The Stalingrad Madonna

[KG_Cloghaun]

In reading Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad, do any of you recall the passage concerning the "Fortress Madonna"? I've just completed the book & give it high marks by the way.

The "Madonna", is a rendering of the virgin Mary. It was drawn on the back of a Red Army map by Dr. Kurt Reuber, a German soldier trapped in Stalingrad on Christmas day, 1942.

Apparently, the drawing was smuggled out of Stalingrad by a 16th Pz Div battalion commander and now hangs in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.

What's even further interesting is that many adaptations of Reuber's work can now be found throughout several churches in Germany.

Some examples-

St. Andreas/FULDA/GERMANY
http://www.st-andreas-fulda.de/html/madonna.htm

Marienkapelle/NIEDERGAILBACH/GERMANY
http://www.derbliesgau.de/Orte/Niedergailbach/niedergailbach_st.htm

Dom/LIMBURG/GERMANY
http://www.grabmal24.de/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid= 16

Kloster Kirchberg/KIRCHBERG/GERMANY
http://www.klosterkirchberg.de/Press/archiv/kp006b.htm#p11

Kirche „Kreuzauffindung“/SCHÖNEBERG/GERMANY
http://www.bistumsblatt.paulinus.de/archiv/0305/blickpkt.htm

Bründlkapelle/FRONSBURG/AUSTRIA
http://www.fotos-geschichten.at/zaryzynstalingradwolgograd.htm

Stephanskirche/BADEN BEI WIEN/AUSTRIA
http://www.fotos-geschichten.at/zaryzynstalingradwolgograd.htm


What a cauldron of Hell that battle must have been.