Lion monument of the University of Leipzig

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The lion monument of the University of Leipzig was a war memorial for the 1396 students and professors of the University of Leipzig who died in the First World War . The solemn unveiling of the monument designed by August Gaul (1869–1921) and completed by Max Esser (1885–1945) took place on October 31, 1924 in the foyer in the Augusteum of Leipzig University . It was donated by the factory owner and councilor Heinrich Toelle from Blauenthal in the Ore Mountains . Like many such monuments, it shows the intellectual closeness of the students as well as many professors to the fallen empire. These symbolize or heroize values ​​such as strength, defenselessness, loyalty to the fatherland and willingness to make sacrifices. This lion can be characterized as a grave lion in its function.

  • The monument after 1924 in the former Augusteum

  • The Lion in the New Augusteum (2016)

Above the name was:

"IN THE WORLD WAR 1396 MEN FROM THIS UNIVERSITY
DIED FOR GERMANY'S EXISTANCE AND
HONOR
"

The name of the oldest fallen man on the no longer preserved base was that of the German-American Caspar René Gregory (1846–1917), who was also the oldest volunteer in the German army. The sandstone base, which was designed like a coffin, was not destroyed during the Second World War , but when the university was blown up in 1968. The lion from Kirchheim shell limestone has after several moves a. a. in the stairwell of the rectorate building in 2014 in the new Augusteum found its definitive installation location, unfortunately in a not very prominent place. The fact that its state of preservation is so bad is not least due to the fact that it was exposed to wind and weather outdoors on Sachsenplatz from the 1970s to 1993 . The fact that the names of the fallen were not lost is due not least to a publication on the memorial that appeared in 1925, in which the names of the fallen and their fields of study are listed. This, in turn, is all the more valuable because not every dead person was reported to the university as a dead man. It was not uncommon for her to get this through death notices in the daily newspaper such as a. the Leipziger Tageblatt or the Leipziger Neuesten Nachrichten . According to Siegfried Hoyer , the University of Leipzig paid the highest blood toll in the First World War with 16% of the students among German universities, although it was only the third largest German university in terms of the total number of students. Of the 1,396 killed, 1,370 were students, 12 were lecturers and assistants, and 14 were clerks. According to the latest research, the number of dead or those declared dead and missing must, however, be corrected upwards.

The inauguration took place on the occasion of the change of rector of the university. The inauguration speeches were given by the outgoing rector, the Egyptologist Georg Steindorff (1861–1951), and the classical archaeologist Franz Studniczka (1860–1929), who initiated the monument. The memorial was also mentioned in the speech of the incoming rector of the university, the theologian Franz Rendtorff (1860–1937). At the inauguration, Studniczka called the lion "an expression of heroism and heroism, even in defeat". Not without allusions to bygone eras, Studniczka continued with references to other lion monuments: “In this sense, z. E.g. on the battlefield of Chäronea , where the Macedonian king Philip II put an end to the independence of Greece, a giant lion sitting steeply at the grave of the fallen Thebans, and in Lucerne the dying lion of Thorwaldsen immortalizes the loyalty of the Swiss Guard of the unfortunate, which has proven itself to the death French King in 1792. "

Given the high number of dead, it should be noted that the majority of the students were members of corporations. In Bad Kösen, among the monuments near the Rudelsburg , a large relief of a lion was erected for the fallen soldiers of the Kösener Seniors Convent Association and in the presence of the rectors of the universities of Halle Paul Menzer (1873-1960) and Leipzig Max Le Blanc (1865– 1943) inaugurated in 1926. Monuments to the fallen members were even erected on some of the Leipzig corporation houses. These were the University Choir Paulus , the Choir Arion , the Corps Saxonia and the Landsmannschaft Cheruscia , of which only the latter has been preserved and has been in the house of the Landsmannschaft Plavia-Arminia Leipzig since 2010 . The names of 13 of the 39 Cherusci are both on the lion and on the relief of "Hermann", which refers to the Hermann monument in the Teutoburg Forest . It should be noted that the Landsmannschaft Cheruscia Leipzig also issued a book of honor for their fallen soldiers, from which this connection can be clearly seen. This also includes a picture of the lion monument in the Augusteum.

literature

  • Stefan Voerkel: A lion wanders through the city: August Gaul's memorial for the university members killed in World War I , in: Leipziger Blätter ; (2014), 65, pp. 38-41.
  • Stefan Voerkel: The memorial for the members of the University of Leipzig who were killed in World War I, a last work by August Gaul , in: Mitteilungen des Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz eV 3/2014, pp. 17-23.
  • August Gaul; Max Esser: August Gaul's war memorial, completed by Max Esser: the University of Leipzig donated by Heinrich Toelle, Leipzig 1925.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Since 2016, an installation behind the lion in the New Augusteum has been reminiscent of the old foyer.
  2. ^ University archive Leipzig : Holdings: Signature: RA 1720: Heinrich Toelle Foundation 1920–1923.
  3. ↑ Franz Studniczka and Georg Steindorff referred in their speeches on the unveiling of the monument to the Kommerzienrat Toelle in Blauenthal .
  4. ↑ August Gaul; Max Esser: August Gaul's war memorial, completed by Max Esser: the University of Leipzig donated by Heinrich Toelle, Leipzig 1925. (Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung)
  5. ^ Siegfried Hoyer: Brief history of the Leipzig student body 1409–1989, Leipzig 2010, p. 197. ISBN 978-3-86583-480-5
  6. ↑ Ulrich von Hehl : In the upheavals of the first half of the 20th century: The University of Leipzig from the eve of the First World War to the end of the Second World War 1909 to 1945 , in: History of the University of Leipzig 1409–2009, Vol. 3: Das zwanzigste Century 1909–2009, ed. on behalf of the Rector of Leipzig University Professor Dr. iur. Franz Häuser from the Senate Commission for Research into the History of Leipzig University and Science, Leipzig 2009, pp. 17–329. Here p. 65. This information comes from Studniczka's speech.
  7. ^ Siegfried Hoyer: Study and student body at the University of Leipzig in the First World War, in: University history as regional history. The University of Leipzig in its territorial-historical references, ed. by Detlef Döring , Leipzig 2007, pp. 467–488. Here p. 484 f. and p. 487 Tab. 1. Hoyer determined the total number of missing persons, those who died or were killed in the aftermath of the war and who were declared dead in the amount of 1,457.
  8. ↑ Speech by the incoming rector Dr. F. Rendtorff of October 31, 1924, in: The Leipzig Rector's Speeches: Vol. 2: The years 1906–1933. Published by the Rector of the University of Leipzig Professor Dr. iur. Franz Häuser on the 600th anniversary of the University of Leipzig in 2009, Berlin-New York 2009, pp. 1417–1438.
  9. ↑ Ecce Cherusciae: 1914-1918. Chemnitz undated [after 1924]