Lenin Monument (Dresden)
The Lenin Monument in Dresden was a larger than life monument in honor of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin , which was located on Prager Strasse and Wiener Platz from 1974 to 1992 . The remains of the monument are still in place in Gundelfingen on the Danube .
prehistory
As early as 1969, the then council of the City of Dresden decided to design the city center of Dresden with works of art on the political idea of socialism. This should include a monumental sculpture by the founder of communist theory, Vladimir Ilyich Lenins, for the design of which the Soviet sculptor Grigori Danilowitsch Yastrebenetski was commissioned immediately after this decision . It was to be built at the intersection of Leningrader Strasse (named after Dresden's twin city (twin city since 1961, named since 1970)) with the (extended) Herkulesallee on the Robotron site .
However, the location was rejected by Soviet experts, because the planning at the time provided for one or more height dominants at this point: this would have shaded the monument on the one hand and impaired its artistic effect on the other. In 1971, for example, a commission headed by Gerhard Bondzin , then President of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR , was set up to look for a location. This commission also took over the selection of a design for the monumental sculpture.
Order and description
Jastrebenezki made a total of five designs for the sculpture. These included u. a. Lenin's head on a meter high stele or a full-body sculpture on a high pillar. In the discussions it was agreed that the latter draft - which in the meantime also provided for a worker, had to be merged into a whole in order to make the issue, the German-Soviet friendship, comprehensible. Thus, from four individual figures - Lenin himself, a worker, a worker and a Red Front fighter carrying a red flag - a fused group of figures consisting of Lenin, worker, Red Front fighter and flag, which was intended for execution. The idea was a novelty in the reception of Lenin at the time, as Lenin was only represented as an individual until then. However , it is no longer possible to understand who came up with the idea of approximating the facial features of the red front fighter Ernst Thälmann (with a raised fist) and depicting the worker as a sculpture by Rudolf Breitscheid .
With regard to the locations, several variants were discussed, including a. the southern Altmarkt , the Neustädter Markt and on Dr.-Külz-Ring. It was finally agreed on Wiener Platz. The main argument was that this square is highly frequented by pedestrians and would thus become a place of encounter with Lenin's ideas. Urban planning for this area was adapted, as well as the artistic design of the city center (which largely remained unrealized) was redesigned.
According to Helas' description, the six-meter (seven-meter-high) monument made of red Karelian granite shows an all-clear sculpture, block-like and without openings. Lenin strides forward with an open, billowing coat, his hands in his pockets, and his gaze directed into the distance. The Red Front fighter with his typical uniform (shirt, belt, peaked cap) raises his right fist in a ceremonial greeting. The worker who is on Lenin's left and who is supposed to symbolize the present lags behind. A flag waving between the two - as a "political accessory" (Helas) - symbolizes the victory of socialism. Nevertheless, the monument appears static, the facial expressions of the figures are also without any recognizable emotion, only the heroic gaze of all the figures signals determination.
inauguration
On October 6, 1974, the day before the 25th anniversary of the founding of the GDR , the monument in honor of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was inaugurated in the presence of Hans Modrow , the first secretary of the SED district leadership in Dresden. On this occasion, Wiener Platz was named Leninplatz . The Dresden vernacular, on the other hand, very quickly gave the monument, also because of its color, nicknames, of which Lenin's designation as the red station master (or just station master ) is the best known.
The irony of the story is that one of the most important events of the turnaround in Dresden that ultimately led to reunification , namely the founding of the Group of 20 on October 8, 1989, happened at the foot of this monument symbolizing the victory of socialism.
After reunification and whereabouts
In September 1991 the Dresden city council decided not only to rename the square, but also announced that it would be demolished, subject to the fact that the monument would be removed free of charge. The idea, introduced in November 1991 by the Munich artist Rudolf Herz , to leave the monument alienated as Lenin's camp , initially met with the approval of the cultural department under Ulf Göpfert and the then mayor Herbert Wagner , despite the costs involved.
However, due to the debates that had been initiated , the businessman Josef Kurz, who lives in Gundelfingen an der Donau , became aware of the monument. He offered the city to dismantle and transport the monument at its own expense. Kurz's aim was to exhibit this along with other purchased monuments in a private sculpture park that was open to the public. In view of the offer and under the impression of a survey by BILD on January 17, 1992, Mayor Wagner buckled and finally only allowed the city council to vote on the offer from Kurz, who, as expected, voted for the removal, which was also implemented a few weeks later .
The sculpture park was never realized due to the death of Josef Kurz in 1994, the heirs' intentions to sell, most recently at an auction on June 17, 2017 with a starting bid of 150,000 euros, failed. The city of Dresden also refused to buy back.
At the same time, Rudolf Herz was able to borrow parts of the monument, the busts of Lenin, the Red Front fighter and the worker, free of charge and thus organized a first test drive for an art project Lenin on Tour in 2003 , which then took him through selected European cities and landscapes in 2004 (including Munich, Zurich, Turin, Rome, Vienna, Prague and Berlin). In this way, parts of the memorial returned to Dresden for one day on October 3, 2004.
literature
- Luise Helas: Dresden's Lenin - On the history and dealing with a ghost of communism. In Dresdner Geschichtsverein (ed.): "... what you hardly notice ..." - Dresden monuments in the changing times (= Dresdner Hefte - contributions to cultural history. No. 132, 4/2017). Dresden 2017, ISBN 978-3-944019-21-5 , pp. 63–70.
Web links
- Contribution of the project "Lenin is still around": Text and photos about the Lenin monuments in Dresden: https://leninisstillaround.com/2018/06/07/dresden-leninstatue-weggabe-wandbild-saniert/
Individual evidence
- ↑ There are different details about the weight, http://www.dresden-und-sachsen.de/dresden/hauptbahnhof.htm gives "120 tons"
- ↑ Helas, p. 64.
- ↑ Helas, p. 65.
- ↑ Lenin on Tour - Project by Rudolf Herz , accessed on September 5, 2018.
Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 32.3 " N , 13 ° 44 ′ 1.5" E