Würzburg (plaque)
Description of commemoration
In the square in front of the Lutheran deanery church of St. Stefan, Evangelical and Catholic youth have been creating mosaics since 2002, as their actions for peace and understanding. The word RECONCILIATION was made of mosaic in various language versions: in German, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, English, Tanzanian, Japanese, German Sinti and Roma, Aramaic, French, Italian, Irish, and Czech. The mosaics were also created during four events organised for world peace.
Part of this installation is a hemisphere, mounted directly on the stone pavement of the church square, consisting of granite cubes of the right height, which resembles a stone flower. The stones were cut during the war and were to be used by the Germans to build structures needed by the system. The stone flower that was built from them is intended to rebuild historical awareness. On the information board it is even said that “it was made public, because guilt for the past requires confrontation.”
The memorial site also includes is a Corten sheet plaque with an inscription in German.
The installation is not directly commemorative of the Holocaust of Roma and other nations, but the idea of reconciliation is built on historical memory, i.e. the memory of persecution and crimes committed during World War II as well as the memory of conflicts between nations.
Inscriptions
- The plaque – text in German:
DIESE STEINE WAREN / URSPRÜNGLICH FÜR / BAUTEN DES NAZI-REGIMES / BEHAUEN WORDEN. ZUR / BLÜTE UMGEARBEITET / SOLLEN SIE JETZT EIN / NEUES ZEICHEN SETZEN. / MÖGEINTOLERANZ UND / MENSCHENVERACHTUNG / VERWANDELT WERDEN / IN DIE VERWIRKLICHUNG / VON VERSÖHNUNG.
‘These stones were originally prepared to build structures for the Nazi regime. They were transformed into a flower to rebuild their meaning. Intolerance and violence can be transformed into truly happening reconciliation.’
- The mosaic – text in Romani:
Vas pali mischto Ketni
‘Reconciliation’
Date of the unveiling
Flower – 2001; the inscription in the Romani language: May 5, 2005
Initiator
Local deanery churches of the Catholic and Evangelical church
Address
Wilhelm-Schwinn-Platz 5 (at Stephanstrasse), 97070 Würzburg, Germany
Location
49°47’23.5″N 9°56’05.1″E
49.789861, 9.934750
<iframe src=”https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d607.8949632146786!2d9.934198829235822!3d49.7898678645194!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x0%3A0x0!2zNDnCsDQ3JzIzLjUiTiA5wrA1NicwNS4xIkU!5e1!3m2!1spl!2spl!4v1507991670394″ width=”600″ height=”450″ frameborder=”0″ style=”border:0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
Materials
http://gedenkorte.sintiundroma.de/index.php?ortID=89
Gallery
