Resistance monument for Terbregge (2000) Hans Leutscher

photo Otto Snoek
About the artwork

A memorial window was placed in a school building in Terbregge with the image of two resistance heroes from Terbregge. The school and the window were destroyed by fire. In 1999, residents' organization Terbregges Belang asked CBK Rotterdam to help think about a new monument in memory of these two killed resistance members and someone who survived the concentration camp. A designated place for this was a former square for buses on the water near the Irene Bridge. It Resistance monument for Terbregge consists of five stones from a quarry in Sweden. The symbolism of the monument lies in the fact that footprints are carved into the large stone; the prints of people who have left their mark in Terbregge. Sculptor Hans Leutscher has placed a bronze plaque on one of the four stones with the portraits of the resistance fighters NJ van der Valk, A. van den Bos and D. van der Kooij. To commemorate unknown heroes there are three more blank stones. Association Terbregges Belang took the initiative to design a memorial monument. The location, the former bus square, was adapted by the former Urban Planning and Housing Department (nowadays Urban Development). The monument offers the opportunity to commemorate the horrors of the war and the role of the three resistance fighters. The monument also serves as a place of reflection with regard to senseless violence. The memorial was unveiled in April 2000, in time for May 4 Remembrance Day.

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About the artist

Hans Leutscher (Amsterdam, 1952) has been active as a visual artist since 1980. He studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Rotterdam. He mainly works as a stone sculptor, in freestone and Swedish granite, but also works with steel and bronze. He works stone in a classical way. For example, he regularly polishes parts of the stone surface to be processed. Leutscher lives and works in Sweden.

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