Rincker, Die Union-Glocke
The Art of unionität
Die Union-Glocke
„Peace hangs in the air. Love sounds."
Today it hangs freely, visibly, with dignity – on the corner of Rosenthaler Straße and Meinekestraße, directly next to the six Goldman cypresses in the European Promise Square. Not on a church spire, not as a functional object, but as a sculpture, as a reminder, as an invitation. On its bronze body is written: „Jesus is our peace.“ An inscription that seems to have fallen from time – and that is precisely why it is so present.
A Closer Look at the Work
Next to the bell is a bronze plaque with the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer — a poem he wrote in prison in 1944, a few months before his assassination by the National Socialists. A quiet, defiant trust in something that cannot be destroyed. Bonhoeffer’s text and the bell belong together here. Both speak of survival. Of being consoled where there is no consolation. Of the light that remains in the darkness.
Their bell tolls are drawn from the Westerkerk in Amsterdam — the same bells that Anne Frank heard in her hiding place. Sounds that penetrated through walls when everything else outside was a threat. In her diary she wrote that this sound gave her comfort.
Thus, a sound triangle is created: Frankfurt, Berlin, Amsterdam. Bonhoeffer, Anne Frank, the rescued bell. A narrative that is not yet complete. Not a memorial sculpture, but a living tension between the past and the present. This bell was not hung; it was lifted.
The chimes of the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. The same bells that Anne Frank heard.
Photos: © Stefan Gröpper
Ardi Goldman Kunst-
und Kulturstiftung gGmbH
Uniongelände
Hanauer Landstraße 188, 60314 Frankfurt am Main