Lessing Monument (Braunschweig)

The Lessing Monument at Lessingplatz. The building in the background is the former garrison school .

The Lessing memorial in Braunschweig was inaugurated on September 29, 1853.

Creation until today

Since the rediscovery of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's grave in 1833, efforts have been made in Braunschweig for an appropriate appreciation of the Enlightenment poet . With the support of the later head of the Municipal Museum , Carl Schiller , the prominent Dresden sculptor Ernst Rietschel was won over to design a statue.

The Brunswick foundry Georg Howaldt , who was hardly or only slightly important up to this point in time, received this important order for reasons of economy. The cast bronze monument was completed in 1849 and the result was a 2.60 meter high bronze statue, the head of which was formed from a portrait bust by the coin engraver and sculptor Christian Friedrich Krull .

The base of the monument consists of Harz granite . In Braunschweig it was the first statue to show a human figure. During the Second World War, the Lessing Monument was moved to Wendhausen.

In 1947 it was returned to its place of origin, the Braunschweig Lessingplatz .

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1. ↑ Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Exhibition catalog for the Lessinghaus. No. 83. Picture credits, p. 70

Web links

Commons : Lessing monument  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Older picture postcard

Coordinates: 52 ° 15 ′ 32.8 "  N , 10 ° 31 ′ 26.4"  E