Victory Column (Siegburg)
The Victory Column in Siegburg is the war memorial for the soldiers from Siegburg and the Siegkreis who fell in the German Wars of Unification in 1866 and 1870/71 . Winged Victoria , standing on a ball, holds the symbols of victory ( laurel wreath ) and peace ( palm branch ) in her hands .
Origin and description
In 1867 the Comradeship Association in Siegburg expressed the wish for a memorial to the fallen. In 1873 a committee was founded for this purpose with the members Colonel Muelenz, Judiciary Wurzer, Dr. Schwann and Mr. Heiden. They commissioned the design from the architect Ritschert ( Berlin ).
The Bonn stonemason Johann Josef Olzem made the substructure of the Viktoria from Udelfanger sandstone . It is a round column on a square base, which stands on an eight-sided base. The candelabra at the four corners were originally gas-lit. The figure of Viktoria was ordered according to the catalog in Berlin, from A. Castner , vorm. M. Geiß made using the zinc casting process (based on an original model by the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch ) and then patinated . As for the Peace Column erected in Oldenburg in 1878, the model for this monument is Christian Gottlieb Cantian's Peace Column on Belle-Alliance-Platz in Berlin, on which Rauch's statue of Victoria was originally located until 2006. Replicas of Rauch's Victoria statue can be found in many other places, such as the Schwerin Orangery or (until 1994) on a war memorial in Waren (Müritz) .
The total cost of the monument was around 20,000 marks , which are financed from voluntary contributions from the residents of the city and the Siegkreis as well as grants from the city and district.
The war memorial was erected on the upper market in 1877 and was ceremoniously unveiled on August 18th, the seventh anniversary of the Battle of St. Privat , in the presence of guests of honor and delegations from the various warring associations of the Siegkreis.
Inscriptions
The inscriptions are in capital letters. The inscription runs along the upper edge of the column below the cornice:
- "God was with us * be the glory of him *".
The inscription on the front indicates the dedication:
- "Germany's / brave sons / MDCCCLXXVII".
Underneath, another inscription names the locations of the battles and skirmishes in which Siegburg soldiers took part:
- "Paris * Sedan * Metz * Amiens"
The patriotic inscription panels on the base read as follows:
- "Through us / a greeting is delivered / to your dead."
- "I owe / thank the brave without / wavering /."
- "I point / up / to / praise the savior"
- "I like / survive / genuinely German / endeavor"
On the four sides of the substructure there are inscription panels made of black granite with an iron cross in relief in the middle and the names of the soldiers who died in these wars in alphabetical order (+ two addenda) on both sides.
history
English occupation soldiers stole the candelabra in 1919. During the Second World War , the statue was damaged by gunfire. In 1956 there were discussions about removing the Victory Column in order to be able to better open the market to traffic. These plans did not materialize; the statue was renovated in 1978 and is now in the pedestrian zone . The palm branch that Victoria was holding in her left hand was stolen by strangers in the 1990s. On Weiberfastnacht , the Victory Column is often a meeting place for young carnivalists. In 2009, a glass bottle ban was imposed on the place. In 2013, a local patron offered to cover the statue with gold leaf like the famous Victory Column in Berlin, which, however, - among other things with the reference that this Victory Column was not the model of the Siegburgers and the Peace Column on Belle-Alliance-Platz never was either was gold plated - was rejected.
literature
- Eduard Trier , Willy Weyres (Hrsg.): Art of the 19th century in the Rhineland. Volume 4: Plastic. Düsseldorf 1980.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Husmann: City history: When the Friedensplatz was still without a church. In: NWZ Online , October 28, 2015.
- ↑ a b Johannes Schmitz: Viktoria column in Siegburg: Leave the girl as it is. In: Rhein-Sieg-Anzeiger , September 17, 2013.
- ↑ Jürgen Kniesz: Waren (Müritz): a tour through the city (history). Sutton, Erfurt 2011, p. 77 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 47 ′ 49.3 " N , 7 ° 12 ′ 27.6" E