This multi-part design by the artist Erwin Wortelkamp was created in memory of Walter Kr\u00e4mer as part of a patient garden for the newly built Siegen district hospital. The site thus connects the general idea of selfless healing and protection on the one hand and the memory of Walter Kr\u00e4mer on the other.<\/p>\n
The latter was born in Siegen in 1892 and was one of the founders of the local German Communist Party (KPD) in 1920. He was elected to the Prussian parliament in 1932, arrested after the Reichstag fire in 1933 and, having served a prison sentence, transferred to the Lichtenburg concentration camp. In 1937 he was forced to help build the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he took over as head of the hospital in 1939. Having taught himself medical expertise, he helped numerous prisoners as the \u201cdoctor of Buchenwald.\u201d He was later transferred to a satellite camp in Goslar-Hahndorf, where he was shot in 1941. After the Second World War, Walter Kr\u00e4mer received numerous posthumous honours and was awarded the \u201cRighteous Among Nations\u201d medal by the Yad Vashem Memorial in Israel in 2000.<\/p>\n
In its totality, Walter Kr\u00e4mer-Platz is an enclosed garden with plane trees, beech hedges and benches and tables for resting. In the middle of the site is a stela bearing a black-and-white portrait photo of Walter Kr\u00e4mer etched in glass. The most important stations of his life are inscribed on the concrete plinth. A flyer and an app provide additional information. A scroll embedded in the ground quotes the philosopher Emmanuel L\u00e9vinas as follows: \u201cCare of the Other triumphs over care for oneself.\u201d<\/p>\n
A blackened bronze sculpture reminiscent of an abstract, protecting hand carved from wood forms a sculptural element standing alone on the lawn. Its counterpart is another bronze which was mounted as a \u201ccorner piece\u201d on the fa\u00e7ade of the main building at a height of seven metres. The two bronzes form a parenthesis connecting the building and the site and enclosing its design. A painting in the hospital foyer repeats the motif of protective hands and carries the artistic design into the interior of the building.<\/p>\n