Gisi Fleischmann Monument

Gizela (known as Gisi) Fleischmann, née Fischer (1892–1944), was a well-known anti-Nazi fighter, Jewish activist, and official in several Slovak Jewish organisations. She was also a member of the underground Working Group that was formed to help save Jews from the Nazi threat and from death in concentration camps during the Second World War. 

The monument to Gizela Fleischmann, which is set on a raised area with grass, shrubs, and trees north of the Družba fountain on Freedom Square, is the work of Szabolcs Kiss-Pál, a Hungarian artist and educator of Romanian origin. 

In the autumn of 2015, KissPál transported to Freedom Square ten stones that had been part of the demolished monumental statue of Klement Gottwald, which had once stood there. The artist arranged the stones across the square and carved the names of figures associated with Slovakia’s past and present into nine of them (Adela Banášová, Ivan Bella, János Esterházy, Gisi Fleischmann, Andrej Hlinka, Gustáv Husák, Livia Klausová, Rudolf Viest, Andy Warhol); the tenth stone remained unmarked for people to propose the name of a figure who deserved to be commemorated. With this work, Suspended Explosion, the final stage of the Point 0 project by the civic association Verejný podstavec, KissPál invited the public to decide who currently deserved a new monument. Gizela Fleischmann received the greatest number of votes (350), Andy Warhol the second-most (148), and Rudolf Viest the third-most (133). Nine stones were thus removed from Freedom Square, and although the symbolic monument to Gizela Fleischmann was intended to remain at the _Družba _fountain only through 2016, it remains there to this day. 

The monument comprises an irregularly hewn stone block with two parallel vertical surfaces; the larger surface bears the brief inscription carved in capital letters: 

„Gisi Fleischmann“

From urban planning and art-historical perspectives, it is notable that that several metres to the west is a similarly designed monument to Karel Kryl (1944–1994), a well-known Czech singer-songwriter and poet (also known as the “poet with a guitar”). He was a collaborator with, and later employee of, Radio Free Europe, and an emigrant into the then Federal Republic of Germany who was the leading figure of the Czechoslovak anti-communist “protest song” movement (several of his songs became popular and developed into symbols of the struggle against totalitarian power and against the occupiers of the time). This monument is the work of the artist and journalist František (known as Fero) Guldan, who installed it there in 1997. 

PB

Research status as of 16. 07. 2024.


Authorship


Years

  • 2015 – implementation

Type

Material

stone

Technique

carving, cutting

Dimensions

largest w. approx. 200 cm, h. approx 115 cm, d. unidentified (due to overgrowth)

Inscription

unidentified

Condition

  • preserved, not maintained
The area with the inscription is covered by a cream-coloured coat of paint and some dirt.

Registration

  • Located in the Monument Zone – Central Urban Area, Bratislava.

Owner

  • unidentified

Administrator

  • unidentified

Address

Freedom Square

Location details

on a raised area with grass, shrubs, and trees, north of the Družba fountain

Plot number

7776/29

GPS

48.1525590, 17.1114610

Other works in the area

Karel Kryl Monument

František Guldan 1997

Družba Fountain – Linden Blossom

Karol Lacko, Virgil Droppa Sr, Juraj Hlavica 1978 – 1980

Hydropower – Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, STU

Dezider Castiglione, Imrich Vysočan, Alojz Klimo 1958 – 1963

Space Conquest – Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, STU

Dezider Castiglione, Imrich Vysočan, Alojz Klimo 1958 – 1963