Rubenov Monument
The Rubenow monument in the Hanseatic city of Greifswald was ceremoniously unveiled on October 17, 1856 in honor of the city's mayor and co-founder of the University of Greifswald Heinrich Rubenow (around 1400–1462).
The memorial has the shape of a slender pinnacle and is studded with several figures related to the history of the university. The four monarchs, Duke Wartislaw IX, stand in four niches . of Pomerania, Duke Bogislaw XIV of Pomerania, King Friedrich I of Sweden and King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia , to whom the university owes special thanks. The models were created by the sculptor Wilhelm Stürmer .
The coats of arms of Sweden, Prussia, Pomerania and Greifswald were placed under the niches, including a tondo with the portrait of the Greifswald mayor and university founder Heinrich Rubenow in relief. The sculptor Bernhard Afinger designed the figures of the scholars who, as representatives of the four faculties , are inserted at the corners of the monument as seated figures: Johannes Bugenhagen for theology , David Mevius for jurisprudence , and medicine is embodied by Professor Friedrich August Gottlob Berndt The freedom poet Ernst Moritz Arndt is represented as a philosopher .
With a total height of 40 feet (= 12.55 meters), the Rubenow monument is the largest free-standing pinnacle made of galvanically bronzed cast zinc in Germany.
history
After zinc had only been used to make brass or sheet metal , this metal was first used in ornamentation in 1832 . Schinkel , to whom samples were presented, recognized the importance of the material and suggested the Berlin zinc caster Moritz Geiß to use zinc to cast statues and to determine whether a bronze-like coating color could be produced for zinc. During the preparations for the anniversary celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the university, the erection of a memorial for the founder was initiated. The Berlin architect Friedrich August Stüler could be won over to the design of a gothic fial column with figurative decoration. Stüler created the monument based on the Kreuzberg monument in Berlin, for which Karl Friedrich Schinkel was largely responsible (architecture with Johann Heinrich Strack and the idea for the figures) . In the end, the shape of these monuments goes back to medieval monuments (see Schoener Brunnen (Nuremberg) ).
In June 1856 Moritz Geiß presented the memorial to the public in his workshop in Berlin. On October 17, 1856, the Rubenow Monument was ceremoniously unveiled on the square in front of the university in the presence of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV .
After the monument was inaugurated, the name Rubenowplatz gradually became established for the site, although the name of the square did not appear in the Greifswald address book until 1872.
During the First World War , the monument was mutilated by a storm. The Siemens & Halske company restored the monument in 1926/27.
In spring 2006 the square was redesigned for the 550th anniversary of the University of Greifswald (1456–2006). The monument itself was extensively restored with the help of numerous private donations and funds from the university.
literature
Monographs
- Eva Börsch-Supan u. a. (Ed.): Friedrich August Stüler. 1800-1865 . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-422-06161-4
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Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich
- 2. Neubrandenburg, Rostock, Schwerin . 1980, ISBN 3-422-00370-3
- Julius Ziegler: History of the City of Greifswald . Abel publishing house, Greifswald 1897.
Essays
- Hannelore Gärtner: The Rubenow Monument in Greifswald. A case study. In: Foundation Prussian Palaces and Gardens Berlin-Brandenburg. Yearbook 1 (1995/1996), pp. 111-118. Digitized on perspectivia.net .
Newspaper articles
- Illustrirte Zeitung , Leipzig, No. 693 of October 11, 1856
- Stettiner Ostsee-Zeitung from June 18, 1856
- Michael Hammermeister (arr.): The Rubenow monument of the University of Greifswald . In: Die Pommersche Zeitung , Volume 62, Episode 46 of November 17, 2012, pp. 11-14, numer. Fig.
- Manfred Höft: King was at the inauguration - zinc inside and bronze outside: the Greifswald university monument was created in Berlin . In: Die Pommersche Zeitung , episode 33/98 of August 15, 1998
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 5 ′ 43.1 ″ N , 13 ° 22 ′ 28.8 ″ E