Bronze plaque by Fritz Zalisz
Richard is a Leipziger...
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig on 22nd May 1813, the year of the Napoleonic Battle of the Nations in and around the city. Johanna Rosine Wagner gave birth to Richard, her ninth child, in the house of the Zum roten und weißen Löwen inn (The Red and White Lion) in Brühl 3, the house on the north side of the Brühl road opposite Hainstraße.
The house was named Richard Wagner's Birth House in 1882, before being pulled down only four years later. The new building on the site assumed the title Wagnerhaus in 1906.
This building was only to stand until 1914, before being demolished to make way for an extension to the Brühl department store.
Following severe bomb damage, reconstruction and modernisation, the store adopted its present form in 1968. The aluminium façade designed by the Leipzig architect Harry Müller accounts for the building's affectionate nickname, Blechbüchse (tin can). A preservation order ensures that this relatively recent addition to Leipzig's cityscape remains immune to any notions to redevelop the site.
The recent destruction of the adjacent building has presented Leipzig with the opportunity to integrate either a structural or an aesthetic memorial to Wagner's birth house into the planned construction of a new shopping centre on the neighbouring site.
The bronze plaque by the Leipzig sculptor Fritz Zalisz (1893-1971) serves as a reminder to the site of the birth of the city's most celebrated musical son.
Internet:
www.richard-wagner-verband-leipzig.de
Wikipedia:
Richard Wagner
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Station 15, Mendelssohn-Denkmal, Thomaskirche / Mendelssohn Memorial, St. Thomas's Church |
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Standort Geburtshaus Richard Wagner / Site of Richard Wagner's birth house (Music Trip station 1) |
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Station 2, Standort Altes Theater / Site of Old Theatre |
