| Richard Wagner Memorial | |
|---|---|
| German:Richard Wagner Denkmal | |
 | |
 | |
| Artist | Stephan Balkenhol |
| Year | 2013 |
| Medium | marble,bronze |
| Dimensions | 6.9 m × 2 m (23 ft × 6.6 ft) |
| Location | Leipzig,Germany |
TheRichard Wagner Memorial inLeipzig was unveiled in 2013 to mark the 200th birthday ofRichard Wagner (1813-1883). It was created byStephan Balkenhol (* 1957) using the base designed 100 years ago byMax Klinger (1857-1920).
The Richard Wagner Memorial is located on the north-west side of Leipzig's city center in the green spaces atGoerdelerring,[1][2] as part of thecity center ring (also:Promenadenring), at the location that was already planned at the beginning of the 20th century. It stands on a stairway that used to lead from Fleischerplatz toMatthäi-Kirchhof. With the completely changed architectural surroundings - behind the stairs today there is an office building that was formerly built for theStasi - it has no urban significance.
Theplinth of the monument resting on thestaircase is the whitemarble cuboid designed by Max Klinger. It has an edge length of 2 metres (7 ft) and is 2.9 metres (10 ft) tall. Three of its side surfaces show figures from the work of Richard Wagner asreliefs in larger than life size. The threeRhinemaidens from the opera cycleDer Ring des Nibelungen are depicted as undressed women on the front. They are intended to symbolize music, poetry and drama at the same time and thus allude to Wagner's striving for theGesamtkunstwerk.[3] On the left areSiegfried, Mime and the slaindragon to see, on the right theGrail keeperParsifal and the Grail messenger Kundry.[4]
The young Wagner stands on the base as a coloredbronze sculpture, 1.8 metres (6 ft) tall, in everyday clothes. Because in addition to be his birthplace, Leipzig is the place of his training years. "Wagner was 1.66 meters (5'3") tall, and Balkenhol doesn't intend to make the statue much taller. He wants to give the sculpture a human dimension, avoiding exaggeration and pathos: a short man on a pedestal."[5] Behind this figure rises 4 metres (13 ft) tall like a shadow, a black bronze plate with the outline of the older Wagner, symbolizing his great life's work. Thesilhouette of the shadow quotes Klinger's design for a statue of Richard Wagner. Balkenhol himself described his design of the monument as aparaphrase of Klinger.[6]
The first efforts to erect a Wagner monument in Leipzig date back to 1883. For his 70th birthday, three months after his death, a committee collected donations and considered locations for a memorial. After a few unsuccessful drafts, a memorial committee under Mayor Bruno Tröndlin (1835–1908) appealed to the Leipzig public in 1903 for donations and won the then most famous Leipzig artist, Max Klinger, for the execution. A first draft envisaged a 4 metres (13 ft) tall figure of the composer made of white marble, encased in a long, black coat made of heavy fabric, which was to stand at theOld Theater. The work on it was already in until the purchase of the marble block fromLaas, South Tyrol, was thriving when, in 1911, Klinger submitted new plans to the then mayor, Rudolf Dittrich (1855–1929). Now a 5.3 metres (17 ft) tall Wagner figure was to be placed on a 3 metres (10 ft) tall pedestal with reliefs on the stairs between Fleischerplatz and Matthäikirchhof. Otto Wilhelm Scharenberg (1851–1920) extended this staircase according to Klinger's plans, and on the composer's 100th birthday in 1913, when the monument was supposed to be finished, the foundation stone was laid on the staircase at the site of today's monument. After that, nothing changed there for a long time.[7] Klinger sent theplaster models for the reliefs to Laas to be transferred to the marble pedestal and had a second large block broken up for the marble statue. The outbreak ofWorld War I, financial difficulties and finally Klinger's death in 1920 prevented progress. The pedestal came to Leipzig in 1924 and was erected in theKlingerhain, the southern part of thePalmengarten, after being reworked by the Leipzig sculptor and Klinger's heir, Johannes Hartmann (1869–1952). It stood here for over 80 years, sometimes also referred to as the “porn cube” because of the nakedRhinemaidens.[4]
In relation to the 50th anniversary of Wagner's death, a new memorial project was started in 1932 under MayorCarl Goerdeler (1884-1945). The sculptor Emil Hipp (1893–1965) won an ideas competition. The foundation stone for what is now the planned “Richard Wagner National Monument” was laid near the Elster basin on 6 March 1934 byAdolf Hitler (1889–1945) at Goerdeler’s side. The figures andfriezes made by Hipp for the monumentalmonument up to 1944 could not be brought to Leipzig before the end ofWorld War II. After that, the city of Leipzig rejected their takeover because of the supposedideological encumbrance on the monument, although those have already been paid.[8] In the city, the associated park was preserved, the Richard-Wagner-Hain.[9]
On the occasion of the 170th birthday and the 100th anniversary of Richard Wagner's death, a Richard Wagner bust based on a design by Max Klinger was erected in 1983 in the park at the Schwanenteich north ofLeipzig's opera house.[10][11]
In 2005, Wagner admirers organized theWagner Memorial Association e. V., whose aim was to have the Klinger Wagner memorial from 1911 completed. The Klinger Association also took a stake in the company. Nine artists submitted their designs in a competition. In 2011, the jury chose the design by Stephan Balkenhol from among the last three remaining in a selection, followed by a heated public discussion. In the meantime, in 2010, the staircase that had been demolished in the 1970s had been rebuilt and the Klinger memorial base was attached to it.[12] To finance the monument, part of the money was collected through the sale of donation certificates, but the main part came from the artist himself.[13] Stephan Balkenhol had 25 small onesmade bronzereplicas of the monument, the sale of which essentially funded the monument.[14]
On 22 May 2013, the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner, the Balkenhol memorial was unveiled to applause, but also to some disapproval.[15][2]
51°20′33″N12°22′14″E / 51.342513°N 12.370422°E /51.342513; 12.370422
