Nelson Mandela Park (Bremen)

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Nelson Mandela Park
Bremen coat of arms (middle) .svg
Park in Bremen
Nelson Mandela Park
Anti-Colonial Monument ( The Elephant )
Basic data
place Bremen
District Schwachhausen
Created from 1866 as a connection to the Bürgerpark
Surrounding streets Gustav-Deetjen-Allee, Blumenthalstrasse , Hohenlohestrasse , extension of Parkstrasse

The Nelson Mandela Park is a public park in the Bremen district of Schwachhausen . The green area has been named in honor of Nelson Mandela since 2014.

location

Nelson Mandela Park is separated from the Bürgerpark by a public green area adjoining it to the north with a kinking section of Gustav-Deetjen-Allee and Hollerallee and borders on Bürgerweide . The park is located between Gustav-Deetjen-Allee and Blumenthalstrasse ; it is bounded in the south by Hohenlohestrasse and in the north by the extension of Parkstrasse.

history

The area was part of the Bremer Bürgerweide, which had served as a general ( common ) pasture area since around 1030 - and confirmed in the Bremer Weidebrief in 1159 . The park was created from 1866 in connection with the establishment of the public park and represents the connecting part from the city center to the actual park. Originally, the green area had no name and was colloquially known as Hohenlohepark (after the Hohenlohestrasse adjacent to the south) or Gustav-Deetjen-Anlage (after the Gustav-Deetjen-Allee bordering to the west).

Scattered over the park and the adjacent green space to the north are several thematically related monuments and some sculptures from the Bremen program for “ Art in Public Spaces ”. The dominant feature is the monumental-looking, around ten meter high “ elephant ” made of red brick , which forms the visual center of the park. The monument near Hohenlohestrasse was erected in the early 1930s as a (imperial) colonial monument and rededicated as an anti-colonial monument in the late 1980s . A memorial for the victims of the genocide of the Herero and Nama in Namibia was inaugurated near the elephant at the end of the 2000s .

Shortly after Nelson Mandela's death on December 5, 2013, a petition was filed by a couple to name the previously unnamed park in Nelson Mandela Park in honor of Mandela. The petition found around 120 co-signatories and was approved by the Senate Chancellery. In March 2014, the Schwachhausen Advisory Board voted unanimously in favor of the proposal. On July 18, 2014, Mandela's 96th birthday, the park was officially inaugurated with a celebration.

Since the mid-1980s, public commemorative events and celebrations have taken place in the park and the Nelson Mandela Park in Bremen is now (2020) a “place dedicated to Africa ”.

In May 2019, the first of five planned urban drinking water fountains in Bremen was opened in the park near the elephant . Above all, the aim is to give homeless people who frequent the park near Bremen Central Station free access to drinking water . The drinking water tap complements the two drinking water points that have existed since 2015 in the provost parish of St. Johann im Schnoor and at the Liebfrauenkirche , which are operated by the respective parishes .

Monuments and sculptures

Anti colonial monument , 1931-32 as the Colonial War Memorial erected and rededicated in 1989
  • Anti-colonial monument: The original imperial colonial monument was built in 1931/32 by the architect Otto Blendermann based on a design by the Munich sculptor Fritz Behn . After the Second World War, the monument was named a German Colonial Memorial . In the course of the changed social and political approach to the "legacy of colonialism ", the monument was rededicated in 1989 and has since been referred to as an anti-colonial monument . The monument, which is around 10  m high, was made of dark red Oldenburg clinker brick. It consists of a figurative representation of an African elephant in the dimensions 7 mx 3 m x 15 m, which merges into a twelve-sided base piece and rests on a further base step. A crypt is built into the base. In the meantime (2020) there are several memorial and explanatory text panels on the base and near the monument .
Okamahari Memorial from 2009, in the background the anti-colonial monument
  • Ohamakari Memorial - Memorial to the Victims of the Genocide in Namibia: The memorial was erected in 2009 near the anti-colonial monument. It commemorates the victims of the genocide from 1904 to 1908 in the colony of German South West Africa , today's Namibia . The commander of the German protection force , Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha , led an extermination campaign against the Herero (Ovaherero / Ovambanderu), Nama and Damara after the Battle of Waterberg in 1904 , in which more than 80,000 people were murdered. The memorial consists of more than 350 red sandstones of medium size and four larger boulders of elongated shape, each of which comes from the Southwest African Waterberg and is spread out and anchored on a roundel with a diameter of 5.5–6.0 m made of gravel concrete . At the edge of the roundabout there is a memorial plaque embedded in the paving. In addition, a text board provides information about the memorial and its background.
  • Main claims: The 3-part sculpture ensemble was created in 1974 by thesculptor and graphic artist Louis Niebuhr from Syker and was originally created as part of the first public sculptureevent in Bremenon the President-Kennedy-Platz in Bremen- Mitte . Until 2003 it stood in front of the Bremen State Archives, which was adjacent to President-Kennedy-Platz. It was movedto its current location in Nelson Mandela Parkas part of the Moving the City campaign . The three sculptures are made of bronze , each of which is placed on a concrete base. They are each 2.5 m high. The sculpture ensemble is part of the program k: art in public space bremen u. a. described as follows: “Three skulls lie next to each other on three bases each. Their shapes are overdrawn. The bald "claims" are opposed to the insignia of beauty and prestige, as they are expressed in the head of hair, the hats and headgear. "
  • Puppenruhe MCMLXXXV – MMXV: The sculpture was also created by Louis Niebuhr in 1984 and was created during a sculptor symposium in Bremen- Vegesack . From 1985 to 2003 it was in the Vegesack pedestrian zone . It was also movedto its current location in Nelson Mandela Parkas part of the Moving the City campaign . The lying sculpture is made of marble and is mounted on a low concrete base. Its dimensions are 0.8 mx 2.8 m x 0.7 m. The sculpture is part of the program k: art in public space bremen u. a. described as follows: “The marble stone is floating on its base. A horizontal and a vertical joint structure the elongated figure, which is closed in the overall view. So the viewer can z. B. see a larva, a pregnant creature or a sarcophagus in it. Life, transformation and death unite associatively. The metaphorical shape of the stone is divided by cuts that follow circular segments. The unity as a marble block as a natural object is thus broken. The sculpture becomes a symbol of the uncertainty of the future, a sign of the destruction of nature or its meaningful control. "
Khatchkar with the two text panels, set up in 2005
  • Khatchkar: In 2005, a khatchkar , an Armenian memorial stone , was set up in the adjacent green space to the north - right next to the extension of the park road and thus right next to the park . The " cross stone " is about 2 meters high and decorated with a bas-relief on the face . In the tradition of the Armenian Church, the artistically hewn stone shows a relief cross in the middle, which is surrounded by geometric and vegetable motifs. Left of the khatchkar are two text panels: The left panel contains a general description of Khatchkarkunst while the right, dense standing on memory stone plaque in the Armenian language contributes and in German following inscription:
Հայկան Մեծ Եղեռնի 90 ֊ամեակի
առիթով, 1,500,000 զոհերուն
յիշատակին նուիրուած
April 24, 1915
-
April 24, 2005
On the 90th anniversary ofthe
Armenian genocidein the Ottoman Empire,
wecommemorate the 1,500,000 murdered Armenians

Web links

Commons : Nelson-Mandela-Park, Bremen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Advisory Board Schwachhausen, Bremen: Protocol No. 29 (2011-2015) of the public meeting of the specialist committee "Construction, Urban Development, Environment and Energy" of the Advisory Board Schwachhausen on March 6, 2014 . Ed .: Local office Schwachhausen / Vahr, Bremen. March 6, 2014 ( digitized at ortsamtschwachhausenvahr.bremen.de [PDF; 54 kB ; accessed on March 31, 2020]).
  2. ^ A b c Maren Brandstätter: Committee approves Nelson-Mandela-Park. In: weser-kurier.de . March 9, 2014, accessed March 30, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Heinz-Peter Petrat: party at Nelson Mandela Park. In: weser-kurier.de . July 16, 2014, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Thomas Kuzaj: "A place dedicated to Africa". In: Kreiszeitung.de . July 18, 2014, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Elke Hoesmann: Bremer Park is now reminiscent of Mandela. In: weser-kurier.de . July 19, 2014, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b c Kirsten Rautenberg: Drinking water fountain opened in Bremen - four more to follow. In: butenunbinnen.de . May 3, 2019, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b Kornelia Hattermann: drinking water for all. In: weser-kurier.de . May 3, 2019, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  8. ↑ k: art in public space bremen
  9. ↑ Thomas Gatter: Memorial for victims of the Battle of Waterberg and the colonial war . In: Allgemeine Zeitung , Namibia . August 12, 2009 ( copy on der-elefant-bremen.de [PDF; 52 kB ; accessed on March 31, 2020]).
  10. ↑ k: art in public space bremen
  11. ↑ k: art in public space bremen
  12. ↑ k: art in public space bremen

Coordinates: 53 ° 5 ′ 6 ″  N , 8 ° 49 ′ 5 ″  E