Type: Limited edition prints
Size: 48cm x 33cm
Tirage: 50 copies
A pencil drawing of the “Memorial to the fallen German Artillery men” - “Ehrenmal für die Gefallenen der Flakartillerie”at the Steglitz Cemetery in Berlin.
Made by German sculptor Felix Kupsch (1883-1969) in 1933.
It depicts a naked kneeling archer aiming at the sky.
The memorial was ceremonially unveiled on May 5, 1933 in the Emmichblock, the old driver's barracks on the corner of Marienfelder Straße and Emmichstraße (today: Malteserstraße).
It was intended to honor the fallen anti-aircraft artillerymen of World War I. The regiment was renamed Flaregiment 12 in 1934 and was assigned to the Russian campaign in 1941. On November 2, 1942, the I./12 was encircled near Stalingrad together with the 6th Army and almost completely perished there on January 31, 1943.
The barracks and the monument are badly damaged in 1943 after bombing.
After the Second World War, surviving soldiers united in RK06 (Reservist Command of the 6th Army) and decided to have the monument restored. Since the Emmich block was a police barracks, they looked for a new place and found it on an abandoned burial ground opposite the memorial stone for the fallen war veterans from Berlin-Steglitz. A line was added to the base to commemorate the fallen comrades of World War II.
In the past, meetings were often scheduled at the memorial - including the participation of the former anti-aircraft soldier and later Federal President Karl Carstens or the former anti-aircraft soldier and later Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt - so to this day at least one fixed date is kept by the few survivors: Stalingrad Day, i.e. the last Sunday of January or the first of February, commemorating the day of the 6th Army's surrender on January 31, 1943.
