Page - 288 - in Österreich-Ungarns imperiale Herausforderungen - Nationalismen und Rivalitäten im Habsburgerreich um 1900

© 2020, V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847110606 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737010603 ofhisdeath(1889).Thiswouldnotonlydecoratethetownbutalsogiveaproofof “unwaveringpatriotism.”39 Finally itwashismotherElisabethwhowastobeneficiatefromtheerectionof amemorial.During thediscussion in1905at themunicipal councilCounselor Onciul showed amodel realized by Julius Zlamal, professor at the Orthodox Oberrealschule,andsaidthatitwasnowtimetodecidewheretoerectthestatue. Obviously itwouldhave tostandontheeponymnewsquarebut this shouldbe done before the square be asphalted. At the same time German counselors projected to build a Schiller statue and therewas obviously a competitionbe- tween twomessages: Schiller representedGermancultureandElisabethHabs- burgdynastic ideology.Theprojectwas indeedslow tocometoconcretization: thediscussionaboutthelocationlastedforyears. Inthemeantimetheimposing statue (eightmeters high)was finished. The affair was in the hands of the as- sociationfortheembellishingofthetown(Verschönerungsverein)whoproposed nowtoput thestatue intheFranzJosef-garden.Therewasafiercedebate inthe press in January1908betweenthemembersof theassociation, themembersof the committee in charge of themonument, and the towncounselors. The case was complicated by the existence of a statue of Francis Joseph that had been createdfor thecelebrationofhis jubilee in1898sothataproper locationhadto befoundforittoo.ThecityarchitectFriedrichHaberlandtexpressedhisopinion intheCzernowitzerAllgemeineZeitungsayingthattherewasnoneedtorelegate Elisabeth in the garden inorder toput Francis JosephonElisabeth squarebe- cause it was easy to find another appropriate location for the emperor. The empressshouldstayontheplannedlocationfor thesquareis themostbeautiful of the town.40 ProfessorMatthias Friedwagner who belonged to theVerschö- nerungsverein justified in an article published on the next daywhy the com- mitteeproposedthegarden:thiswouldsuitmorethepersonalityofthedeceased empress. In the end the costs for the twomonumentswere constantly growing with no result in sight. The statue of the emperor finally stayed in theVolks- garten.41 On 9October 1911 themembers of the committee for the erection of the monumenttoElisabethweregivenanaudiencebytheemperor:theinauguration wasplanned for the followingweekandtheyaskedwhowasgoing to represent 39 EinDenkmal, in:CzernowitzerPresse152/153(15.01.1897), S. 1. 40 CzernowitzerAllgemeineZeitung12001(02.01.1908), S. 1. 41 Thismonumentwas logicallydestroyedafter 1918.Recently, thanks to funding raisedbya politician,Arsenyi Jatsenyuk,anewstatueofFrancis Josephwaserected intheparknext to formerHerz-Jesu-Kirche. Thework by sculptorVladimir Tsisarikwas unveiled on 03.10. 2009. CatherineHorel288