Art can be very poignant and leave an indelible impression on a person’s mind. This also applies to “The Mourning Parents” by the German artist Käthe Kollwitz.

The sculptures are placed in front of soldier Peter Kollwitz’s grave. At the age of 17, Peter, who is Käthe’s son, enters the first World War as a volunteer. Unfortunately, Peter’s experiences in war were short-lived. On October 23, 1914, he fell nearby Diksmuide in Belgium.

After this, the misery and injustice that causes war becomes the most important theme in Käthe’s work.

Käthe: “our life has been affected by a wound
which will never heal and never should heal.”

She is dazed by the meaningless destruction of hundreds of thousands of young people, but also afraid to betray her son by turning her back against the war. Calling this boy’s sacrifice meaningless would be the same as calling his life meaningless. Her inner struggle over this problem forms a continuous thread during her life. In reply to the heroic sculptures, the “altars of the homeland”, she creates a mourning father and mother figure for the grave of her son; no glory, no joyful death.

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Sculpture group ‘The Mourning Parents’ in Vladslo has, just like the German war cemetary itself, grown into a universal protest against war and its meaninglessness.
It took until 1932 to design and produce the right shape. A father and mother down on their knees, begging their son’s forgiveness for not having been able to prevent the madness of war, the madness that took his life.

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Sculpture group ‘The Mourning Parents’ shows a striking beauty. The two sculptures are not very detailed. Therefore, their power can be found in the simplicity.

The father, with his hunched shoulders, exudes a lot of grief. The man is paralyzed with emotions and noticeably scared to express his deepest feelings, as if he knows they might cause him a complete nervous breakdown. He seeks protection in the arms that he has wrapped around himself in a forced way. His sorrow is even further emphasized by his hollow cheeks and empty expression. The father looks down on the many thousands of graves, with the final resting place of his son Peter within the immediate reach of his eyes.

At the right, the mother kneels down, who is Käthe herself. She is bent forward, her eyes facing the ground. She holds her arms in front of her breast, while she uses her right hand to hold her coat close to her cheek. All intimacy, sorrow and love. She too is facing a breakdown.

Sculpture group ‘The Mourning Parents’
shows a striking beauty.

Both sculptures find a well-chosen expression for the grief that strikes parents when their child dies. There is no end to this grief; it has friend nor foe. It is remarkable how the broken-hearted man and woman cope with their grief in a different way. They do not provide each other with mutual support. Although the sculptures are bound indissoluble, they are still individual figures. They complement each other.

If you happen to come near the place Vladslo, you should visit this sculpture group on the cemetary. At the end of the cemetary in ‘het Praetbos’ in Vladslo (nearby Diksmuide), the two kneeled figures are placed on a pedestal. The military cemetary can be visited daily.
GPS N051 04.243 E002 55.826

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Willem Vermandere - Vladslo lied Flemish orginal version		Willem Vermandere - Vladslo song English translation
In ‘t Praetbos buiten Vladslo, van God en mens verlaten, ligt de jonge Peter Kollwitz, in een massagraf van soldaten en ik ken geen vrediger wereld, van roerlozer bomen, geen schoner kathedrale, om te bidden en om te dromen. Je mag er ook nootjes rapen, of stilletjes mediteren, als z’op uw rechterkake slaan moe’j de linker ook presenteren, daar komen soms kinders spelen en geliefden heel teder vrijen, want ‘t mos is daar zo zacht, om te slapen en om te schreien. Schaam je maar niet om je tranen, je mag daar ook nereknielen, en prevel de dode namen van de dertigduizend zielen, ze kwamen uit Duitsland de moeders en de vaders in grote getallen, om zwijgend ‘t hoofd te schudden, ‘ach mein Kind ist hier gefallen.’ Voor al dat nutteloos sterven, al dat afgeknakt jong leven, waar is die God van den hemel, die ons hier vrede kan geven, waar zijn nu de dwaze officieren, al die leugens zo lelijk gelogen, niets dan versteende vaders en moeders diepe gebogen. In ‘t Praetbos buiten Vladslo, op dat massagraf van soldaten, staan nu Käthe Kollwitz’s beelden, van God en mens verlaten en ik ken geen heviger wereld, geen menselijker bede, dan die twee donkere stenen, die zo diepe schreien om vrede.		In the 'Praetbos' near Vladslo, forsaken by God and men, lies young Peter Kollwitz, in a war cemetery of soldiers, and I know of no quieter world, of no trees that are so still, of no more beutiful cathedral, where to pray and to dream. You may also pluck nuts there, you feel like on your night chairs, if you tweak my right cheek, so shall I present you my left. There come children playing, and young couples making love, for the musk there is a soft carpet, to sleep on, and to cry of pleasure. But be not ashamed to weep, you may also kneel down, to look at the dead names, of those thirty thousand souls. In great number came their mothers, and their fathers from Germany, to shake their heads in silence, 'Ach, mein Kind ist hier gefallen'. For all this unneeded death, for all these broken young lives, where is then good God in Heaven, who can give us peace? Where are the mad officers, with their hideous lies? There’s nothing but petrified fathers, and deep bowed mothers mourning. In the 'Praetbos' near Vladslo, in the war cemetery of soldiers, stand now Käthe Kollwitz’s images, forsaken by God and men. And I know of no crueller world, of no more human prayer, than those two black stones, that cry peace so loud.