Nischel anniversary: companions remember

Veronika Leonhardt has been a tour guide in Chemnitz since 2008. On a tour that she organises together with a colleague, the two of them appear as Karl Marx and his wife Jenny. In this interview, she explains where these tours take her and what tourists think of the Karl Marx Monument.


How do the tours as Jenny Marx work?

My tour guide colleague Wulf Lakemeier and I meet at the Karl Marx Monument and of course we start by telling the guests all the background information: How was the monument created and in what period of time with what obstacles? And also what ideas there were for the monument after reunification. Then we walk along Brückenstraße in the direction of Bahnhofstraße,
There you will find the praise poems by Bertolt Brecht. Among other things, there is also a relief on which Marx appears. Finally, we go to the Park of the Victims of Fascism, where this first joint monument to Marx and Engels, created by Walter Howard, stands in front of the Agricola Grammar School. As a rule, we need about
90 minutes for the tour.

Are you both in costume?

Yes, we are both in costume and my tour guide colleague Mr Lakemeier also has a very authentic face, so he looks a lot like Karl Marx, which is why I had no choice but to turn to this colleague and ask him to work with me. He has natural white hair, wears a black top hat and a black coat and black trousers. And I have a costume that was common in England in the 19th century: a long skirt, a dark jacket and a small hat.

What inspired you to offer these tours?

That's actually a longer story: When I started working here as a tour guide, I also started working in the tourist information centre and my idea - after long discussions about the pros and cons of the Karl Marx monument - was to create a souvenir somehow, because the demand for a souvenir with Karl Marx's face or name was increasing. And then came the 200th birthday of Karl Marx and there was a big event on 5 May 2018, so I approached my colleague and said we could offer guided tours on that day and that's when the idea was born to offer guided tours on the subject of Karl Marx or the Karl Marx Monument at regular intervals.


How many times have you been able to organise the tour?

Well, I reckon we've done ten to 15 tours. These are not tours that I offer more often, but really on specific occasions. And if guests enquire and specifically request such a tour, then of course we organise it.


Why do you offer different tours on the subject of Karl Marx (monument)?

There is a somewhat funnier tour, which is peppered with questions and the guests are actively involved in the tour. So it's not to be taken completely seriously and that's why it's a special tour. It revolves around the whole topic of "the niche of Karl-Marx-Stadt" or "the city with brains", so it's humorous and enriched with information.


Can you reveal one of the questions?

One of them was, for example, "Can you imagine why Jenny von Westphalen was given a riding crop by Karl Marx?" I might give you the answer later (laughs).


What knowledge about the Karl Marx Monument do you give the participants on the guided tours through the city centre?

The basic facts and information: It was inaugurated on 9 October 1971, the head is 7.10 metres high - I haven't measured it myself yet, but I plan to really check it (laughs). The plinth is 4.50 metres high and there are a total of 95 individual bronze parts from which the entire monument was assembled - by the local company VEB Germania, by the way. And the head literally weighs 40 tonnes.


On the pros and cons of the monument: what arguments do you hear from guests? What do the locals think of the monument?

The majority say that the Marx Monument has been in the city for 50 years and that 95, 96 or even more per cent are in favour of preserving the Marx Monument. And there is also the quite justified opinion that Marx has already been misused once by a society - and he can actually go. But as I said, the majority are in favour of preserving it and that's why I think it's still here, otherwise it would have disappeared a long time ago. Incidentally, there were also pros and cons before the opening, so there wasn't a unanimous opinion that this form of portrait bust was the ideal. Most of the designs created by the Soviet sculptor
Lev Kerbel created were full-body designs and only one of them was this design for a portrait bust. The artist
made a model himself out of cardboard and wood and placed it at an appropriate distance in front of the House of Industry to see how it would look, and then he said to himself: "I can't offer it to the city like this, it just doesn't fit." He then decided for himself that he would reduce Karl Marx to his head, because he thought the head was enough, that's where all the knowledge came from. When he presented this to the relevant state and party organs, the reactions were indignant.


Do you know what opinions the visual artists here in Chemnitz had?

I don't know the specific opinions, but it was generally about the rejection of the design as a bust. They wanted a full-body sculpture. Lew Kerbel took a very pragmatic view, he said to himself: "So when I stand in front of this sculpture as a viewer, I look at the feet and that makes no sense." Until the unveiling at the end, people were still sceptical as to whether it would work that way and then there were still a few problems pulling down the white tarpaulin at the unveiling, but when it came down, everyone was relieved and convinced by the design.


Do you know what the people of Chemnitz had to say about the monument back then?

They didn't ask the people back then anyway, both in terms of the name and the monument. I think there were discussions behind closed doors, of course. I would categorise it like this: People knew there was nothing they could do about it and resigned themselves to it, and in the vernacular it was just the "Nischel" and nobody really had any problems with it. That's why the decision was made after '89, it's been standing here for years, the city was called Karl-Marx-Stadt until then and people came to terms with it. Young people who were once asked what they thought of this head said - although they had nothing to do with the history of its creation - "the Nischel somehow belongs to the city and if you took it away, then something would be missing in the city" and I found that interesting.


How popular is the monument with tourists?

Everyone who comes into the tourist information centre and asks for advice first asks the question "Is the Nischel still there?" and when we say "Of course it's still there", they say "Where is it? I have to go there!". I dare say that this is at least every second person. The monument does have a significance. Not just in the city, not just among the people of Chemnitz, but also in terms of tourism.


Has opinion of the monument changed over the years?

It has calmed down. People no longer discuss whether or not it is right or wrong. To a certain extent, people have accepted it in the city and not only come to terms with it, but also accepted it. But the majority are in favour of keeping it and there have been many ideas to lend it out, give it away, sell it, bury it, melt it down, and so on - we only covered it up once and that was a really cool action on the part of the Neue Sächsische Galerie.


What do you think about the Karl Marx Monument?

It should be left as it is and I would like the surroundings to be designed even more, to be more aesthetically pleasing. I could imagine converting the building behind the Marx Monument into a hotel and setting up a philosopher's café on the ground floor, for example. Not just with the idea of "Marx", but also Hegel, Feuerbach and so on. And maybe even set up a small library there, a small exhibition. Then you always have a connection to the city and, of course, to the Karl Marx Monument. That would be my dream for the Capital of Culture 2025.


Do you have any anecdotes to tell about the Karl Marx Monument?

Not an anecdote, but I like to tell guests about the wrapping of the Neue Sächsische Galerie. Visitors had the opportunity to walk on scaffolding to get round Marx. It really was a unique and unique opportunity to see the blowing hair from behind. It was a very interesting experience to actually meet Marx at eye level. At the time, Mathias Lindner from the NSG wanted visitors to bring "Das Kapital" with them and everyone really did come with this book, but no one left it behind. Perhaps this is also the answer to the question of why Jenny Marx was given a riding crop by Karl Marx: in his time, the two of them lived in Paris and although the family was of course always in a bad way because he had no steady job, there was still a need to join the upper classes in Paris. So she strolled through Paris with Karl Marx's gift - a riding whip - to show that she also had riding horses in her stable.


Was that the case?

No.