Zigarrenmacherdenkmal

The Zigarrenmacherdenkmal stands in front of Achim’s town hall in Lower Saxony. Unveiled in 1996, it commemorates the city’s cigar-making boom that began in 1833. A 1994 sculpture competition was held to choose the design, and the first prize went to Bremen artist Christian Huba. The four-part bronze-and-marble work tells the story of cigar workers and their world. Two marble reliefs show local scenes while two bronze figures represent the overseas grower and the end buyer. The whole ensemble sits on a brass-clad plinth and measures 1.7 by 1.7 by 2.3 metres. Visitors find the monument grouped around a symbolic house of Achim. The Untersberg marble came from Salzburg quarries and the bronze was cast in Worpswede. Achim lists the piece among its sights, alongside a separate cigar-reader memorial in the town.