Erected: 1939 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the sinking of the cruiser and the 50th anniversary of the Mainz Naval

Comradeship Designed: by the Municipal Building Authority under the direction of Mayor Dr. Heinrich Knipping. Sculptural work carried out by Mainz sculptor Karl Hoffmann.

In addition to honoring the memory of the fallen, the memorial contains messages that were already used as inscriptions in the 19th century, but which also fit in with Nazi war propaganda: the fate of the fallen was to serve as an example for future generations to emulate. The Nazi navy should therefore – like the "Kreuzer Mainz" – go down in battle rather than surrender – unlike the imperial navy, whose sailors laid down their arms at the end of the First World War and joined the revolution. The inscription "For the preservation of the law and the honor of the Reich in all seas" corresponded to the National Socialists' claim to power.

Just a few meters away from the "Kreuzer Mainz" memorial was the memorial to German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, who died in 1929. In 1925, he had negotiated the early withdrawal of French occupation troops from the Rhineland. The Nazis hated him because of his policy of reconciliation. The Stresemann memorial was closed by the city government in 1933 and demolished in 1936/37. Those responsible for selecting the location for the new memorial were certainly aware of this.

The red sandstone stele, which is more than twelve meters high, is crowned by an eagle almost two meters high. On the sides are inscriptions bordered by a relief of the cruiser, the Mainz city coat of arms, and an Iron Cross. On the quay wall is the inscription SEEFAHRT IST NOT, a quote from the novel by Gorch Fock.

It is striking that the eagle is depicted with its wings half closed rather than spread out.

The eagle on the former "Telehaus" (Münsterplatz) from 1930 does show spread wings. Nevertheless, fully spread eagle wings were the heraldic symbol of the authorities, including the Nazi state (in contrast to the "Weimar" eagle).

The "Kreuzer Mainz" memorial has been controversial since the 1960s because the National Socialists had misused the commemoration of the dead sailors of 1914 for their own purposes. Despite this political baggage, the memorial is still seen as a place that's good for remembering the victims of war and tyranny. This shows how ambivalent this place of remembrance is. So, it's really important to take a critical look at how it came about, what it does, and how it's interpreted.