Ehrenmal für die im Ersten Weltkrieg gefallenen Bremer, War memorial in Mitte district, Bremen, Germany.
The Ehrenmal für die im Ersten Weltkrieg gefallenen Bremer stands on the Altmannhöhe at the eastern end of Bremen's Wallanlagen. It consists of a three-quarter ring wall faced on the inside with around 10,000 name stones of clinker brick in varying shades, closed off by a lattice gate. An altar-like stone block, also readable as a cenotaph, marks the central axis; opposite it, outside the ring, stands Ernst Gorsemann's sculpture of a mother with children.
The memorial was commissioned by Bremen's Nazi-aligned senate in September 1933, with a design by sculptor Ernst Gorsemann and landscape architect Heinrich Wiepking-Jürgensmann submitted that December. It was inaugurated on 13 October 1935 and also commemorates the Freikorps Caspari and Division Gerstenberg fighters who died on 4 February 1919 during the suppression of the Bremen Soviet Republic.
The sculpture Mutter und Kinder stands outside the three-quarter circle, opposite the altar-like stone block; Gorsemann added it in 1936 and it was damaged shortly before the war's end. His reworking, begun in 1945 and installed in 1963, gave the mother a careworn, suffering face and replaced her National Socialist-style hairstyle with a simple cloth.
The memorial is located on Altmannhöhe hill in the eastern part of the Wallanlagen park and is accessible by car or public transport. Visitors should note that wheelchair access is limited due to the site's terrain.
The memorial also commemorates the Freikorps Caspari and Division Gerstenberg volunteers who died on 4 February 1919 during the suppression of the Bremen Soviet Republic; their names appear on the right side of the ring wall. Six name stones of Nazis killed in the power struggles before 1933 were deliberately removed.
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