Rüdiger fountain
The Rüdiger fountain was a landmark of the town of Gablonz an der Neisse (today: Jablonec nad Nisou ) between 1931 and 1945 and was reconstructed in 1970 in the Neugablonz district of Kaufbeur using the original Rüdiger sculpture and the original reliefs . The sculpture and reliefs were created in 1904 by the Berlin sculptor Franz Metzner , who came from Bohemia .
description
In the fountain basin stands a granite base , which is encased with six relief panels depicting male torsos . On the base is a larger than life bronze statue of Rüdiger von Bechelaren , a figure from the Nibelung saga . Rüdiger is shown absorbed in prayer, the sword resting in his arms, at the moment of the decision whether to remain loyal to the Huns or the Burgundians .
history
In 1904, the sculptor Franz Metzner was commissioned by the City of Vienna to create a Nibelungen fountain that was to be placed on Vienna's Ringstrasse in front of the Votive Church . When the project failed in the preparatory phase, the Society for the Promotion of German Art and Science in Prague acquired the only part of the fountain that had already been completed, the Rüdiger.
In 1924 (five years after Metzner's death) the city of Gablonz bought the Rüdiger sculpture for 50,000 crowns . For the time being, the statue found a location on Tuchplatz opposite the Anna Church. At the end of the 1920s, Rüdiger was taken into account when planning the construction of the Sacred Heart Church, which was just being built: a new location was found on the bastion in front of the church. The city administration of Gablonz had the relief panels made according to Metzner's original designs. The fountain with sculpture and reliefs was inaugurated in 1931, a total of 700,000 crowns were spent on it.
After the end of the Second World War , the Rüdiger sculpture was removed. It was replaced by a Soviet-style war memorial. In the meantime, the majority of the displaced Gablonz had settled in the Kaufbeur district of Neugablonz . Since 1954 there have been repeated attempts to acquire the old Gablonz landmark for the new home, but the opportunity only arose in the course of the Prague Spring : The Museum Administration of Czechoslovakia offered the acquisition for 10,000 US dollars as part of a measure to acquire foreign currency through a Munich art dealer Dollars on. The Neugablonz entrepreneurs Otto Walter and Alfred Prediger donated the requested amount, so that the statue and the reliefs were sent to Kaufbeuren and arrived there on February 17, 1968.
The new construction of the fountain base was carried out under the care of the planting and beautification association, the 100,000 DM required for this were financed through donations. The Rüdiger sculpture was erected on the fountain base on August 30, 1970 in the park in front of the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Neugablonz.
This was preceded by a debate mainly conducted in the press, born out of the spirit of the 1968 movement , which tried to prevent the rebuilding: The Rüdiger was a " revanchist monument " and stood for revenge and retribution on the part of the displaced.
literature
- Gertrud Zasche : What can Metzner's Rüdiger mean to us today? (= Gablonzer Books , No. 20.) Gablonzer Archive and Museum eV, Neugablonz 1969.
- Susanne Rössler: The Rüdiger fountain. In: Susanne Rössler, Gerhart Stütz (ed.): Neugablonz. District of the former Free Imperial City of Kaufbeuren in the Allgäu. Origin and development. Leutelt Gesellschaft, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1986, pp. 358–365.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Susanne Rössler: The Rüdiger fountain. In: Susanne Rössler, Gerhart Stütz (ed.): Neugablonz. District of the former Free Imperial City of Kaufbeuren in the Allgäu. Origin and development. Leutelt Gesellschaft, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1986, pp. 358–365
Coordinates: 47 ° 54 ′ 26.6 " N , 10 ° 38 ′ 10.3" E