Madonna of the Seas

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Madonna of the Seas at the St. Pauli Fish Market

The Madonna of the Seas , also known as the Madonna of the Sea , at the Altona fish market is a memorial for everyone who stayed at sea. It was set up in 1985.

Memorial to those who remained at sea

The four-ton bronze monument by the sculptor Manfred Sihle-Wissel goes back to the initiative of the Cap Horniers and a specially founded association Platz der Seefahrt to erect an appropriate memorial to the fishermen and seafarers who remained at sea. In the previous hundred years, almost 26,000 seafarers in German fishing and merchant shipping died as a sailor.

For the inscription on the base, words from Joseph Conrad from the end of the chapter on Mirror of the Sea in his Notes on My Books were chosen: “to the imperishable sea, to the ships that are no more and to the simple men who have had their day. "

The sculpture represents a huddled female figure staring rigidly at the horizon towards the Elbe and the lake. There are other memorials to the women and men who remained at sea in Gothenburg , Oslo , Mariehamn , Bergen , Ostend , Esbjerg, among others .

  • The immortal sea, the ships that are no more and the simple men whose days never return. Joseph Conrad

  • Madonna of the Seas the day after Dead Sunday 2014

Annual commemoration

The commemoration for those who remained at sea has been taking place every year on Sunday of the Dead since 1999 . The organizers are the Hamburger Hafenverein von 1872 e. V. and the shanty choir "Windrose". It commemorates the ships, their crews and their survivors who have been damaged, sunk or disappeared without a trace. Those who remained at sea also include the people who drowned while fleeing across the sea. The celebration begins with eight glasses of the ship's bell and the Shanty Hamborger Veermaster performed by the Shanty Choir Windrose . Participants from the Hamburg Harbor Association, the Shantychor, the Association of Captains and Ship Officers, the Duckdalben Seafarers' Club and the Seamen's Mission recall the fate of ships, their crews and those who survived. A small copy of the Madonna (forged by Blohm and Voss) is in the chapel of Cape Horn . The event ends with Rolling Home , sung by the shanty choir “Windrose”.

See also

literature

  • "Madonna of the Seafaring" The creation of a memorial in honor of the seamen who stayed on the seas, published by the author community of four captains of the Cap Horniers, Hamburg, 1987

Web links

Commons : Madonna of the Seas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Association of Captains and Ship Officers of Hamburg e. V .: Memorial.
  2. ↑ Dieter Samsen: Commemoration of the "Madonna of the Sea" on November 20, 2016. In: "Verein der Hamburger e. V. ", January / February 2017, p. 12.
  3. ↑ Dieter Samsen: Madonna of the Seafaring 2017. In: "Verein der Hamburger e. V. ", January / February 2018, pp. 6-7.

Coordinates: 53 ° 32 ′ 43.4 "  N , 9 ° 57 ′ 15.7"  E