[Triple mounting of the Ernst Mach memorial tablet in Brno-Chirlice].
On the occasion of his 100th birthday, the outstanding Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (1838-1916) was honored in a ceremony on 13 February 1938 with a commemorative plaque that was placed on the front side of the house of his birth in Chirlice/Chirlitz which belongs to Brno today. The bronze plaque is derived from a design created by the sculptor Karl Korschann who was a professor at the German Technical University in Brno. It is 140 x 90 cm and in the central field (59 x 71 cm) bears a portrait of Mach in half-relief, and to the right and left of it inscriptions in German and Czech. This commemorative plaque endured a history filled with vicissitudes that are here - insofar as it is possible - sketched in on the basis of archival materials and the testimony of witnesses. After the ceremonial unveiling in 1938, the plaque was preserved in its original condition for only a short time: during the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Germans the word 'ĉeskoslovenský' was painted over in the Czech text, and in 1943 a massive campaign to collect metal led to the removal of the plaque, but not to its being melted down. The place where it was kept for the next five years could not be determined. By decision of the town council the plaque was again put up in 1948 in a low-key event. As early as 1950 it was again removed - this time secretly in a nighttime operation and undoubtedly for political reasons -, and transported to the municipal library and later stored in the basement of the nearby little castle. There, boys who were playing found the plaque at the end of the fifties and cut out an approximately 40 x 30 cm piece in order to sell the metal. Soon after that the damaged plaque was no longer in its place. Since then there has been no trace of its whereabouts, it probably ended up in a smelting furnace in 1965. The approaching 150th birthday of Mach led in the eighties to renewed interest in the plaque. A massive search was unsuccessful, which led to the commissioning of a simple granite commemorative plaque, the unveiling of which occurred on 14 May 1988 during the celebration of Ernst Mach days in Brno: the house of Mach's birth again had a commemorative plaque after a long period of anonymity. - Should Korschann's model of the bronze commemorative plaque appear again, then a new cast of the original plaque was to be made: then the image of Mach could again (for the third time) be put up - and Goethe's "You have to say it three times" (Faust I, line 1531) would thereby be fulfilled.
Cernohorský
Martin
M
D001317:Austria; D003604:Czechoslovakia; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D010825:Physics / Q000266:history*; D012613:Sculpture / Q000266:history*