The Assumption of Hannele
The sculpture was created in 1942 to mark Gerhart Hauptmann’s eightieth birthday, celebrated in Wrocław, and was commissioned by the city authorities. Carved in white marble by Josef Thorak (1889–1952), the figure of a young girl soon became known, by reference to the playwright’s drama, as The Assumption of Hannele (orig. Hanneles Himmelfahrt; translated into Polish by Maria Konopnicka) – commonly shortened to “Hannele.” Though the work does not resemble the poor, rural heroine of Hauptmann’s play, the author appreciated the piece, which quickly became one of Thorak’s most famous sculptures.
The model for the statue was fourteen-year-old figure-skater Irene Braun, daughter of a Munich banker. Exhibited from 1942 in the Palais Hatzfeld in Wrocław, the sculpture was presented to Hauptmann and, on 23 May 1944, placed in the park near the entrance to the Łąkowy Kamień villa. The gift meant a great deal to the writer; he dedicated a fragment of one of his last poems to the figures of the statue:
And so you stand there, poor little thing,
made of marble, naked,
whom I rescued from the pond
and placed in the poorhouse?
Stehst du da, im Marmelsteine
nackt gebildet, arme Kleine
die ich aus dem Teich gerettet
und ins Armenhaus gebettet?
Three years after Hauptmann’s death, in 1949, the statue of “Hannele” was transferred to the Regional Museum in Jelenia Góra. Later – probably from 1953 – the sculpture was installed in the grounds of the Jelenia Góra swimming-pool complex on today’s ul. Sudecka.
The original marble, unfortunately vandalised in the 1990s, was returned to Jagniątków in 2002.