The Bremen Roland, a Roland statue erected in 1404 on the market
square in front of the town hall, is a landmark of Bremen and is
considered the oldest preserved stone Roland. The Roland has been under
monument protection since 1973 and was declared a World Heritage Site by
UNESCO in July 2004 together with the town hall.
The figure is
5.47 meters tall and stands on a 60 centimeter high stepped pedestal. In
the back it is supported by a pillar, which is crowned by a gothic
ornamented canopy. The monument reaches a total height of 10.21 meters,
making it the largest free-standing statue of the German Middle Ages.
The military leader and alleged nephew of Charlemagne, known from
songs and epics (Rolandslied), is shown. So Roland stands in the market
place as the emperor's representative, proclaiming and guaranteeing the
market rights and liberties supposedly bestowed on the city. This is
also what the inscription on the shield (probably renewed in 1512) says:
"Freedom I reveal to you / which Karl and many a prince has truly /
given to this place / thank God for that, that is my advice"
The
attributes of Roland, who is characterized by armor (mail-mail collar,
breastplate, greaves) and hair style as a free man living a knightly
lifestyle, illustrate and make this more precise: the raised sword is
more a symbol of municipal jurisdiction here than the knight's badge of
rank, because it is missing the scabbard attached to the belt. The
shield with the Reich's double-headed eagle coat of arms is a sign of
Bremen's long-fought claim to Reich freedom. The small figure under
Roland's feet is mainly interpreted by researchers as a subdued Frisian
chief.
The proximity to the town hall (built at the same time)
and the relation to the street axis Ostertor-Obernstraße are important
for the location and perspective of the figure. While in the past
Roland's gaze, pointing in the direction of the cathedral, was seen as a
gesture of power directed against the archbishop's ruler, today a
message of this kind, demonstratively directed against the church and
archbishop, is disputed with good reason.
A predecessor of the Bremen Roland was made of wood and had been
overthrown and burned on the night of May 28/29, 1366 by Archbishop
Albert II's warriors. Like the new one, it bore the imperial coat of
arms and was probably erected in the 1340s or 50s. In 1404, before the
start of construction of the town hall, the Bremen council had the new
stone Roland built. The stonemasons Claws Zeelleyher and Jacob Olde were
paid 170 Bremen marks for this.
The figure was made from Elm
limestone, the pillar from Obernkirchen sandstone and was initially
painted. In the 18th century it was painted gray, later the visible
stone with sparse coloring was preferred. Around 1811, the Roland was
temporarily in danger of being demolished when a market hall was planned
for the square, which was not built due to the end of French rule.
The Roland has been restored several times. In 1939 it was
threatened with collapse and was rebuilt on a new concrete foundation,
with individual blocks renewed. On September 29, 1939, as an air defense
measure, it was given wooden casing filled with sand and a little later
brick splinter protection. The grille that was lost in the process was
renewed during a thorough restoration in 1983/84. The head was replaced
by a true-to-life copy, and the original has been in the Focke Museum
ever since. In the old Bremen tradition, these costs were covered by a
sponsor. During the last restoration in 1989, a cassette containing Nazi
propaganda was discovered inside the statue, which had been deposited
there in 1938.
reception
In 1848, Friedrich Rückert wrote a poem in eight verses
at the town hall in Bremen, which was later set to music by Franz Magnus
Böhme. Three more verses were added in December 1863, which referred to
Bremen's role in the run-up to the German-Danish War, when Denmark
wanted to include the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein in the dominion
of the crown. In complete contrast to the Hanseatic sister cities of
Hamburg and Lübeck, Bremen strongly opposed this plan on December 7,
1863. Rückert's verses express contempt for the position of Hamburg and
Lübeck.
The Low German vernacular also dealt with the statue and
rhymed:
Roland with that frizzy hair
What he kicks so sunny!
Roland with the tabard
Stands as low as a stick.
Roland with the
sharp knees,
Come on, doesn't that hurt you?
to the Peace of
Westphalia.
Philately and Numismatics
The motif of the Bremen
Roland was taken up in philately and numismatics.
Replicas
The fountain figure in Bederkesa,
which was part of Bremen at the time and was probably erected in 1602
but has a different design, is directly related to the Bremen Roland.
On the Neuer Markt in Bremen Neustadt stands the Little Roland as a
Roland fountain from 1737, based on a design by the sculptor Theophilus
Wilhelm Frese.
The Iron Roland, a wooden replica, stood in the
corner between the old and new town hall from 1915 to 1918; Anyone who
had donated to a Bremen soldiers' home was allowed to drive a nail into
the figure there. The figure then stored in the town hall has not
survived.
An approximately 1.50 meter tall wooden replica of the
Bremen Roland is located in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Zion
in Brooklyn, New York. It is part of a pulpit and was a gift from the
city of Bremen in 1890 to former citizens who found a new home in New
York.
The Brazilian city of Rolândia was founded in 1932 by
German emigrants and got its name after the Bremen Roland. Since 1957,
the town has also had a four-fifths-sized replica of the Bremen Roland,
donated by Bremen coffee merchants.
For its 445th anniversary,
Bremen gave the city of Quito a scaled-down replica of its Roland, which
is now on Avenida Amazonas.
In 1970, the Japanese Atsuo Nishi had
a faithful replica of the Bremen Roland built in his amusement park in
Obihiro on Hokkaidō. It was part of a larger fairytale town with various
replicas of German characters. The exhibition closed in 2003.
Since 2004, a miniature model of the Roland has been in the Roland Park
near the town hall of Belgern.
A replica of the Bremen Roland
with a height of 2.50 meters was made for an advertising campaign with
the Bremen Dettmer Group. It was built by the artist Thomas Beecken and
is made entirely of recycled material. The shredded material consisted
mostly of colorful plastic, but also of building material recycling or
filling sand. Today the model is in the "Dettmer-Haus" in the old town
of Bremen, directly on the Weser.
Because the distance between the two knee tips of 55.372 centimeters
is quite close to the measurement of the Bremen Elle (set at the
equivalent of 57.87 centimeters in 1818), R. Spichal suspected that this
distance was deliberately a standard measurement. The pointed shape and
the metal design seem to speak for it. In addition, close to medieval
market places, measurements that were materially shaped or marked on
town halls and church portals were often accessible to the general
public. But nowhere, as far as is known, is such a norm of older times
an integral part of a work of art. So the idea remains a hypothesis, the
truth of which remains completely unprovable for the time being due to a
lack of precise knowledge of medieval measurements (especially length
measurements) and any historical references to the assumed connection.
In Bremen, people like to say that the city will remain free and
independent as long as Roland stands and watches over it. The legend
that a second Roland statue was hidden in the cellar vaults of the town
hall as a readily available replacement is probably based on the
deposition of the Iron Roland (see above) in the town hall between the
world wars. The figure between his feet is often referred to as the
cripple who, in 1032, is said to have crawled around a piece of land
that Countess Emma then gave to the city as a common pasture, but
without any justification.
As an April Fool's joke, the Bremen
Senate Chancellery published the press release in 2004 that "the Bremen
yardstick is still used in science and technology" and "the measure of
length is used internationally under the term LMR (Length Measurement
Roland) only in special applications in aircraft construction, space
travel and underwater detection “.
On November 5th, from 1813 to 1863, the people of Bremen celebrated
the "Day of Resurrected Freedom" and made it the birthday of their
"Statue of Liberty". This commemorated the end of the city's occupation
of several years by Napoleonic France and the liberation by Karl von
Tettenborn in November 1813. Earlier that day, dancing girls laid
flowers in front of the Roland. Now the custom is revived: on November
5th, Roland is decorated with a bouquet of flowers and the UNESCO flag
every year.
During the Bremer Freimarkt folk festival, which has
been celebrated since 1035 and has taken place on the Bürgerweide since
the 1930s, the Roland is nowadays decorated with a large gingerbread
heart made of cardboard and colorful balloons. The opening of the
Freimarkt currently takes place every year in October on a Friday and is
celebrated at 4:00 p.m. on the market square as part of the Kleiner
Freimarkt, with members of the Bremen chimney sweep guild outfitting the
Roland with his Freimarkt decorations. At the same time, the actual folk
festival opens the gates on the Bürgerweide, while the "official
opening" there - the traditional tapping of the barrel in the Bavarian
tent by the Bremen Senator for the Interior - takes place two hours
later. The gingerbread heart hanging around Roland bears the traditional
exclamation of the people of Bremen for the Freimarkt days: "Ischa
Freimaak!", Which can be translated as "It's free market!".
As
with the town musicians a few meters away, there is a custom for Roland
that says whoever rubbed his knee returns to Bremen. How popular this
custom is can be seen from the dark discoloration of both knees caused
by frequent touching.
Further attribution
The Roland of Bremen
is the namesake of
the Rolandschacht, journeyman association of
foreign and local Roland brothers founded in Nuremberg in the 19th
century by Bremen journeymen.
the Roland Clinic in Bremen Neustadt.
the Roland line of 1905 as a shipping company that served the
transatlantic trade with cargo steamers; it was taken over by North
German Lloyd in 1925.
the monthly magazine Roland for liberal
pedagogy, which i.a. Heinrich Scharrelmann and Fritz Gansberg published.
the Roland envelope, a handling company for combined transport in the
Bremen freight traffic center
Bremen's Rolandmühle, a manufacturer of
ground grain products based in the Handelshäfen district.
of the
Roland Center, a shopping center in the district of Huchting
the
radio call name Roland, which the Bremen police use, followed by a
numerical code, to address the vehicles on duty.
the Roland weapon
system, an anti-aircraft missile system developed in Franco-German
cooperation in the 1970s.
of the Roland C.II, a German two-seater
reconnaissance aircraft used in World War I.
of the Roland,
long-distance express train and later Trans-Europ-Express train to and
from Bremen.
the tram railcar no. 561 or 3561 of the Bremen tram
company, which is called Roland and since 1986, after its conversion,
Roland the giant.
the Bremen Cup used to be called the “Roland Cup”.
the so-called Roland as an alternative "currency" in the exchange ring
"Tauschwatt".
the Roland-Essen, traditional event of the Bremen
Industry Club since 1984. V., in the upper hall of the old town hall in
Bremen.
Ships
The following ships are named after the Bremen
Roland:
Roland of Bremen, replica of the historic Hanseatic Cog
Roland of Bremen (ship, 1937)
1702 the warship Rulant from Bremen
Seaside steamer Roland from Bremen
Side paddle steamers Roland (I)
and Roland (II)
Turbine ship Roland of North German Lloyd
Sailing
yacht and a barge of the Dettmer shipping company