Skulptur 'Krieg'

In Brüningpark, Frankfurt-Höchst, Skulptur 'Krieg' stands before the Ochsenturm as a wheelchair-accessible bronze artwork. A bare-chested man’s bust rises from a rough, pale stone block. His shoulders climb from left to right, while his helmeted head tilts slightly forward and upward. An open mouth and sightless eyes give the face the force of a silent scream.

Richard Biringer created the memorial in 1928, drawing on his experience as a soldier in the First World War. It warns against war. National Socialists removed the original from Dalberganlage during the Second World War and melted it down. Citizens of Höchst and Frankfurt supported its recasting in 1982. That version first stood at Ettinghausen-Platz beside a plaque commemorating the Höchst synagogue, destroyed during the November pogroms of 1938.

Biringer’s Nazi Party membership from 1933 and commissioned work for the regime later brought the artist and location under public criticism. Public debate followed. In August 2010, the sculpture moved to Brüningpark, where the Ochsenturm frames its stark silhouette. A bronze plaque on the block’s rough rear surface records the sculpture’s history.