Statues - Hither & Thither

 

Description

Concrete sculpture group of five reclining figures. The memorial was created without a public commission on Meller's initiative and was initially erected in 1961 on a renaturation area of the Frechener quartz works. After cases of vandalism, the five sculptures, including the paving, were moved c. 1980 to their current location.

The sculpture made an almost identical group and placed that in his own garden in Rodenkirchen-Weiß, this group is since 1968 at the cemetery in the Sürther Straße in Rodenkirchen.

Front left: Gefesselter Mensch - Der Gefangene / Bound man - the Prisoner	Front right: Der Verhungerte / The Starved
Centre: Trommler, der verkrampft eine Trommel hält / Drummer holding a drum in a cramped position	Back left: Mutter die ein Kind schützen birgt - / The Mother Mother protecting a child
Back right: Soldat / Soldier

NB Martin Lehrer they are called 'The Soldier', 'The Mother', 'Youth', 'The Prisoner' and 'The Starved', but it is unclear what image he means by the the Mother and Youth.

Sculptor

• Jakob Wilhelm (Willy) Meller (Köln 1887 - Rodenkirchen-Weiß 1974), German sculptor (Wikipedia).

Sources & Information

• Kunstverein zu Frechen e.V., Skulpturenweg Frechen, 24 Entdeckungen (PDF online).
• Bürgervereinigung Rodenkirche e.V., Führung Tag des Denkmals 2021: Mahnmal von Willy Meller 'Opfer der Gewaltherrschaft'; with an Ergänzungsheft by Dieter Maretzky and a Nachbetrachtung by Angelika Lehndorff-Felsko.
• Martin Lehrer, Projekt Gedenkorte NS-Opfer im Rhein-Erft-Kreis.
• Gedenk- und Erinnerungsorte Rhein-Erft-Kreis, Figurengruppe.
• Facebook Frechener Geschichtsverein e.V., 8 May 2015.

Tags

Locatie (N 50°54'31" - E 6°48'55") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

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