The Memorial »Grieving Parents«

Where else in our time is human suffering expressed in such simple grandeur?«

Theodor Heuss in his inauguration speech on 21 May 1959

In the church ruins of Alt St. Alban, the first memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the fallen of both world wars, there is a replica of the »Grieving Parents« by Käthe Kollwitz. In the context in which it was created, the pair of sculptures is probably one of the artist’s most personal works – in its universally valid statement and effect, however, it also stands for a collective memory of war and tyranny.

This photograph by Christian Nitz shows Käthe Kollwitz’s Memorial »Grieving Parents«, which is situated in the open interior of the ruins of the Old St Alban’s Church in Cologne. Amidst the weathered brick walls, two life-size, block-like stone figures kneel facing each other in silent grief: on the left, the father stands motionless, his gaze fixed straight ahead and his arms crossed tightly across his chest, whilst on the right, the mother, deeply bowed and lost in her own thoughts, mourns their son.

Käthe Kollwitz, Memorial »Grieving Parents«, 1914–1932, slightly enlarged replicas of the original sculptures (Father: c. 178 x 66 x 88 cm; Mother: c. 164 x 70 x 120 cm), shell limestone, German federal memorial for the fallen of the two world wars in the church ruins of Alt St. Alban, Cologne; executed by the workshop of Ewald Mataré in 1953/54, inaugurated in 1959

I have tried to put into them everything that has moved all of us
who have bled under the war since it began.«

Käthe Kollwitz, letter to Ludwig Kaemmerer, 11 October 1932

The original sculptures were created by Kollwitz for the Roggeveld military cemetery in Flanders, Belgium. There, her eighteen-year-old son Peter, who fell on 22 October 1914, in the first days of the First World War, was buried in a soldier’s grave. Today, the »Grieving Parents« are located at the military cemetery in Vladslo, where those buried in Roggeveld were reburied in 1956 as part of the consolidation of graves.

Shortly after Peter’s death, Kollwitz felt the need to erect a monument to her fallen son. However, she discarded her original plan to create a laid-out soldier with his father and mother at his head and feet respectively and developed the final conception after eighteen years of dealing with the subject. Finally, only the block-like figures of the parents are depicted, bearing the facial features of the artist and her husband. They mourn – each for themselves – for the lost child. Kollwitz reduced the statement to the essentials: to the bereaved in their grief and to a void that cannot be filled, a void that all those who died in the war leave behind.

This black-and-white photograph by Willi Moegle, taken in 1937, shows the pair of sculptures »Grieving Parents« in their original setting at the Roggeveld Military Cemetery in Belgium, where they stood from July 1932 until 1955. Viewed from the right, a summer meadow dotted with numerous wooden crosses can be seen in the foreground; in the background, set against a low rubble-stone wall, stand the sculptures – the father on the right, the mother on the left – with the stone wall opening up between them to form a narrow exit from the cemetery.

Käthe Kollwitz, Memorial »Grieving Parents«, installed at the Roggeveld Military Cemetery, photography from 1937

This black-and-white photograph from 1932 shows a view of the Roggeveld Military Cemetery from the outside: a narrow path paved with stone slabs leads through an opening in the low rubble-stone wall into the cemetery; behind it, to the right of the entrance, stands the sculpture of the mother, and to the left that of the father, both seen from behind.

Käthe Kollwitz, Memorial »Grieving Parents«, installed at the Roggeveld Military Cemetery, photography from 1932

Jean Mil’s black-and-white photograph shows the memorial »Grieving Parents«, which has stood at the military cemetery in Vladslo, Belgium, since 1956.

Käthe Kollwitz, »Grieving Parents«, since 1956 installed at the Vladso Military Cemetery, Belgium. Photo: Jean Mill 1999

A Federal Memorial in a War-Torn City

When the young Bonn Republic was considering a first nationwide memorial to the fallen of both world wars, it was decided to recreate the »Grieving Parents« – a project that goes back to the initiative of Hans Kollwitz, the artist’s elder son. In 1951, he approached German Federal President Theodor Heuss with a proposal to erect the pair of sculptures on German soil. Heuss, himself a great admirer of Käthe Kollwitz, took up the suggestion and supported its realisation.

The German War Graves Commission, which played a major role in financing the project, proposed Cologne as one of several alternative locations for the memorial – a large city near the seat of government, Bonn, and at the same time a metropolis that was heavily destroyed in the Second World War. After long discussions, it was agreed in October 1954 to install the figures in the ruins of the Church of St. Alban, which had been bombed out except for its tower. The oldest Romanesque church building in Cologne was not to be rebuilt but used instead as a memorial and place of remembrance.

In 1953, the workshop of Ewald Mataré was entrusted with the task of making replicas based on newly made plaster casts of the original stone figures in Belgium. Mataré did not carry out the commission himself, however, but rather passed it on to his two master students Erwin Heerich (1922–2004) and Joseph Beuys (1921–1986). Heerich took on the design of the mother and Beuys that of the father. Both figures are executed in shell limestone and enlarged by ten percent compared to the originals.

This black-and-white photograph shows a view inside the ruins of the Old St Alban’s Church in Cologne during the installation of the pair of sculptures ‘Grieving Parents’ in the winter months of 1955. The courtyard is covered in snow; in the foreground on the right is a pile of stones, on the left a cart with large wooden wheels and tools; in the background, the sculptures can be seen already in place.

The church ruins of Alt St. Alban, installation of the »Grieving Parents«, photo from 1955

Käthe Kollwitz, memorial »Grieving Parents«, 1914–1932, replicas in the German federal memorial for the fallen of both world wars in the church ruins of Alt St. Alban, photo from 1999.

In March 1959, the pair of stone parents was finally installed on the newly designed floor of the crossing of the nave and the transept of Alt St. Alban.

Unlike in Belgium, however, the father and mother do not stand side by side here but rather face each other sideways. The integration of the block-like sculptures into the empty space of the church ruins and the long distance to the viewers behind the closed portal grille intensify their expression of silent mourning.

Where else in our time is human suffering expressed in such simple grandeur? But if the old town of Cologne offers such a work a home, then it must be remembered that the creator had her home on the banks of the Pregolya. Mourning for the fate of the fatherland thus remains forever linked to mourning for human fate.«

Theodor Heuss in his inauguration speech on 21 May 1959

A black-and-white photograph by Hansherbert Wirtz shows a view from the choir of the ruins of the Old St Alban’s Church in Cologne, looking out towards the congregation during its inauguration as a federal memorial. The image shows the two stone sculptures ‘Grieving Parents’ – the father on the left, the mother in the centre – with Federal President Theodor Heuss on the right-hand edge of the frame as he delivers his speech.

German Federal President Theodor Heuss at the inauguration of the federal memorial, 21 May 1959

On 21 May 1959, the memorial was inaugurated with great public participation. In addition to German Federal President Theodor Heuss, Cologne’s Lord Mayor Theo Burauen, Hans Kollwitz, Ewald Mataré, and numerous representatives from politics, culture, and the Church were present.
Since then, the »Grieving Parents« have commemorated the fallen of both world wars in an impressive interplay with the bombed-out medieval architecture.

Alt St. Alban

The former parish church of St. Alban was first mentioned in a document in 1172 and is thus one of the oldest Romanesque church buildings in Cologne. After its destruction in the Second World War, the decision was made not to rebuild the church, and it was decided to preserve it as a ruin and to erect the memorial. Since 1959, the area has also been linked to the former Gürzenich festival hall and storehouse, which the city built in 1441–47 on the property of the patrician Gürzenich family.

Adress:
Alt St. Alban
Quatermarkt 4
50667 Köln

The memorial is not accessible.
However, the »Grieving Parents« can be easily seen through the lattice gates.

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