The Second World War ended 70 years ago. The war dead amounted to around 65 million people – over half civilians, the rest soldiers. There are still witnesses today – but the last of those who lived through the war will not be around for a long time. However, the memory of the atrocities committed by the National Socialists must […]
The Second World War ended 70 years ago. The war dead amounted to around 65 million people – over half civilians, the rest soldiers. There are still witnesses today – but the last of those who lived through the war will not be around for a long time. However, the memory of the atrocities committed by the National Socialists must be kept alive, especially so that nothing like this ever happens again. Master stonemason Michael Schubert from Coswig is also convinced of this: “In my opinion, the reminder of the legacy of war is more relevant than ever, because we live in an overflowing affluent society in which important values are becoming meaningless and we take it for granted to live in peace – we must be careful not to lose our grounding!”
Michael Schubert designed a war memorial in the Zieko district of the municipality of Coswig in Saxony-Anhalt to commemorate and remind people of the First and Second World Wars. In spring 2013, the head of the municipality approached him to see if it would be possible to create a design. The design criteria were: The memorial should blend harmoniously into the cemetery at the village church. In addition, there was already a simple granite cross with a memorial saying. This was to be taken up in the new memorial. Within a week, the stonemason produced three design sketches as freehand drawings on DIN A 3. The initiators liked the designs so much that they quickly awarded Schubert the contract. A few months later, the municipality decided on one of the three designs. Schubert’s idea: how could the monument best harmonize with the Romanesque village church? The solution: take up the round arch! The result was a kind of free-standing portal – where the door is usually located, a plaque takes its place – the dates of the war victims are noted here. The viewer is given the impression of standing in front of a closed passageway – behind it the realm of the dead.
One problem was the existing granite cross, which had to be integrated. The experienced master stonemason decided to place the cross in the middle of the arch area. “It would have been better not to interrupt the arch and to crown it with a cross in the middle. But that wasn’t possible because the cross that was already there was relatively large,” explains Schubert. The dimensions of the portal would have had to be adapted. However, this would have been oversized and out of scale for the small municipal cemetery.
Otherwise, Schubert was guided by the proportions of the ancients: The monument is about three meters wide, 2.6 meters high without the cross and 0.45 meters deep. The material (except for the cross) from which the “memorial stone” was made is silicate-bonded beige to cognac-colored sandstone. The surfaces have been treated differently. In the lower plinth area, the surface is embossed, the jambs are decorated with raised oak leaves in relief; the base is polished to create a strong contrast, as are the areas of the iron cross and the inscription plaque. The arch stones are classically profiled, the hinges are polished and the small panels are stilted. The arch stones are decorated with the admonition: “RESIST THE WARS – PROTECT PEACE!”. All remaining surfaces have been scratched in strips. The helmets have been polished over, but traces of work left by the iron are also visible. “After all, this is craftsmanship,” explains Schubert.
He had all the required work stones cut directly from the quarry with a little oversize. At his request, the material was cut from a bench in order to maintain a consistent color and texture tone. “That worked out wonderfully!” Schubert says enthusiastically. As he is a sole trader, benching the bricks was the greatest difficulty for him. He produced the templates 1:1 on the drawing board. The system was erected by two people without the use of a crane. The foundation was generously scaffolded with scaffolding group 6, from where each stone could be calmly positioned using chain hoists.
The local parish priest spoke many words at the dedication ceremony for the new memorial stone, and Schubert realized: “However you go about drawing people’s attention to a cause, you have to do it somehow! That is the aim of these memorials and monuments – people’s wandering gaze has to linger and be captivated – create curiosity, only then does such a monument make sense! “I had exactly this feeling when I first looked at the works of the gifted Bruno Schmitz, such as the Monument to the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig and the Imperial Monument on the Kyffhäuser,” reports the stonemason. At a time when monuments are no longer intended to prove greatness and strength, but rather to highlight human failings, misfortune and death, it is really important to be able to draw attention to them. Because human weakness is not as welcome as human strength – it is usually defamed and suppressed. But confronting it is necessary. It helps us to understand and work towards a future without wars, hardship and misery.
