Werner Theisen

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Werner Theisen (born October 5, 1927 in Rittersdorf ; † May 5, 1993 in Koblenz ) was a German lawyer and newspaper publisher . He gained fame primarily through his donation , which made the reconstruction of the equestrian statue at the Deutsches Eck possible in 1993.

Life

Werner Theisen was a lawyer by profession and has worked in Koblenz since 1974. From 1975 to 1986 he was managing director of Mittelrhein-Verlag, which publishes the Rhein-Zeitung . The hobby violinist was honorary director of the Koblenz Music Institute from April 1, 1969 until his death . He was married to Anneliese Theisen, née Weber (1933–2000).

Reconstruction of the equestrian statue at the Deutsches Eck

The reconstructed equestrian statue was lifted back onto its base on September 2, 1993

On the occasion of his 60th birthday and his 30th wedding anniversary, Werner Theisen made a notarial undertaking on November 14, 1987 to finance the reconstruction of the equestrian statue at Deutsches Eck , which was destroyed in 1945 during World War II , and to donate it to the city of Koblenz. To this end, he founded the citizens' initiative Deutsches Eck eV Prime Minister Bernhard Vogel refused the donation on January 29, 1988 on the grounds that the monument had to remain a “memorial to German unity”, as Federal President Theodor Heuss had determined on May 18, 1953. At the time, the monument was owned by the State of Rhineland-Palatinate , as the legal successor to Prussia . An opinion poll among the citizens of Koblenz, commissioned by Theisen in March 1988, showed that 80% agreed to a reconstruction of the monument. The mayor of Königswinter Günther Hank offered Theisen in November 1988 to erect the equestrian statue in his town. Königswinter had already been shortlisted for the Kaiser Wilhelm I monument in 1892 .

On February 28, 1989, the citizens' initiative and Theisen commissioned the metal sculptor Raimund Kittl from Düsseldorf to reconstruct the group of figures, without any prior agreement with the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate. With the reunification of Germany in 1990, the memorial had lost its meaningful meaning. Minister-President Carl-Ludwig Wagner was now more open to the donation and so the state government decided in September 1990 to accept it. The new SPD-led state government under Rudolf Scharping came under public pressure from 1991 and tried to reverse the commitment. The Minister for Education and Culture Rose Götte declared publicly on November 14, 1991 that it was “simply embarrassing when a social-liberal government puts a Kaiser Wilhelm on the pedestal” and she considers it “unbearable, at the Deutsches Eck only a backward movement to see a sophisticated historical image represented ”. She suggested that the group of figures be set up at the foot of the monument. At the same time she is preparing an ideas competition for the future design of the Deutsches Eck.

Since Theisen did not agree with these proposals, he went to court. A decision was no longer made there, however, because in May 1992 the state government donated the headland at the Deutsches Eck to the city of Koblenz, thus transferring responsibility for the decision and the costs of the reconstruction to the city. Since the completed reconstruction of the equestrian statue already on 16 May 1992 on the Rhine had arrived aboard the MS Futura in Koblenz, the city council was under great pressure and finally accepted the gift on June 4 1,992th The group of figures, which had been restored for 3 million DM (2,347,924 €), remained in the Rheinhafen Koblenz for more than a year until it was lifted onto its pedestal by the largest mobile lattice boom crane in Europe on September 2, 1993 . The inauguration of the restored monument took place on September 25, 1993. However, the founder Werner Theisen could no longer experience this, as he had already died on May 5, 1993. Since the restoration of the Deutsches Eck, the monument has once again been one of the first sights in the city of Koblenz for tourists .

Awards

literature

  • Volker Bendig: Theisen, Aloysius Werner. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB), ed. from the historical commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Volume 26, Berlin 2016, ISBN 3-428-11207-5 , pp. 90f.
  • Wolfgang Schütz: Koblenz heads. People from the city's history - namesake for streets and squares. 2. revised u. exp. Edition. Publishing house for advertising papers, Mülheim-Kärlich 2005, pp. 532f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Werner Theisen died in: FAZ , May 7, 1993.
  2. ↑ A stone lump . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1992, pp. 63-64 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Theisen, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and newspaper publisher
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Rittersdorf
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1993
Place of death Koblenz