Friedensengel, Peace monument in Mannheim, Germany

The Friedensengel is a three-metre bronze angel by sculptor Gerhard Marcks, cast in 1952 by the Düsseldorf founder Schmäke and set on a two-metre sandstone base in square B 4 beside the Jesuit Church. Except for the fully modelled head, the figure is built up in strong relief, arms spread in front of the wings; the tilted vertical axis and raised feet make it seem to float. Wings and robe are drawn with parallel lines, the left hand slightly bent back, the right slightly raised.

In August 1949 the VVN applied for a plaque at Georg-Lechleiter-Platz honouring the resistance fighter Lechleiter and those executed with him; the debate widened the commemoration to all victims of Nazi persecution. Lord Mayor Hermann Heimerich pushed to include war victims and proposed a site at Schillerplatz, which the council funded for the years 1933 to 1945. Gerhard Marcks was commissioned in early 1951, and the bronze angel was unveiled on 16 November 1952, the Volkstrauertag, before some 5,000 people.

Locals call the bronze angel "Die schepp' Liesel" (the crooked Liesel) because its tilted axis makes it seem to float. The base at square B 4 beside the Jesuit Church carries the inscription "Es mahnen die Toten" with the years 1933–1945, and the monument is still the setting for commemorations on the Volkstrauertag.

The bronze angel stands on a two-metre sandstone base in square B 4, beside the Jesuit Church just off Schillerplatz in the city centre. The figure is three metres tall, so its face and the parallel lines of wings and robe are best read from a few steps back. The inscription "Es mahnen die Toten" and the years 1933–1945 are on the base.

Locals call the bronze angel "Die schepp' Liesel" (the crooked Liesel) because its tilted vertical axis and raised feet make it seem to float. Sculptor Gerhard Marcks based the figure on ancient Persian mythology, in which a person's angel flies over the earth on the last day. The three-metre figure was cast in Düsseldorf by the bronze founder Schmäke in summer 1952.