By Maik Ullmann

Winter 1944/45. News of the rapidly advancing Red Army reaches the east of the "Third Reich". Reports of pillaging, mistreatment and rape prompt the "Reich German" population to hastily stow their belongings on handcarts and join one of the numerous refugee treks heading west. - Some 14 million people fled the advancing Soviet soldiers in the final phase of World War II.-__-0000-__- Exposed to immense adversity, 1.82 million refugees found their way to what is now the state of Lower Saxony. Wolfsburg alone counted about 13,000 refugees and displaced persons in 1953. They made up about 40 percent of the total population. Accordingly, they were also present in local news coverage. Thus, throughout the year, there were articles about homeland evenings and meetings of the various compatriots' associations, including the exhibition Deutsches Land im Osten (German Country in the East), which was presented in November in the Schiller School.-__-0001-__- As elsewhere in the young Federal Republic, the longing for the lost homeland expressed therein was to find a local expression in stone: According to the Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, on November 23, 1953, Totensonntag, thousands of people gathered on the Klieversberg to participate in the dedication of the newly erected "Refugee Memorial-__-0002-__-" -__-0003-__- to participate.

And this "as a reminder never to forget that the East is German land," as Walter Kutschera, the honorary chairman of the German Youth of the East, summed up the message of the memorial.
The expellees thus created a symbolic representation of the lost homeland - and this at a representative place in the cityscape. At the same time, they used the memorial to commemorate their dead. Both levels of intention are made clear by the inscription of the memorial, which is carved on the left and right sides of the 14 meter high stele: "To the dead  for honor" on the left wing, "To the living  for reminder" on the right wing. Thus it was both a symbol of mourning and an appeal for the supposedly rightful recovery of the lost homeland. This double function is not untypical for monuments to displaced persons. This is also why they are not infrequently found in cemeteries - as substitutes for burial places that are no longer accessible or completely absent.-__-0000-__- The Wolfsburg memorial, on the other hand, stands in the midst of nature high above the city - and yet can be regarded as such a burial place: Walled inside the rectangular stele, which tapers slightly toward the top, is a roll of parchment listing the 305 names of all those relatives who lost their lives during the flight.
The "Porsche View" on the Klieversberg: Once the hill has been climbed, the panorama extends over the entire Wolfsburg city center and the Volkswagen plant located north of the Mittelland Canal. Already during the planning phase of the "City of the KdF Car near Fallersleben", the development of the slope was focused on: Commissioned with the development of the city in the late 1930s, architect Peter Koller envisioned the construction of a monumental "city crown" on the Klieversberg. "Half Valhalla, half Reichsparteitagsbau," is how architect Dietrich Kautt describes a planning sketch from 1938.-__-0001-__- Wartime scarcity of resources ultimately prevented its realization, so the site initially remained undeveloped.

In the post-war period, it was the Association of Expelled Germans (BvD) that pushed for the erection of a memorial on that very spot. Especially the efforts of the association's chairman Georg Bednarek gave new expression to the idea in the spring of 1951.-__-0000-__- Apparently helpful were his contacts to Dr. Wolfgang Muthesius, who was an honorary member of the established memorial commission and at the same time property administrator. Financed with money from the "Economy of the Volkswagen factory", in addition with donations from the city population, the foundation stone for the construction of the memorial could be laid in the same year according to the specifications of the architect Joachim Guhl and the head of the horticultural office Walter Hultsch. - Although the memorial is not located in the city center, it has been erected on one of Wolfsburg's most prominent squares. Its visibility underscores the enormous importance the memorial had for the city's population in the early 1950s.-__-0001-__- According to Stephan Scholz, who authored a pivotal study on Germany's memorials to displaced persons, such a place of tranquility was deliberately chosen to allow for pausing and moments of contemplation.-__-0002-__-
"Temple or obelisk on the Klieversberg?" was the headline of the Wolfsburg daily newspaper at the beginning of August 1951 on the occasion of the presentation of the first drafts for the memorial.-__-0003-__- In fact, the memorial commission at that time decided in favor of a variant of the form of the obelisk, which at that time was actually no longer quite in keeping with the times, since the Wolfsburg memorial lacks the pyramid-shaped top.-.__-0004-__- Obelisks found their widest distribution especially at the time of the founding of the German Empire; in the 1920s they slowly went out of fashion.-__-0005-__- In the German monument landscape the obelisk is nevertheless a common form, although rather in the area of war memorials. It is rather unusual for the early 1950s.
On closer inspection of the memorial, one's gaze almost automatically wanders skyward along the light, limestone cladding - without encountering any unambiguous symbols reminiscent of war, flight and expulsion. Since the memorial was equally intended to commemorate the dead of the bombing wars in the other German territories,-__-0006-__- the memorial has a rather open character. This is also evident in comparison with other memorials to displaced persons, such as the Eichendorffhain in Hildesheim, which is oriented towards the east - towards the lost homeland.

However, the Wolfsburg stele was not to remain in its original form for long: For the red, 1.30-meter-high brick wall at the back of the stele, which is surrounded by ten oaks arranged in a semicircle, was to be decorated with the coats of arms of the individual Landsmannschaften at the beginning of the 1960s.-__-0000-__- At this point, Peter Koller once again moves to the center of the events surrounding the Klieversberg. In his re-acquired function as city building councilor he was responsible for the planned design of the memorial. After the BvD had inquired in the fall of 1957 whether the memorial could be extended accordingly, Koller became active - although not in the way he was supposed to: Although he should have contacted the Wolfsburg firm Billen in this regard according to an order of the department meeting of November 22, 1957,-__-0001-__- Koller - expressing fundamental doubts about the creative abilities of the firm - arranged for contact to be made with the sculptor Ulrich Kottenrodt. The latter was the son of Wilhelm Kotzde-Kottenrodt, with whom Koller was friends. They knew each other from their time together in the völkisch-oriented youth movement Adler und Falken. Like Koller, Kotzde and his son also had a National Socialist past. During the Nazi period, the latter created various ideologically charged sculptures and was held in high esteem in leadership circles. This same sculptor was commissioned in March 1958 by the city of Wolfsburg to create the coats of arms of the compatriots who were reclaiming their "German Land in the East."-__-0002-__- After a few plaster work samples -__-0003-__- Koller, however, was no longer so sure that he had made the right choice. A handwritten note by Koller from September 1958 indicates his dissatisfaction with Kottenrodt's work: "I explained to him why the execution does not fit and does not please."-__-0004-__- One year and five unusable models later, the city building council took a stand and spoke out in favor of canceling the order, which was indeed sent to the Freiburg sculptor shortly thereafter by the city's building administration office.-__-0005-__-
After the last details concerning the design of the memorial had been determined in a meeting between the BdV, the representatives of individual Landsmannschaften and the city administration, the sculptor Peter Szaif, who lives in Wolfsburg, could then be commissioned with the production of the coats of arms in the late summer of 1960.___-0006-__- In the process, the memorial was also to be expanded with a text panel, the content of which was determined by the 1st Chairman of the BdV, Councilman Franz Graf von Ballestrem.__-0007-__- The coats of arms including the plaque were inaugurated less than a year later on June 17, 1961, on what was then German Unity Day, which until 1990 was celebrated on that day on the occasion of the 1953 uprising of the GDR population against the Soviet leadership.-.__-0008-__- A total of twelve coats of arms of the Landsmannschaften living in Wolfsburg now adorned the red brick wall behind the stele: The Baltic Germans, Memellanders, East and West Prussians, Danzigers, Warthelanders, Pomeranians, Brandenburgers, Silesians and Upper Silesians, Sudetenlanders and finally the Transylvanians; six of them in the center as well as three more on each side border.-__-0009-__-.
On the back of the stele the coat of arms of the city of Wolfsburg was also placed: "You have found a second home in Wolfsburg, but don't forget the old home, the real home!" is the interpretation of the Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung. In fact, the extension seems paradoxical, since loyalty to one's home and real arrival in the "second home" are diametrically opposed.

According to a study by the historian Rainer Schulze, even in the mid-1990s more than half of the displaced persons surveyed answered the question about their homeland with their place of birth.-__-0000-__- A final detachment from the historical German East did not take place - not even in Wolfsburg. Even if the affixing of the city coat of arms can be seen as a sign of gratitude, the second intention of the memorial was completely lost: to also commemorate the "victims of bomb terror". Especially the text panel ending with the words "Deutsche Bleibt Eurer Heimat Treu" (Germans remain loyal to your homeland) draws attention to the expellees. Thus the Wolfsburg memorial joins the phalanx of those honorary monuments that achieved a rather disintegrating effect and against which critical voices were already raised in the 1950s.-__-0001-__- It was not until March 1970 that the second intention was to find a structural expression with a stylized grave slab that was set into the ground a few meters in front of the stele.-__-0002-__-.

Sources:

-__-0000-__- Klaus J. Bade/Jochen Oltmer, "Introduction: Immigration in Lower Saxony. Zuwanderung und Integration in Niedersachsen seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg", in: Dies. (ed.), Zuwanderung und Integration in Niedersachsen seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Osnabrück 2002, pp. 11-36, here p. 13.
-__-0001-__- "We expellees renounce revenge...", in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, November 20, 1953.
-__-0002-__- Here and in the following "Refugee Memorial on the Klieversberg Inaugurated," in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of November 23, 1953.
-__-0003-__- Stephan Scholz, Vertriebenendenkmäler. Topography of a German Landscape of Remembrance. Paderborn 2015, p. 97.
-__-0004-__- Dietrich Kautt, Wolfsburg im Wandel städtebaulicher Leitbilder. Braunschweig 1989, p. 44.
-__-0005-__- Here and in the following "Den Lebenden zur Mahnung, den Toten zur Ehre ...", in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, November 21/22, 1953.
-__-0006-__- Scholz, Vertriebenendenkmäler (as note 4), p. 26; Stephan Scholz, "Denkmäler," in: Ders./Maren Röger/Bill Niven (eds.), The Memory of Flight and Expulsion. A Handbook of Media and Practices. Paderborn 2015, pp. 75-88, here p. 77.
-__-0007-__- Scholz, Vertriebenendenkmäler (as note 4), p. 68.
-__-0008-__- "Temple or Obelisk at the Klieversberg?" In: Wolfsburger Tageblatt, August 4/5, 1951.
-__-0009-__- StadtA Wob, HA 11976, vol. 2, excerpt from the minutes of the 13th meeting of the Cultural Committee on February 25, 1966; Ibid, memorial on the Klieversberg; here: Inquiry of November 28, 1966. As can be seen from the plans for a possible redesign of the memorial, the memorial was to be provided with a pyramid to give it the shape of an obelisk.
-__-0010-__- Meinhold Lurz, War Memorials in Germany. Volume 4: Weimar Republic. Heidelberg 1985, p. 144.
-__-0011-__- "To the living as a reminder, to the dead as an honor...", in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, November 21/22, 1953.
-__-0012-__- StadtA Wob, HA 1751, Bd. 2, Arbeitsgemeinschaft des BvD und des VLD an den Rat der Stadt Wolfsburg vom 4. Oktober 1957; StadtA Wob, HA 11976, Bd. 2, Rechnung Nr.: 68/80, Betr.: Mahnmal am Klieversberg vom 14. November 1980. The addition of the coats of arms with the designations of the individual landsmannschaft areas did not take place until 1980.
-__-0013-__- StadtA Wob, HA 1751, vol. 2, excerpt from the minutes of the departmental meeting of November 22, 1957.
-__-0014-__- "We expellees renounce revenge...", in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, November 20, 1953.
-__-0015-__- StadtA Wob, HA 1751, vol. 2, To Mr. Ulrich Kottenrodt, Acad. sculptor, coat of arms for the expellees memorial in Wolfsburg dated July 24, 1958.
-__-0016-__- StadtA Wob, HA 1751, vol. 2, I. Note re: coat of arms f. d. memorial at Klieversberg dated September 3, 1958.
-__-0017-__- StadtA Wob, HA 1751, vol. 2, 1) Note. Subject: Memorial on the Klieversberg; here: Attachment of coats of arms dated October 20, 1959; ibid, Building Administration Office to Ulrich Kottenrodt dated October 22, 1959.
-__-0018-__- StadtA Wob, HA 1751, vol. 2, minutes of the meeting of the representatives of the BdV under East German Landsmannschaften with representatives of the administration of February 3, 1960; ibid, excerpt from the 7th meeting of the Committee for Art Issues of July 7, 1960.
-__-0019-__- StadtA Wob, HA 1751, vol. 2, excerpt from the minutes of the 10th meeting of the Committee on the Arts Committee, December 5, 1960.
-__-0020-__- "June 17 in Wolfsburg," in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, June 14, 1961; "13 coats of arms adorn memorial," in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, June 17-18, 1961.
-__-0021-__- In the fall of 1986, the city of Wolfsburg granted the Landsmannschaft der Russlanddeutschen permission to affix a coat of arms to the memorial. Since they did not live in Russia in a special region, they had not developed a corresponding coat of arms in the classical sense at any time. In Wolfsburg, an ear of corn symbolizes their traditional connection to agriculture.
-__-0022-__- Rainer Schulze, "'Wir leben ja nun hier.' Flüchtlinge und Vertriebene in Niedersachsen - Erinnerung und Identität," in Bade/Oltmer, Zuwanderung und Integration in Niedersachsen (as note 1), pp. 69-100, here p. 84.
-__-0023-__- Scholz, Vertriebenendenkmäler (as note 4), p. 158.
-__-0024-__- StadtA Wob, HA 11976, vol. 2, excerpt from the minutes of the 52nd meeting of the building committee on March 12, 1970.


Published on 7.11.2018