Grieving woman
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Mourning woman is the name of the Lustenau war memorial. It is an approximately three-meter-high bronze statue on a 2.5-meter-high stone base, which was originally erected in 1932 to commemorate the fallen soldiers of World War I on the east side of the parish church of St. Peter and Paul . The names of those who fell in World War II were later added. The statue created by Albert Bechtold is one of the few war memorials in Vorarlberg that does not focus on heroism but on the suffering of war. It is a listed building .
history
In April 1925, the Lustenau municipal council commissioned a specially founded war memorial committee to determine a suitable location for a war memorial. After discussing several options, the choice fell on a place between the town hall and the then only parish church in Lustenau. Albert Bechtold created several drafts, including a very angular grieving woman compared to the memorial that was actually created later.
Bechtold's proposals were discussed at a community council meeting on April 29, 1926. While the artist Stephanie Hollenstein and the pastor Gebhard Baldauf spoke out in favor of the very modern designs at the time, some local councilors rejected the art that they found incomprehensible. Eduard Alge stated that “in order to understand the monument one shouldn't need the artist's explanation first. Such an art seems incomprehensible, and it offers no guarantee that this modern art will endure. ”He also advocated that the words“ Mine is retribution ”should be placed on the Lustenau war memorial based on the Dornbirn model.
Years of fruitless discussions followed, until finally Albert Bechtold delivered three new designs in September 1928, protesting against the “unobjective and completely inartistic whispering of irresponsible obtrusiveness”. In November 1928, the mayor of Lustenaus received an anonymous letter calling for concrete steps to be taken to build a monument, otherwise the monument issue would become an election issue. Although three experts called in specifically in December 1928 came out in favor of other designs, after further delays the Lustenau community finally commissioned the motif of the grieving woman in May 1931.
On July 17, 1932, the Lustenau war memorial was unveiled and consecrated in a solemn act.
To commemorate those who fell in World War II, further name plaques were attached to the four corner pillars of the base in 1953.
On November 9, 2013, the 75th anniversary of the Reichspogromnacht , a memorial for the victims of the National Socialist dictatorship was unveiled in Lustenau at the foot of the war memorial.
literature
- Marktgemeinde Lustenau (ed.): The Lustenau war memorial - origin and history . Lustenau 2013.
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 25 ′ 34.5 ″ N , 9 ° 39 ′ 33.4 ″ E