Georg kolbe, ascending youth, düsseldorf courtyard of honour. In 1931, the city of düsseldorf announced a competition for a heinrich heine monument, which had long been promised to the citizens, to be erected in the courtyard of honour. The competition was won by the berlin artist georg kolbe, ahead of arno breker and johannes knubel. After two years of intensive work on the monument, which was twice as tall as a man, the political situation had changed so much that a monument in honour of the jew heine was no longer conceivable, and the second, very late attempt to create a heine monument in düsseldorf had thus also failed for a long time. The kneeling ascending youth, which does not depict heine but symbolises human striving and effort, was placed in the vestibule of the hetjens museum, which was still in the courtyard of honour at the time. From there it came to the art museum after the war, and in 1949 it was finally placed on a newly carved pedestal made of shell limestone in the place intended for it on the eastern side of the courtyard of honour, still without any reference to heine. In 1953, a heine memorial was built in the hofgarten instead, and in 1981 bert gerresheim created the heine monument on the edge of the schwanenmarkt park. Since 2002, an explanatory plaque and an inscription have pointed out the connection between the "rising youth" and heine. Düsseldorf's divided attitude to honoring heine has repeatedly been the focus of public discussion, also in connection with the disputes over the heine monuments. Another work by kolbe, the standing youth, is on display a few hundred meters to the north, at kaiserswerther strasse 137, in front of the drahthaus.
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