STEINMAL

Günther Uecker

Günther Uecker and Weimar citizens and guests build the »Stone Memorial for Buchenwald« together.

In 1999 Günther Uecker, at that time already one of the most important German painters and object art- ists, erected a stone monument in a basement room of the so-called prisoners' canteen of the Buchenwald concentration camp. The work was not commissioned by the memorial, but was created on Uecker's own initiative. In 1999, Weimar was European City of Cul- ture. The Federal Minister of the Interior at the time, Manfred Kanther, who was also responsible for culture, had warned against the "Buchenwaldization" of the city of classics. Goethe's 250th birthday, Schiller's 240th birthday or the 80th anniversary of the adop- tion of the Weimar Constitution in that year appeared to be far more welcome occasions for remembrance than the 60th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, which also fell in 1999 and with which Nation- al Socialist Germany began the Second World War that devastated Europe. This blank space of memory burned on Günther Uecker's soul, as it did on the me- morial. Born in 1930 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomer- ania, Uecker, who had experienced the end of the war on the peninsula of Wustrow, still had the images of war deep in his bones. This is how the work "A Stone Painting for Buchenwald. September 1, 1939. " In 2023 – twenty-four years later – the installation from that time is given a new lease of life by Günther Uecker on Weimar's Theaterplatz. If in 1999 it turned against the one-sided, forgetful view of Weimar and Germa- ny, today it also turns against the "Never again!" that has been broken times since 1945, against the per- manence of imperial wars and oppressive violence, against noncommittal, routine, clichéd remembrance, against the unmistakable revitalization of neo-Nazi racist attitudes and misanthropy. The memorial does not moralize any more than it is smooth and eye-pleas- ing. It does not want to create an image of horror. It is a roughened, silent, sympathetic gesture towards the persecuted and murdered, composed bewilderment in connection with the hope in man's ability to learn - even if one may doubt it. The stone memorial will be composed of numerous smaller and medium-sized individual stones. These will be delivered on an open truck on 23.08. around 16:00 hrs. Afterwards, all citi- zens of Weimar and guests of the city are called upon to build the stone monument together under the guid- ance of the artist! You are cordially invited!