Platz von Hettstedt

Hettstedt, a town in Saxony-Anhalt, lies on the eastern edge of the Harz Mountains. As early as 1909, copperworkers from the Mansfelder Land were looking for work in the young mining community of Rünthe, whereby contacts with the old homeland were maintained. Political developments after 1945 made it almost impossible to maintain relations; after the fall of the wall in 1989, contacts were resumed. (Text on the information board at the monument)

Monument to the city of Hettstedt in Saxony Anhalt.

Three sculptors met in Bergkamen in the summer of 1986 to create a joint work of art on the edge of a mining settlement in the Rünthe district.The city of Bergkamen, as the client, had invited a Polish, a German and a Turkish sculptor to design a square that would symbolize the development of the industrial city of Bergkamen and contribute to better coexistence between Germans and foreigners.The "International Integration Sculpture Square" (working title) was given the title "Shift Change". It was intended to remind people that at the end of the 19th century it was mainly people from Poland and from the 1960s onwards Turkish people whose work made the industrial development of this region possible.Prof. Andrzej Pollo (Krakow) designed a scene at a Silesian village fountain, Prof. Lothar Kampmann (Kamen) modelled a farewell scene at the shift change in front of the mine gate and Mehmet Uyanik chose a motif that was similar to that of Andrzej Pollo.Uyanik wrote: “This project was very important to me as a contribution to a better understanding between people of different national origins in this city. With my work I wanted to remind my fellow countrymen of their own culture. They should not feel left alone here, not cut off from their own culture. At the same time, I wanted to give the Germans the opportunity to better understand part of the Turkish culture with the aim of creating more tolerance for one another for a better understanding and a coexistence without prejudice."
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