May tomb

The tomb for Karl and Klara May is on the northern transverse wall of the Radebeul-Ost cemetery , one of the two main cemeteries in Radebeul . The tomb, now part of the Radebeul-Ost cemetery , was already under monument protection as the Karl May cemetery during the GDR era , even before the entire cemetery was added to the Radebeul monument list in 1979 .

Tomb for Karl and Klara May

description

Tomb for Karl and Klara May

Reconstruction drawing of the Temple of Athena Nike

It is a 5 meter high crypt house in the form of a Greek Niketempel with four Ionic columns, which is a listed building.

The idea for the tomb came about during May's trip to the Orient in 1899/1900. In the second part of his trip to the Orient, he went to Athens on July 7, 1900, together with his wife Emma and the Plöhn family. Because of the Ziller contacts back home, they met with " Prof. Ziller ". Plöhn's wife Klara, who later became Klara May , later noted: “The May couple and we were once in Athens with my already very suffering husband Plöhn and others and had a moonlit night there - thanks to the mediation of Prof. Ziller, who comes from Radebeul spent on the Acropolis. Then the thought arose in me of creating the Niketempel as a crypt in Radebeul. Soon afterwards Plöhn died. He was buried in Radebeul. "

In 1934 Klara May wrote: “An architect living in Athens, a Radebeul child, Professor Ziller, had shown us through Greece's treasures. He took up our idea enthusiastically and carried it out in Radebeul with his brother, who had also lived in Athens for a generation. There is now the replica of the temple of Nikes from the Acropolis in Athens. "

In 1942 she put it this way: “I had meanwhile married Karl May, who gave me the mausoleum as it stands in the cemetery today, it should be a distraction for me and fulfill the wish I made in Athens on the Acropolis would have. The Ziller brothers, who were both there, carried out the work. Radebeul and Athens were closely connected by the Zillers, who founded the Lößnitz. ”Whether Paul Ziller , who is considered the architect of the May tomb, received designs from his brother Ernst about the much smaller proportions of the Radebeul tomb compared to the original Nike temple or to get the Schliemann mausoleum right, can be deduced from the quote, but is probably not currently researched. A solution offers itself in the formulation of the former Radebeul preservationist Dietrich Lohse, namely that Paul Ziller, who was commissioned to build the tomb, "consulted the Athenian brother Ernst [e]".

The grave as a family burial site for the May and Plöhn families was built in 1903, two years after the death of Klara May 's first husband Richard Plöhn. The executive architect Paul Ziller left the construction work to the construction company "Gebrüder Ziller" to his sister-in-law Marie, whose husband Gustav died in the same year as Richard Plöhn.

The names and dates of those buried there can be found on the inside of the tomb:

KARL MAY. GEB.D.25 FEBR.1842 GEST.D. 30 MARCH 1912

KLARA MAY. Born on July 4, 1864 GEST.D.31.DEZ.1944

The interior has a glass roof through which a marble group of figures in a semicircular niche in the background is illuminated in half relief. Selmar Werner , the creator of this group of figures, named his figurative marble picture “Angels receive an earthly soul”. Below the picture are the words:

WELCOME TO US! WE, YOUR EARTH DEEDS, WAITING FOR YOU HERE AT THE GATE OF SKY

YOU ARE THE HARVEST OF YOUR OWN SEEDS AND NOW INCREASE WITH US TO YOURSELF

In the middle of the room is a grave slab with a palmette frieze .

Opposite the temple are two benches by Sascha Schneider, flanked by lion griffins .

• 

  Reminder to Plöhn and Beibler

• 

  One of Sascha Schneider's benches

literature

• Volker Helas (arrangement): City of Radebeul . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Saxony, Large District Town Radebeul (=  Monument Topography Federal Republic of Germany . Monuments in Saxony ). SAX-Verlag, Beucha 2007, ISBN 978-3-86729-004-3 .
• Hans-Dieter Steinmetz : Karl May's tomb in Radebeul . In: Yearbook of the Karl May Society 1995, p. 12ff ( online version )
• Gudrun Taubert; Hans-Georg Staudte: Art in Public Space II. Gravestones . In: Association for Monument Preservation and New Building Radebeul (ed.): Contributions to the urban culture of the city of Radebeul . Radebeul 2005.

Web links

Commons : Karl-May-Grabmal  - Collection of pictures

• Topping-out ceremony at the May tomb . At the bottom left of the photo is Paul Ziller with his coat on his arm.
• The mausoleum before 1909
• May tomb at the main cemetery Radebeul-Ost with a map (rotated by 90 °)
• Entry in the Karl May Wiki
• Address on the occasion of the unveiling of a memorial plaque for Richard Plöhn and Wilhelmine Beibler at Karl May's tomb on May 22, 1998 at the cemetery in Radebeul (on the purpose, appearance and development of the tomb)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Large district town of Radebeul (ed.): Directory of the cultural monuments of the town of Radebeul . Radebeul May 24, 2012, p. 33 (Last list of monuments published by the city of Radebeul. The Lower Monument Protection Authority, which has been located in the Meißen district since 2012, has not yet published a list of monuments for Radebeul.).
2. ^ Orient Reise Karl Mays In: Karl-May-Wiki.
3. ↑ ^{a b} H.-D. Steinmetz: Karl May's tomb in Radebeul , p. 54 f. ( Online version )
4. ↑ Klara May: Around the world under the swastika . (Series title) In: The fight for freedom. Official daily newspaper of the NSDAP. Gau Saxony. Dresden. Volume 4, No. 48, February 18, 1934.
5. ^ Paul Ziller In: Karl-May-Wiki. (There is a photo of the topping-out ceremony of the tomb for Richard Plöhn, with Paul Ziller (left).)
6. ↑ Dietrich Lohse: RADEBEUL in fine photos. In: Preview & Review; Monthly magazine for Radebeul and the surrounding area. Radebeuler monthly books e. V., February 2011, accessed August 5, 2011 . 

Coordinates: 51 ° 5 ′ 54.7 ″  N , 13 ° 40 ′ 3 ″  E