Strassburger Denkmal 1895

Strassburger Denkmal

The Strassburger Denkmal was erected in 1895 roughly 25 years after the event that inspired it. Under siege during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the citizens of Strasbourg faced dire circumstances and Switzerland–with Basel taking the lead–provided refuge for women and children. In gratitude for this humanitarian solidarity, Strasbourg native Gilbert Gruyer initiated and commissioned the monument as a gift to Switzerland. He engaged the Colmar-based artist Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who submitted his conceptto the Swiss federal authorities for approval before the artwork was executed. Bartholdi’s monument features figures sculpted in Carrara marble on a high red granite pedestal. The allegorical group includes Helvetia, which personifies Switzerland, and a flanking angel holding up a shield with the Swiss cross that safeguards children and a woman wearing traditional Alsatian attire. The pedestal is decorated with a frieze of coats of arms and bronze reliefs. One commemorates the so-called Hirsebreifahrtof 1576, a long-standing wager and symbolic pledge by Zurich marksmen—demonstrated by a famously swift boat journey—that they could reach Strasbourg within 24 hours and aid their neighbors in times of siege. Placed at the edge of the Elisabethenanlage’s green, the monument is aligned in axis with Central Station. When Nauenstrasse was widened in1976, the position was set back three meters.

Auguste Bartholdi

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (*1834 Colmar–1904 Paris) left the Alsace for Paris with his mother and brother after his father’s untimely death. In Paris he briefly studied drawing and painting before dedicating himself to sculpture in which he quickly gained considerable acclaim. His works include statues, fountain sculptures, and monuments, i.e., large-scale works in public space with some located in Colmar, many in France, and his largest and most popular work in New York: the Statue of Liberty, which he began in 1875 and was inaugurated on Liberty Island in 1886. After his death his wife donated the house where Bartholdi was born to the city of Colmar and where the Musée Bartholdi has been located since 1922.

Title: Strassburger Denkmal
Date made: 1895
Artist: Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834 ‒ 1904)
Materials: Carrara marble (figures), pedestal (reddish Baveno granite) with coat of arms frieze and bronze plaques
Dimensions: approx. 700 × 500 × 350 cm
Location: Elisabethenanlage / Nauenstrasse / Aeschengraben / Basel
Mode of acquisition: Private foundation, gift from Strasbourg citizen Baron Gruyer
Collection: Bau- und Verkehrsdepartement of the Canton of Basel-Stadt