Monument to the March Dead

Monument to the March Dead (German: Denkmal für die Märzgefallenen) is an expressionist monument in the Weimar Central Cemetery in Weimar, Germany that memorializes workers killed in the 1920 Kapp Putsch. A 1920 design produced by Walter Gropius, in collaboration with Fred Forbát, was selected from those submitted in a competition organized by the Union Cartel and Städtisches Museum Weimar.[1][2][3]

Monument to the March Dead
Denkmal für die Märzgefallenen
Location in Thuringia
Coordinates50.968063°N 11.321559°E / 50.968063; 11.321559
LocationHistorical Cemetery, Weimar, Germany
DesignerWalter Gropius, Fred Forbát
Materialconcrete
Dedicated dateMay 1, 1922
Dedicated toWorkers killed in the Kapp Putsch
Dismantled date1936

The structure was built between 1920 and 1922.[4] An unveiling ceremony for the memorial was held on May 1, 1922.[2]

Objecting to it politically and as an example of what it characterized as degenerate art, the Nazis destroyed the monument in February 1936.[4]

The structure was reconstructed in 1946.[2]

Architecture

The form of the monument alludes to a thunderbolt. The structure is constructed of concrete.[5]

Reception

Theo van Doesburg, leader of the De Stijl movement, criticized Gropius' expressionist design, decrying it as "the result of a cheap literary idea."[6]

  • Opening ceremony of the monument
  • The monument depicted on a 1980 stamp from East Germany
  • The structure in 2019 in its current form

References
  1. Weibel, Peter (2005-05-17). Beyond Art: A Third Culture: A Comparative Study in Cultures, Art and Science in 20th Century Austria and Hungary. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9783211245620.
  2. Gilbert Lupfer & Paul Sigel, Walter Gropius, 1883–1969: the promoter of a new form, p. 31.
  3. "Mock-up 'Monument to the Victims of the March Putsch'". www.bauhaus100.com. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  4. Wolfe, Ross (2015-05-08). "Walter Gropius, Monument to the March Dead (1922)". The Charnel-House. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  5. Saval, Nikil (2019-02-04). "How Bauhaus Redefined What Design Could Do for Society". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  6. MacCarthy, Fiona (2019-05-10). Gropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674239906.

Interactive panorama of the monument

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