reason for the establishment was clearly of a political nature: After the lost World War and the German colonies that were also lost as a result, this and the German soldiers who fell there were to be remembered and their memories kept alive.

Design and execution

Reverse with the Southern Cross

The design for the monument comes from the architect, painter and later professor at the TH Braunschweig, Herman Flesche , it was executed in stone by the sculptor Jakob Hofmann , who was a professor at the TH Braunschweig at the same time as Flesche.

A lion (possibly the Brunswick lion ) can be seen on the front , whose right paw rests on the globe. At the bottom of the pedestal is the inscription: “Remember our colonies and the comrades who fell there”. On the back is the constellation Cross of the South as well as the motto “ Per aspera ad astra ” (“Through hardship to the stars”). Numerous German colonies are listed on the two narrow sides: Togo (= Togoland ), Cameroon , South West Africa (= German South West Africa ), East Africa (= German East Africa ), New Guinea (= German New Guinea ), Samoa Islands , Kiautschou , Yap , Palau Islands , Caroline Islands , island of Pohnpei , island of Nauru , Mariana Islands , Marshall Islands .

criticism

In the run-up to the erection of the monument, an article appeared in the Braunschweigische Landeszeitung on April 1, 1925 , from which the following excerpt comes:

“... To keep the thought of our colonies alive and to arouse interest in them in the German people, but above all to our hero, who fell far from home in a foreign part of the world, who fought and suffered with the same courage to the end for our hotly contested colonies to give symbolic monumental immortality ... "

The intention of the memorial as well as the article clearly shows that parts of the German population, especially the military and the (upper) middle class, the defeat of Germany, the loss of its position of power in Europe and the world seven years after the end of the war (still) not accepted, but rather tried to restore the status quo ante bellum by longing for the "good old days", namely the empire, especially the Wilhelminism lived by these sections of the population .

This is finally also evident in the selection of the installation site (slightly offset in 1936) in the city park at the upper end of " Kaiser-Wilhelm- Strasse", as this street was called until 1928 and again between 1933 and 1945. Today it is called "Jasperallee". For a number of years there has been a metal plaque in front of the monument, which explains to the viewer the history of its creation and the criticism of the monument from today's perspective.

Since the end of the Second World War , the monument has been criticized again and again, most recently in July / August 2006. Pupils and teachers from the nearby integrated comprehensive school Franzsches Feld covered the monument with sheets in an action initiated and supported by the cultural institute of the city of Braunschweig, to encourage passers-by to take “think about it” literally and to deal with this symbol of colonialism . The first wrapping took place in July, but the sheet was destroyed by strangers shortly afterwards. From August 18 to October 5, 2006, the statue was therefore covered again.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Kolonialdenkmal (Braunschweig)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 11 ″  N , 10 ° 32 ′ 48 ″  E