Type: Limited edition prints
Size: 33cm x 48cm
Tirage: 50 copies
A pencil drawing of the war memorial for the fallen of the 5th Guard Grenadiers (German: Garde-Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 5), Spandau.
This memorial was created by German sculptor August Schreitmüller and was inaugurated on May 21, 1922. It commemorates the 4,000+ members of the Garde-Grenadier Regiment No. 5 who died in World War I.
The 5th Guard Grenadiers was a regiment of the Prussian Army prior to and during the First World War. Established in 1897, it was part of the 5th Guard Infantry Brigade. The regiment was disbanded following the war and perpetuated by 5th and 6th Company, 4th Infantry Regiment of the Reichswehr.
Schreitmüller probably created the model for the group of figures “Die Wacht” before 1922. It is not known how often the model was produced on a large scale. A version in natural stone can be found on the Reinholdt family's private war memorial in the New Cemetery in Rostock. The Spandau monument was renovated in 1995.
On a rectangular slab of gray Silesian granite stands the rectangular shell limestone block on a flat rectangular plinth, which, after a short recess, serves as a support for a bronze sculpture. The bronze group has a longitudinally rectangular plinth, the surface of which shows a succinctly formulated indication of nature with rocks on the right.
A muscular, ideally formed young warrior sits leaning against the rocks, his legs slightly bent and his left foot stretched slightly under his lower right leg. The right arm rests on the right knee in the wrist area. The left arm is bent and placed on the boulder. The hanging hand is placed against a short sword leaning against the rock in an almost upright position. The warrior is undressed except for a naturalistic Stahlhelm ('steel helmet'). A cloth is draped over the legs. Behind or to the side of the attached, bent right leg is an eagle with its head (as seen from the viewer) turned to the left.
Inscribed on the base of the granite block is “Seinen im Weltkriege gefallenen Kameraden / Das Garde-Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 5”. On the other side “1914 / an Iron Cross with a W standing for Kaiser Wilhelm II / 1918”.
