Mourning Parents, Stone sculpture at German war cemetery in Vladslo, Belgium.
Mourning Parents is a two-part granite sculpture at the German military cemetery in Vladslo, Belgium. The father kneels upright on a rough stone base, arms folded across his chest, his face turned downward. To his right, the mother kneels deeply bowed, her head lowered and her hands hidden inside her heavy cloak.
Käthe Kollwitz began planning a memorial for her son Peter, killed near Esen on the night of 23–24 October 1914, in December 1914; the group took 18 years to finish. It was shown in the Berlin Nationalgalerie in summer 1932 and installed on 23 July 1932 at the Roggeveld cemetery near Esen, where Peter lay. When that cemetery was cleared from 1956, the figures and the graves moved to Vladslo, where 25,645 German soldiers now rest.
The two granite figures carry no military symbols or national emblems, showing only the posture of two people who lost a child. Kollwitz gave them her own facial features and those of her husband, making personal grief visible to every visitor.
The two figures face each other at a central spot in the cemetery, allowing visitors to walk between them. The low grave markers around them give open views of both sculptures from different directions.
The father figure was carved by August Rhades and the mother by Fritz Diederich, both working from Kollwitz's models. The group was first shown in the Berlin Nationalgalerie in summer 1932 before its installation in Belgium on 23 July 1932.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,612 contributors worldwide.
