War memorial (Wiesbaden-Dotzheim)
Established in 1928 on the forest cemetery Dotzheim of Wiesbaden - Dotzheim built war memorial commemorating the dead of the First World War was at times its establishment many "as the most beautiful in Hesse-Nassau ."
Building history
In 1925, the theme of a war memorial in honor of the World War II dead for Dotzheim was first articulated by the then mayor Eduard Sporkhorst. Parties and house collections were held for financing purposes.
execution
The planning of the memorial was entrusted to the Wiesbaden architect Rudolf Joseph ; The sculptor Arnold Hensler, who lives in Wiesbaden, was won over to design the group of figures . Responsible for the design of the composition was a graduate horticulture inspector Schwarts.
inauguration
In April 1928, the first step was to build a document capsule into the completed base of the memorial . The group of figures was then erected and the monument was inaugurated on May 6, 1928 at 1 p.m. The protestant church choir Dotzheims, the male choir singing pleasure , the choral society Arion , the catholic church choir, the workers choral society Liederblüte and the quartet society Dotzheim sang at this celebration .
Post-history
The view was taken that the Hensler memorial should have served as a draft for a life-size group of figures in the war memorial chapel in Möllingen (today a district of the municipality of Kölbingen , Westerwaldkreis , Rhineland-Palatinate ), which was also erected in 1928. But while in Dotzheim the seated mother with her child embodies mourning, in Kölbingen-Möllingen the standing St. Joseph, who lifts up a fallen soldier and presents it to the viewer, expresses more of a hero worship.
To this day, the war memorial in Dotzheim serves as the location for the annual memorial events for Memorial Day , which are held by the local council and the two large Christian churches.
description
Description of the plant
The monument was “designed to imitate a medieval church choir and laid out as a semicircular , massive quarry stone wall”, which is pierced by “generously shaped arcades ”. This part of the memorial was built by "Dotzheim builders using rubble stones from the Neuhofen quarry ."
The straight upper edge bears the inscription GERMAN (-) EHRE DEINE YOUR HEROEN AND DON'T FORGET THE EXPENSIVE TO (-) TEN (the separator (-) marks an edge break in the surrounding frieze ). The round courtyard of the monument, framed on one side by the stone wall, can be reached via three steps, in the middle of which stands the group of figures from Arnold Hensler. This stands on a base bearing the dates 1914 and 1918 , has a foot for a lamp and two holders for wreaths .
To the left and right of the memorial, nine memorial stones for individual soldiers are arranged in a quarter circle, opposite are two half-height walls, each with three bronze plaques with the names of other fallen soldiers from Dotzheim.
Description of the group of figures
The sculpture itself consists of two figures, a seated mother and a standing child , and stands for “the many widows and orphans left by the war.” The group of figures was made from Krensheim shell limestone . The woman's garment “reminds of Mary , as does her sitting posture”, which appears iconographically in Pietà depictions of the Mother of God .
Location of the monument
The location of the monument within the cemetery, to the side of the main entrance and its way to the funeral hall , provides the opportunity for silent commemoration and opens up the possibility of using the Dotzheimer Wald, which is adjacent to the property, as a “natural backdrop ” in the “celebratory facility for the Fallen "to be included.
The memorial in judgment
Contemporaries agreed that Hensler, with his group of figures, focused the main focus on the suffering that wars sparked. In contrast to other war memorials that described the glory of the heroic death , the complex in Dotzheim expresses thanks for “being removed from the theater of war ” and “longing for a different future ”. The lack of the dead soldier in the figurative representation of the monument is significant; the people portrayed, woman and child, are those left behind, the suffering: the woman's sculpture is the bearer of a “silent lamentation from the tired woman who was left alone with her child by the war.” The “backward looking grief of The artist opposes women ”to the“ child's lifelike gaze ”. Mourning and confidence came together in the realization : “For the free life of this child, the father died the death of the warrior.” Hensler's style is beyond the danger of “getting lost in the petty”, everything serves “the expression that is in the head of the woman to the greatest effect ”. The authors of the catalog An artist couple between the world wars: the sculptor Arnold Hensler, the photographer Annie Hensler-Möring add that “Hensler knew how to take up the motif of the Madonna and modify it for the needs of the time.” The “ inspiration of form “Put him in the row of sculptors who have devoted themselves to issues of religious history with a new approach, such as the representation of Mary here . In this way, this war memorial, which embodies a new type in its genre , gives suffering a strong expression and, because of the reduced formal language , an honest approach to addressing grief and keeping the memory of the dead alive.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Website of the Green Space Office Wiesbaden
- ↑ a b c d e f g Rigoberth Falk: War memorial for Dotzheim. In: Dotzheimer contacts. April 12, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d e Oliver Teufer: War memorial Dotzheimer Friedhof. In: Wiesbadener Stadtlexikon. (wiesbaden.de)
- ↑ a b c Franz Josef Hamm, Felicitas Reusch: An artist couple between the world wars: the sculptor Arnold Hensler, the photographer Annie Hensler-Möring. Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-95490-312-2 .
- ↑ a b c K. Müller: Memory of the Dead. In: Nassau homeland. No. 19, 1928, p. 141 and 142.
Coordinates: 50 ° 4 ′ 35.1 ″ N , 8 ° 11 ′ 2 ″ E