Luther Monument (Keila)
The Luther Memorial in Keila (German cones ) in Estonia was the first Luther monument and the only Luther statue in a public space in the Russian Empire and the first monument with inscriptions in Estonian in the Governorate of Estonia . It was built in 1862 and destroyed by the Soviet rulers in 1949 .
Emergence
Georg von Meyendorff from the Estonian branch of the German-Baltic noble family von Meyendorff was a squire of Kegel and the neighboring Kumna . Like many Baltic Germans, he had entered the Russian military and, after an outstanding career with awards in many battles, had made it to the position of general of the cavalry , general adjutant and chief equerry of the tsar. Since 1845, as President of the General Consistory of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, he was the highest-ranking Lutheran layperson in the Russian Empire.
He donated the monument "as a token of his love and loyalty to the man, in whose confession he recognized and found the peace of his soul and the salvation of his country." The monument should also be "a reminder to the whole country [...], the faith." to remain loyal to their fathers, even if their future landlord no longer belongs to this confession ”. The personal background was that Meyendorff's sons had married women from the Russian aristocracy and converted to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Meyendorff commissioned the monument from the famous sculptor Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg , who was highly valued by the Tsar, and paid for the cost of 9,000 rubles . The memorial should actually stand on Toompea in Tallinn (German Reval) as a widely visible testimony to Estonia's Lutheran heritage and against the increasing Russification . However, the Russian authorities did not approve this plan, and in the place where the statue was to be erected, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral , the most visible symbol of Russification , was built in the 1890s .
Meyendorff then decided to erect the memorial on his own land. He chose a clearly visible place on the road from Reval to Haapsalu (German Hapsal) near the pastorate of St. Michael's Church.
The inauguration took place on Reformation Day 1862. The celebration began in the overcrowded St. Michael's Church. This was followed by a procession to the statue about a werst (1.07 km) away, which was still covered. Everyone sang the chorale A Strong Castle Is Our God , and on the third stanza the statue was revealed. Speeches by the founder and the local pastor, Provost Fick, followed in Estonian and German. The celebration closed with the fourth stanza of A Strong Castle and the common Our Father . Contemporary reports estimate that around 4,000 to 5,000 people attended the inauguration.
The monument soon became a place to visit. It remained the private property of the Meyendorff family for a long time, some of whom remained on Kumna after 1918. When they too left Estonia in 1940 in the wake of the Hitler-Stalin Pact , they transferred the monument to the Evangelical Lutheran parish.
description
A full figure of Luther in a robe and beret in the gesture of a preacher rose on an octagonal base made of iron ore . The head was tilted slightly forward and the gaze was directed towards the viewer standing below. With his left foot in front of him, he held an open Bible in his left hand and raised his right hand to heaven with an outstretched forefinger.
The base was provided with inscriptions in Estonian. This was the first time the Estonian language was used on a public monument . They read in German translation:
- "Luther the reformer statue, presented to the dear Estonians by Georg Baron Meyendorff in 1862"
- “Watch, stand in faith, be manly and be strong. All your things be done in love. "( 1 Cor 16,13f LUT )
- “By grace you have been saved through faith. It is God's gift "( Eph 2,8 LUT )
- "A strong castle is our God, a good defense and weapons."
The base was made in the ore foundry of the purveyor to the court Felix Chopin in Saint Petersburg and the statue itself was cast in bronze in the former Herzoglich Leuchtenberg factory. The monument was over 6 meters high.
The model of the monument came into the collection of the Museum of the Estonian Literary Society in Reval.
Destruction and memory
At the end of 1949, Soviet units destroyed the monument to its foundations. The statue was remelted in the Ilmarine foundry in Tallinn into a Stalin statue, which was erected in downtown Tallinn. This statue was later removed and is now together with other statues from the Soviet era in the back yard of the Estonian History Museum Maarjamäe Castle in Tallinn.
In 2009, volunteers from the local community and church community exposed the foundation of the monument at the suggestion of local pastor Marek Roots. On June 27, 2010 a notice board was put up at this point.
literature
- The inauguration of the Luther memorial at Kegel in Estonia. In: Warschauer Zeitung 5 (1863), No. 18 of 11./23. January 1863 ( digitized version )
- Report, in: Das Inland 27 (1862), column 723f, issue 45 of November 5, 1862
Web links
- Information from the Estonian National Archives on the Luther Monument (Estonian)
- Information about the monument on martinluther.ee (Estonian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from Das Inland (Lit.), Col. 723
- ↑ Warschauer Zeitung (lit)
- ↑ The statement often found in travel guide literature that the cathedral was built on the spot where the statue previously stood is incorrect.
- ↑ So after Das Inland ; the Warschauer Zeitung is on October 21st, but that is probably a transcription error.
- ↑ To Das Inland
- ^ Paul Jordan: History of the Estonian Literary Society for the period from 1842 to 1892. Reval 1892, p. 68
- ^ Otto Kammer: Reformation monuments of the 19th and 20th centuries: an inventory. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2004 (Luther Memorials Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt, Catalog 9), ISBN 3-374-02188-3 , p. 262
- ↑ Figure ( Memento of the original from April 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.4 MB), p. 15i
Coordinates: 59 ° 19 ′ 0 ″ N , 24 ° 26 ′ 58 ″ E