Village idyll with the "heraldic animal" of the Frelenbergers,
located on the corner of Geilenkirchener Str.Ägidiusstr.
The Frelenberg parish council, it is said, could not agree on where the church should be built. Then someone very clever suggested: "We load a sack on a donkey, where it throws it down, that's where we want to build the church." That was accepted unanimously. But the donkey went up a fairly steep hill, which is at the southern exit of the village, and when he reached the top, he threw himself down, unable to go any further. And that's where the Frelenbergers built their church. That's why the Frelenbergers are still called "de Aesele" today.
When designing the place symbol, the focus was on the artist Roswitha Schmitt's considerations of finding a form of representation that would enable this donkey story to be told in a lively way. A donkey loaded with a sandbag trotts through the village, unencumbered by its heavy responsibility as a location scout. Clergy and magistrates follow at some distance, still undecided in their attitude to adopt the right dignity. They are watched by the population, represented here by a farmer's wife who interrupts her work. Thus, four bronze sculptures belong to this ensemble, which found its place directly on the corner of Geilenkirchener Straße/Ägidiusstraße.
The chosen location makes it possible to build up a field of tension on the square through the three-person constellation of the group of figures. The direction of movement, posture and line of sight reveal the relationship between the figures. The figures are both observers and actors of the scenery. Every visitor to the square, even an observer, is immediately drawn into the story and thus also belongs to the content of the story. The figures are approximately life-size in bronze. The space is designed in such a way that the necessary tension space for the groups of figures can arise.
The monument was inaugurated on November 26, 1994 by Mayor Rolf Kornetka. Three years earlier, in 1991, the city council had already made a fundamental decision to erect the Frelenberger local symbol in the form of a monument. There were three years in between, during which there were also some controversies, e.g. about the nature of the monument and the costs
Translated by Google •
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