New-York tribune., 1876-09-30
A LIFE AND A YORK.

The history of the sculptor, Ernst Won Ban
del who has Just died in Germany, X o con-
spicuous illustration Of what single life may
accomplish when it is devoted TO n single aim.
Il Is true that many circumstances have seemed
to favor him but any plan, intelligently con-
ceived, and supported by that mixture of pa
tience and enthusiasm which resists all dis
couragement, never fails 10 make circnm-
stances its allies. Won Bandel was born in
1900, when Germany was stirring uneasily
under the burden of antiquated laws and an
impotent political system. He saw the French
army of invasion on its way to tn
umph on the field of jena; as boy he
lived through the years of Napoleonic Con-
quest and the war Of Liberation, and he was
nearly old enough to enter the ranks, when
Waterloo brought peace and political reaction.
Following his native talent for art, he studied
sculpture at Munich, producing two or three
ideal works of promise but not Of distinguished
excellence, and some portrait-Dt sts OF more
than ordinary merit. This circum stance deter
mined the character of his work he gave his
labor chiefly to the busts of living celebrities
and monumental statues of tho dead.
In 1884, while residing in Berlin, he con-
ceiyed the idea Of colossal monument to
Herman, the Cheruskian chief who led the
united tribes of the Elbe and Weser against
Varus and cut to pieces the legiOns of Rome.
This great victory, which secured all Northern
Germany against later Roman conquest, is the
first record of the strength and courage of the
race and its devotion TO Freedom. The idea
took such hold of Won Bandel's mind, that he
thenceforward gave his life to the accom-
plishment of the work. He modelled the
statue of Herman, published pamphlets,
organized an association for procuring
contributions, and 80 kept the undertaking
alive that by 1S41 the cornerstone of the
monument was laid. The site chosen il on
mountain near the little town of DctmOld,
overlooking what is now generally believed to
be the battlefield where Varus fell. 1t is in a
remote and httle-viSited corner of Germany
there were no local interests TO help the un-
dertaking: it relied for success solely on the
pride and the patriotic sentiment of the peO-
pie.
After the first enthusiasm wore off, con-
tributOns came in 80 slowly that the Gothic
base literally arose stone by stone. Then came
the Revolution of 1S4S, and its subsequent
reactions and disturbances; but year after year
the sculptor lived in Detmold, completing his
colossal model, or in a cabin upon the gusty
summit of the mountain, planning ways and
means for its final erection. He grew old his
hair and beard turned to snow, but the youth
of his purpose was as vigorous as ever in brain
and hand. When all Germany forgot, he remem-
bered; and at last there grew to be some
thing in his isolation too stern for ridicule,
too tragic for aught but sympathy. The base
of the monument, so feet in hight, was at last
finished. After while the hand and arm of
the bronze colossus came into being; then a
leg and shield, years filling up tho space be-
tween these fragments. The war of 1866 in
terrupted the work, while stimulating Won