Befreiungsdenkmal

The Befreiungsdenkmal, originally titled Die Freiheit, was a granite sculpture by Benno Elkan that once stood on Mainz’s Schillerplatz. Created between 1930 and 1933, it marked the withdrawal of French occupying forces from the city. The monument was unveiled on 20 July 1930 in the presence of Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg during the large Rheinland-Befreiungsfeier. It featured a nearly four-metre-tall figure of a kneeling woman with her torso uncovered, titled ‘Die Erwachende’. The sculpture weighed about ten tonnes and stood on the base of a former dance pavilion near the Osteiner Hof, where the French military administration had been based. The work provoked strong reactions from conservative and religious groups in Mainz. Roman Catholic clergy called the bare-breasted figure ‘indecent’ and moved the Fronleichnamsprozession away from the square in June 1931. National Socialists opposed the monument because its creator, Benno Elkan, was Jewish. By March 1933, after the Nazi takeover in Hessen, a coalition of Catholic and Nazi opponents demanded its removal. Attempts to topple the heavy statue failed, so an demolition firm was hired and the monument was smashed and cleared away on 25 March 1933. Today the site holds the Fastnachtsbrunnen, installed in 1967, and an information board recalls the lost sculpture. The square itself remains a central public space in Mainz, close to the Osteiner Hof and the former French headquarters. Visitors find a quiet place for reflection beside the modern fountain, with little visible trace of the dramatic events that once centred on this spot.