BERLIN, December 12 (Itar-Tass) — Two busts depicting the first person in space – cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin will appear in two cities of Germany’s Free State of Saxony – Chemnitz and Morgenroethe-Rautenkranz.
The ceremonies to unveil the monuments will take place on Monday and Tuesday within the framework of the Year of Russian Cosmonautics timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight.
In Chemnitz Gagarin’s bronze bust will be placed at the cosmonaut centre named after the first German cosmonaut Sigmund Jahn, who together with Soviet consmonaut Valery Bykovsky flew onboard the Soyuz-31 spaceship to the Salut orbital station on September 3, 1978.
In Morgenroethe-Rautenkranz, Jahn’s native city, Gagarin’s 90 cm bust will become a part of a permanent exposition telling visitors about space exploration. It demonstrates unique exhibits, including the module of the Mir space station, where many cosmonauts and astronauts trained.
The busts were created by Russian sculptors Anatoly Dementyev and Sergei Oleshnya.
The unveiling of these monuments is of great importance, “as these steps unify and help to create an atmosphere of confidence between the two countries’ nations,” the envoy of the Federation of Cosmonautics of Russia in Western Europe, the U.S. and Canada, Prof. Lorenz Haag, who initiated the project, told Itar-Tass.
He noted that Gagarin’s busts will appear in different regions of Germany.
The project is supported by German and Russian organizations, including the Federation of Cosmonautics of Russia and Russia’s Walk of Glory project.