War memorial on Galgenberg
The war memorial on the Galgenberg is located on the southwest slope of the Galgenberg in Hildesheim and was originally dedicated to the 4,165 fallen in the First World War of the infantry regiment "von Voigts-Rhetz" (3rd Hannoversches) No. 79 , whose main regiment had been stationed in Hildesheim since 1838.
location
Which apart from its lowest portion alley-like -developed field road leading to the monument. The name of this street is not derived from the “field of honor”, as one might assume, but from the fact that the city was expanding to the “open field” at the time it was named (1877). Between its end at Haydnstrasse and the memorial lies the so-called “eight”, which is divided into two by Richard-Wagner-Strasse and formed by two round lawns, around the paths leading to the memorial. The Bismarck Tower is 200 m above it, behind Mozartstrasse .
description
The well-preserved monument consists of Salzhemmendorfer dolomite . It is dominated by the approximately 5.5 m high statue of a soldier with a cloak and steel helmet who, with his rifle placed between his feet, stands guard on a pedestal in front of a pilaster with his collar turned up . The pilaster divides a 19.5 m wide wall made of regular ashlar masonry made of large dolomite stones. On both sides of the soldier's head, the following inscription is placed on a frieze in protruding capitals in antiqua script :
"You who gave life in the time of fate - won the people and you immortality."
Below that are four wreath holders on each side. In continuation of the frieze, the areas where Infantry Regiment 79 was deployed in World War I are listed on the sides of the monument. The original dedication is on the back of the wall. To the left and right of it, memorial stones attached in September 1956 commemorate the fallen of the Panzer Grenadier Regiment No. 59 in World War II .
history
Emergence
Because the memorial stone erected in 1920 at the stone pit had supposedly become brittle, the Comradeship Association of former members of the regiment decided in 1936 to provide a new war memorial in time for the 100th anniversary of the stationing in 1938 . This should be “worthy of the heroic deeds of the fallen in its form and weight” and “keep them awake for the coming generations”, said the Hildesheim comrade leader Brandes to the comradeship in June of this year.
Because it was forbidden for non-governmental organizations to raise money publicly, the funds could officially only be raised through donations from the 2000 members. Therefore, the fundraising is "very difficult", complained Brandes in a letter dated May 18, 1937 to the leader of the Comradeship Association of former 79ers, General a. D. Leopold von Ledebur , and can only take place "under the palm of the hand" through advertising by "reliable comrades".
The council of the city of Hildesheim finally approved an amount of 20,000 RM at its meeting on November 22, 1937 , with Lord Mayor Dr. Ehrlich spoke of the city's "duty of honor" to the regiment and emphasized the "loyal solidarity" with this and his fallen soldiers.
The Hanoverian sculptor August Waterbeck was commissioned with the design . Its original design provided for two “steel helmet-armored warriors” who were to “embody the front” standing “in comradeship”. However, this idea could not be fully realized for cost reasons. Waterbeck had intended as an inscription:
"To remember our dead means to yourselves, the living swear that you are ready, like us, for the eternal sacrifice, for great, eternal Germany."
In the Hildesheim Observer it said:
"... that the monument is a monumental work in the intended dimensions, in which the sense of form of our time is strongly expressed."
The inauguration could not take place as desired in the anniversary year due to the difficulties with the collection and due to problems occurring during construction, but took place on June 10, 1939 after a total of three years of planning and construction. The memorial remained undamaged during the Second World War.
Younger story
On October 17, 1973, the local press reported swastika smearings, and on April 22, 1980, the Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung reported that the sentences “Nazis out of Hildesheim” and “I don't need a heroic death”, painted in red, triggered outrage among residents and walkers. In a photograph from 1981, the soldier is framed by the words "Never again war" written in white paint. In 1986 the writer of a letter to the editor to the HAZ suggested that the memorial should be demolished in favor of a children's playground, but could not prevail against three letters in which it was insisted that it was “reminder and warning”. In 1987 the memorial was one of the stops on an alternative student tour and was repeatedly covered with black cloth and then unveiled again by students of cultural education. In a photograph published in the HAZ on February 28, 1996 under “Last but not least”, the soldier is wearing a second helmet in the shape of a toilet bowl.
literature
- Hartmut Häger: Commemoration of the war dead in Hildesheim. History, functions and forms. With a catalog of the memorials to war dead of the 19th and 20th centuries. = Sources and documentation on the city history of Hildesheim, Volume 17, Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 2006, ISBN 3-8067-8509-0
- Barbara Thimm: On the Galgenberg, a war memorial. in: Herbert Reyer (editor): Traces of National Socialism in Hildesheim. = Sources and documentation on the city history of Hildesheim, Volume 9, Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1999, ISBN 3-8067-8503-1
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Thimm, p. 55
- ^ Anton J. Knott: Street, ways, squares and alleys in Hildesheim. Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1984, ISBN 3-8067-8082-X
- ↑ for description cf. Häger, p. 338
- ^ Hermann-Josef Brand: The Hildesheimer monuments: The war memorial stone pit. Hildesheim Lexicon Hildesheim History (s) 815–1945 , accessed on January 26, 2019.
- ↑ a b c Thimm, p. 56
- ↑ a b c d Thimm, p. 58
- ↑ For the entire paragraph: Häger, p. 349
Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 40.8 " N , 9 ° 58 ′ 12.4" E