Memorial
Udo Bauch, a survivor who became disabled by the accident, built his own memorial with his own money. Bauch said that the chapel received 5,000 to 6,000 visitors per year. One year after Bauch's memorial was built, an official memorial, funded partly by Deutsche Bahn, was established.
The official memorial was opened on 11 May 2001 in the presence of 400 relatives as well as many honourables, rescuers and citizens from Eschede. The memorial consists of 101 Wild Cherry trees each representing one fatality. The trees have been planted along the rails near the bridge and with the switch in front. From the field a staircase leads up to the street and a gate - on the other side of the street a number stairs lead further up to nowhere. There is an inscription on the side of the stone gate and an inscription on a memorial wall that also lists the names of the fatalities placed at the center of the trees.
- text on the gate:
- Am 3. Juni 1998 um 10:58 Uhr zerschellte
- an dieser Stelle der ICE 884 „Wilhelm-
- Conrad-Röntgen“. 101 Menschen verloren
- ihr Leben, ganze Familien wurden zerstört;
- mehr als hundert Reisende wurden schwer
- verletzt, viele tragen lebenslang an den
- Folgen. Das Unglück hat die menschliche
- Zerbrechlichkeit, Vergänglichkeit und
- Unzulänglichkeit gezeigt. Beispielhaft und
- aufopfernd haben Retter, Helfer und
- Bürger des Ortes selbstlos eine schwere
- Aufgabe angenommen, haben geholfen
- und getröstet. Durch ihren Einsatz ist
- Eschede auch ein Ort der Solidarität und
- gelebter Mitmenschlichkeit geworden.
- text on the memorial:
- Der Lebensweg dieser 101 Menschen
- endete in der Zugkatastrophe von
- Eschede.
- Auf unergründliche Weise kreuzten und
- vollendeten sich hier ihre Schicksale.
- In das Leid und die Trauer um die
- geliebten Menschen mischt sich
- Dankbarkeit, ihnen im Leben nahe
- gewesen zu sein.
- Trost ist die Hoffnung:
- Sie ruhen in Gottes Hand.
Read more about this topic: Eschede Train Disaster
Famous quotes containing the word memorial:
“I hope there will be no effort to put up a shaft or any monument of that sort in memory of me or of the other women who have given themselves to our work. The best kind of a memorial would be a school where girls could be taught everything useful that would help them to earn an honorable livelihood; where they could learn to do anything they were capable of, just as boys can. I would like to have lived to see such a school as that in every great city of the United States.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“When I received this [coronation] ring I solemnly bound myself in marriage to the realm; and it will be quite sufficient for the memorial of my name and for my glory, if, when I die, an inscription be engraved on a marble tomb, saying, “Here lieth Elizabeth, which reigned a virgin, and died a virgin.””
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“When I received this [coronation] ring I solemnly bound myself in marriage to the realm; and it will be quite sufficient for the memorial of my name and for my glory, if, when I die, an inscription be engraved on a marble tomb, saying, “Here lieth Elizabeth, which reigned a virgin, and died a virgin.””
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)