Schiller Monument (Dresden)
The Dresden Schiller Monument is located southwest of Albertplatz , between the beginning of Hauptstraße and Königstraße in the Innere Neustadt district . It is a work by Selmar Werner , the architecture is by Oswin Hempel .
history
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Friedrich Schiller's death , a committee was founded in 1905 to erect a Schiller monument in Dresden. While the city of Dresden promised the building site - an open space south of Albertplatz - free of charge, the collection of private donations for the planned construction costs of 30,000 marks turned out to be considerably more difficult.
In 1908, the sum had not yet been raised, an artistic competition was held, the results of which, however, could not be implemented.
It was not until 1913, also as part of the sculptural and artistic reform efforts in Dresden, that Selmar Werner was won over. Werner came from the school of Robert Diez , who in turn already had a large number of works of art in Dresden, such as B. had created the twin fountain of calm water and stormy waves on Albertplatz and also the goose thief fountain . Werner's - realized - concept envisaged Schiller with true-to-portrait features as a purely intellectual, ideal poetic personality, dressed in Greek and surrounded by his most important works.
The architectural implementation, which was carried out by Oswin Hempel and executed in Lasa marble , placed the 3.40 m high statue of Werner on a pedestal in the center of a rotunda (diameter 7.50 m), which was only seen from the side facing him directly is accessible and to which one descends a step (which is also meant symbolically).
"Barefoot with his head held high, he stands in front of us and looking into the expanse of fantasy."
The walls of the closed room cover nine reliefs, also by Selmar Werner, which depict figures from Schiller's poems (starting on the left of the entrance):
- The division of the earth (1795, here: Schiller before Zeus' throne),
- Leander with the corpse of Heros ( Hero and Leander , 1801),
- the vision of Joan of Arc (5th act from The Maid of Orleans , 1800),
- Hector's farewell to Andromache (Hector's Song , 1801),
- the guarantee (1798),
- the song of the bell (1799),
- the girl from abroad
- the cranes of Ibycus (1797) and
- the Tell shot (3rd act, 2nd scene from Wilhelm Tell , 1804).
"These reliefs are also kept in a strict style, which, apart from every perspective depression and every hint of the scene, sees the ground only as a surface to be decorated, which gives the figures support."
The memorial was inaugurated on May 9, 1914, on the 109th anniversary of Schiller's death .
Located in an open space in the area that was largely spared from bombing during the air raids on Dresden in 1945, and also provided with a winter enclosure (as was customary at the time to protect the precious marble), the monument remained largely intact. The redesign of the main street in the 1970s did not affect the existence of the monument. A (careful) renovation and surrounding area did not take place until the 1990s.
Shortly after its inauguration, the monument was given the nickname “Schiller in the Bathtub” by the Dresdeners due to its position in a rotunda that was only shoulder-high, which is still known today.
Web links
- Historical photo (before 1945) of the Schiller monument
literature
- O. Sch .: The Schiller Monument in Dresden. In: Art for everyone. Volume 29 (1913/14), Issue 18 (June 15, 1914, digitized version )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Model drafts for a Schiller monument in Dresden In Illustrirte Zeitung, edition of March 26, 1908, p. 545. Digital copy from the New York Public Library , accessed on January 7, 2018.
- ↑ a b O. Sch .: The Schiller Monument in Dresden .
- ↑ Text on textlog.de . Retrieved January 7, 2018
- ↑ Monuments in Dresden - Part 3: Even more artists ... Friedrich Schiller on brunnenturmfigur.de . Retrieved January 7, 2018.
Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 43.1 " N , 13 ° 44 ′ 41.2" E