Westerlander Roland
The Westerlander Roland is a sculpture on the island of Sylt. It was built from boulders between 1917 and 1918 and originally designed as a fountain figure . He is therefore not to be counted among the historical Roland figures . The statue was a gift from the soldiers stationed on Sylt during World War I to the city of Westerland .
The inscription “Dedicated to the city of Westerland by the occupation of the island of Sylt during the World War. In memory of Germany's hardest time. ”Is attached to the four-sided base of the statue.
history
The Roland was created between 1917 and 1918 towards the end of the First World War based on an idea by the then island commander Colonel Jachmann and the sculptor and stonemason Wilhelm Rex from Hamburg-Altona. The 5200 soldiers stationed on the island wanted to thank the city in this way. Wilhelm Rex, who himself came to the island as a soldier, carved a mighty Roland designed as a fountain figure from boulders on Sylt. The inauguration took place on August 27, 1918 under Jachmann's successor, Colonel Leutnant Wolff, in front of the then town hall, the Hotel Royal, which the city had bought. It stood there until it was dismantled in 1964 and stored at the Westerland building yard.
After the Flensburg artist Uwe Appold made him a new sword, the Westerland Economic and Transport Committee decided at the end of 1993 to reintegrate the Roland into the Westerland cityscape. The installation caused unrest on Sylt, as it was feared that the statue was a war memorial . This was due to the fact that the figure of Roland is often seen in connection with the Franconian Roland saga. There it is reported how Roland , one of the 12 paladins of Charlemagne, secured the retreat of the Franks with his life on the campaign against the advancing Saracens in the Pyrenees in 778. Today his stand is in the roundabout of the Westerland roundabout in Norderstrasse.
swell
- H. Jessel: Roland left his exile . In: Syltmagazin 1995 pp. 156–157.
- Roland of Westerland . In: Sylter Rundschau, April 6, 1994, Sylter Nachrichten.
Coordinates: 54 ° 55 ′ 5.9 ″ N , 8 ° 18 ′ 30.7 ″ E