Karl-Marx-Monument

The Karl- Marx- Monument is a 7.10 m (with stand over 13 meters) high and about 40 tons of heavy duty plastic, the stylized head of Karl Marx is. It is the most famous landmark of the city Chemnitz and is located in the city center on the bridge road close to the junction of the nations road. This monument is, after 60 cm higher Lenin's head in Ulan -Ude, the second largest bust in the world. On the presence, behind the monument wall at the " Parteisäge " ( slang for the building of the former District Council, with its sawtooth continuing building that served as property from the 1980s, the SED district leadership ) one sees the word " Workers of all countries unite! " from the Communist Manifesto in four languages: German, English, French and Russian. This wall designed an artists' collective, where among other things, the graphic designer Helmut Humann was involved from Aue.

Designations

In addition to the name of Karl Marx Monument and the names Karl -Marx- head and dr Nischl exist. Nischel is the local nickname for the monument and is derived from the Central German term for head or skull from. The area with the monument was therefore popularly known as the " Place of the Skull " - a reference to the site of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Hebrew word " Golgotha ​​" Luther " place of the skull " translated.

History

Creation

The city and the district of Chemnitz was renamed after the Second World War on 10 May 1953 in Karl- Marx-Stadt. This renaming was the foundation for the transformation of the industrial city in a " socialist model city ". Thus, the reconstruction of the city was initiated after the plans of the socialist urban. With a monument in honor of the namesake of the city, this conversion should be embodied in a city of a socialist type.

For the creation of such plastic more than ten basic designs were proposed by the Soviet sculptor Lev Kerbel, one of which corresponded to only one of the actually implemented monument of a head on a pedestal. All other designs were conceived as holistic representations of the body of Karl Marx. The decision was made for the sole view of the head, since the viewer would have seen in a full-body representation at head height the shoes of the philosophers.

The monument was cast months before the establishment in Karl- Marx-Stadt in the art foundry Monument Skulptura in Leningrad in bronze and then broken down into 95 items. In Karl- Marx-Stadt, these items should be welded together again, but the Soviet technology was not suitable, so it was decided to transfer the job to the VEB Germania, otherwise a tearing apart the welded parts was to be feared. The monument stands on two pedestals with Korninskij granite, named after the mining region in southern Ukraine, covers plate-like.

On October 9, 1971, the monument to the author of the Communist Manifesto was inaugurated in front of around 250,000 people who are on the leading at the monument along Karl -Marx -Allee ( popularly referred to as " Nischelgasse " or "Skull Alley " ), today again bridge street, were located. Present at the unveiling of the new landmark of the city was, among others, Erich Honecker and Robert -Jean Longuet, grandson of Karl Marx. The symbol of the city of Karl- Marx-Stadt was also frequently used motif of the stamp to 35 pence, which corresponded to Porto in the then Federal Republic of Germany, the definitive series " Buildings" of the GDR.

Later events

As the landmark of the city Karl- Marx-Stadt, it served at holiday times of the GDR as a backdrop for pageants and other mass events. This symbol of socialism is the city of Chemnitz remained intact even after the German reunification, although a demolition of the monument was a heated debate with the name change to the city's former name. Many other cities around the world at that time reported interest in buying the monument, there have been discussions about a sale to Cologne. Until 2007, the motto of the city was " the city with brains ", referring to the monument.

" Sheltered " In the 21st century, the city her artwork. The project of the Lithuanian artist Deimantas Narkevicius foresaw the head in 2007 to provide for the duration of the exhibition Skulptur.Projekte to Munster and exhibit there. This, like making a copy of Münster, were thwarted by the veto of the city Chemnitz, Kerbel's widow had already agreed. Students of the University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz ( Austria ) and the Faculty of Applied Arts Schneeberg the West Saxon University of Zwickau planned then on the original site in collaboration with the New Saxon Gallery Chemnitz a temporary enclosure of the monument and Begehbarmachung of the head from the inside. The art project under the title "Temporary Museum of Modern Marx " was born on 17 June 2008 - an allusion to the events of 17 June 1953 - started and was until 31 August 2008 - an allusion to 31 August 1990 as the date the signing of the German - German unification Treaty - accessible.

The end of 2011 urgently necessary rehabilitation work of the base, which was badly pulled over time by the board joints penetrated water and as a consequence caused by storage moisture damage to the lining and the concrete affected began. On 4 April 2012, the work was officially completed it. In March 2013, the band Seeed turned her music video for the song " Your Time " at the Karl Marx Monument in Chemnitz.