Magdeburg Roland
The Magdeburg Roland is a Roland figure in front of the town hall on the Alter Markt in Magdeburg .
The tradition of the Roland figures dates back to the Middle Ages . The figures symbolized the urban freedoms and independence of the respective city.
figure
The current Magdeburg Roland was created in 2005 under the artistic direction of the sculptor Martina Seffers from Niederndodeleben , in collaboration with Paul Schuster GmbH from Magdeburg. The 4.80 meter tall figure was created from Cotta sandstone . On the back of the roland there is a small figure of Till Eulenspiegel , under which there is the inscription Roland ano 778 died . Eulenspiegel, who is said to have also worked in Magdeburg, thus counteracts the serious military appearance of Roland.
history
The first written mention of a Magdeburg Roland goes back to 1419. The Schöppenchronik mentions for this year that a new Roland was set up. In 1459 a master Kunze from Erfurt then created a stone Roland. This was renewed in 1539 under Mayor Johannes Scheyring . The location of these first figures was in another place on the Alter Markt, between the Magdeburg rider and the house of the market master at Alter Markt 16.
Presumably with the renovation of the Roland, but at least before 1574, the location was then moved to the slightly higher-lying properties at Alter Markt 18 and 19. When the city of Magdeburg was largely destroyed during the Thirty Years' War in 1631, the Roland statue was also destroyed. Its ruins were still visible until 1727. That year the old market was leveled, raised and paved again. The remains of the roland were removed. A stone slab was set at its former location as a reminder. When the paving was carried out in 1904, a new plate with the inscription Roland 1727 was placed at this point. It can still be found today in the pavement of the Old Market.
After Magdeburg had no Roland figure for two centuries, Rudolf Bosselt , professor at the Magdeburg School of Applied Arts and Crafts , created a so-called Nagelroland during the First World War . The 3.75 meter high wooden figure was to be nailed with iron nails. For each nail, donations were to be collected for the bereaved relatives of fallen soldiers. In order to preserve the figure, the nailing was not carried out.
The Roland figure was in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum . In 1920 the monument committee, organized as an association, approached the city of Magdeburg and asked for the association's assets, which totaled 30,000 marks, to be transferred to an independent foundation that was to support widows and orphans of fallen or long-term families in need. The Roland itself should remain in the museum or be installed later in a new town hall. The documents including the list of donors should be given to the Magdeburg City Archives .
In April 1933 this wooden Roland was erected in front of the town hall. As early as December 1940, however, it was dismantled again to protect it from the weather and stored in the municipal building yard. After the end of the Second World War , the Roland was probably chopped up in the winter of 1945/46 and used as firewood.
After the political change in 1989 there were efforts to create a new Roland. The Magdeburg city planning office announced an artistic competition in 1999. The resulting modern Roland designs, however, met with criticism. In 2004 the city council decided to erect a Roland figure that corresponds to a picture of a Magdeburg Roland in the Chronicle of Johannes Pomarius of 1589.
At the beginning of 2005, a Circle of Friends of Historical Roland was formed and collected donations of € 75,000 to erect the figure.
The figure was then erected on December 23, 2005.
literature
- Maren Ballerstedt in The Old and New Town Hall of Magdeburg through the Ages , State Capital Magdeburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-9808534-2-2 , page 66 ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Print Book 1, Family Association Ziering-Moritz-Alemann, 1935, pp. 18-23
- ↑ The end of the wooden Roland in Magdeburg. In: Volksstimme . June 29, 1920.
Coordinates: 52 ° 7 '53.8 " N , 11 ° 38' 23.1" E