A weighty and respectable stone figure stands in front of the town hall of Calbe on the Saale.
Roland - hero, martyr, saint: chivalry and its virtues, especially loyalty, achieved cult status in the High Middle Ages. So it is not surprising that people remember the hero Hruotland, who was now called Roland in France. Roland, who had sacrificed himself for his lord and for his goals, became the symbol of knightly loyalty par excellence.
The first Roland figure in Calbe (before 1381): During the reign (1361-67) of the Archbishop of Magdeburg Dietrich Portitz, a wooden Roland figure was first erected on the Old Market and later in 1381 (first mentioned) on the New Market in front of the town hall built in 1376. We know nothing about its appearance, only that Roland was later painted in bright colors, stood under a protective roof, and was used for municipal legal acts and punishments.
The second Roland figure (1656/58): After the Thirty Years' War, in which Calbe suffered greatly, the Calbe city council had a new, contemporary Roland figure made by the Magdeburg woodcut master Gottfried Gigas in 1656. The statue, carved from an oak tree felled near Calbe, was 4.20 m high and equipped with ceremonial armor, a helmet, a sword, and a shield standing on the ground. The shield showed Calbe's "talking coat of arms" with the calf and the city walls. This figure was also painted in bright colors. Because such a statue symbolized municipal independence and ran counter to the sovereign's aspirations for absolutist rule, the erection of Roland was prohibited. It was not until 1658 that a compromise was reached, and the new Roland was returned to its old position in front of the town hall. Over the next 288 years, the wooden statue was placed in various places and was often restored due to its increasing state of disrepair.
During the post-war winter of 1946/47, Roland was burned by freezing people.
In 1976, a four-and-a-half-meter-high sandstone Roland, created by the sculptor based on the 1656 figure, was unveiled. At a time when the town was experiencing renewed economic growth, it testified to the reverence that the people of Calbe had for their own important history. Website of the town of Calbe