Ernst Barlach: Mother Earth II

• Ernst Barlach (1870-1938)
• Mother Earth II
• 1920
• plaster under shellac
• height: 72.5 cm

During his time in Berlin between 1906 and 1908, Ernst Barlach spent a lot of time dealing with questions of modern grave design and submitted numerous drafts for competitions. Barlach also used modern principles when working on the important assignment to design a tomb for the family of Dr. Richard Biesel in Stettin. With Mother Earth II the artist drew on one of the greatest myths of humankind and gave it a timeless presence: the openly presented lap of the female figure refers to the origin of life and also the return of the dead to the earth.

Barlach‘s draft was made from shell lime and erected in 1921 in the central Stettin cemetery. The grave sculpture is slightly raised on a flat grave mound surrounded by trees of life. In front of it is a small tomb slab with inscription. Long after the transfer of Dr. Biesel’s family grave, Barlach‘s shell lime sculpture arrived in Güstrow in 1964 as a gift from Poland, where it today stands in the Gertrude cemetery. On the 90^th anniversary of the construction of Barlach’s Mother Earth a copy made from cast iron was erected in the central Stettin cemetery. The copy was made by the Polish sculptress Monika Szpener.