Maxborn

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The Maxborn in Mainz-Gonsenheim

The Maxborn is a fountain in the Mainz district of Gonsenheim in Rhineland-Palatinate . The simple Art Nouveau fountain was built in 1911 on behalf of the Jewish wine merchant August Saarbach (1854–1912) in memory of his son Max, who died young.

history

Max Friedrich Saarbach (1895–1910), the second eldest son of August and Johanna Saarbach (née Gutmann, 1863–1940), died on March 2, 1910 at the age of only 15 - presumably of meningitis . In the following year, the Saarbachs, who lived in a villa on Heidesheimer Strasse in Gonsenheim , had a weeping willow planted on their own property on the corner of Heidesheimer Strasse and Lennebergstrasse in memory of their son and the Maxborn built. Although the area and the well were privately owned by the Saarbach family, the drinking water well was freely accessible to everyone.

After the Second World War , the fountain became the property of the city of Mainz. By the early 1980s at the latest, the well was no longer in operation, but was repaired again in 1983. In 2011, the Maxborn was completely renovated after the Mainz cabaret artist Herbert Bonewitz donated more than 6,000 euros for this purpose .

The fountain is a listed building .

Relief image at Maxborn

Appearance

The simple fountain, designed in Art Nouveau style, consists primarily of a slightly arched wall made of shell limestone . In contrast to the sides, the center of the fountain wall is slightly raised. In the middle of the wall there is a relief image of a kneeling boy in side view, holding a bouquet of flowers in his hands. Two birds can be seen above the boy's head - probably a dove and an owl .

Under the portrait, water flows from a curved pipe into a small well basin at the foot of the well wall. On the left side of the wall is the inscription MAXBORN in capital letters . let in. On the right side there is a small wall niche with a round arch, which possibly served as a grave light .

symbolism

The Maxborn is not only a memorial for a boy who died prematurely, but also generally addresses the transience of life . The kneeling boy and the bouquet of flowers in the relief represent, on the one hand, youth and the prime of life, but, on the other hand, also point to their finiteness. The running water is also a symbol for the transience of all living things.

The two birds above the boy's head, on the other hand, could symbolize a consoling invitation to the bereaved. The dove and owl are symbols of reconciliation and wisdom . People are asked to endure the inevitable fate of death through reconciliation with God and through wisdom.

The founding family

The Jewish family Saarbach had become prosperous through the wine trade . Eduard Saarbach, August Saarbach's father, had already founded a wine shop in 1840 that specialized in top wines from the Rhine and Moselle regions . August Saarbach expanded the business into an international company - his customers included not only the European nobility, but also American millionaires and Indian maharajas. Even today there is a beverage distributor with the name Eduard Saarbach & Co. GmbH based in Traben-Trarbach .

August and Johanna Saarbach had six children, all of whom were born in Mainz: Hedwig (1885–1957), Wilhelm (1887–1970), Anna (1888–1976), Elizabeth (1891–1944), Max Friedrich (1895–1910, in whose memory the Maxborn was built) and Ernst Alphons (1897–1989). After Johanna Saarbach was widowed in 1912, she lived in Mainz until her death, where she died in a Jewish retirement home in 1941 . Of the five Saarbach children who were still alive, four survived the Nazi era and World War II - some of them had already emigrated from Germany in the 1930s .

See also

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′ 10.9 ″  N , 8 ° 11 ′ 43.4 ″  E