There are traces of his artistic work everywhere in Bitburg, but he is missing. Sculptor Albert Hettinger died on 8 May at the age of 59 after a serious illness. In August 2020, the artist made it public that he was suffering from a rare muscle disease wahen he presented one of his sculptures to the district administration.
Works by the sculptor, who has made a name for himself beyond the region’s borders and won numerous prizes and awards, can be found all over the city – in front of the Kreissparkasse as well as in the garden of Haus Beda, where Hettinger curated the exhibition “The Other Side” in 2012.
The most famous of his works in Bitburg stands at Kolmeshöhe: a column that appears to be pierced by an ulcer. A quote by former German President Richard von Weizsäcker from his 1985 speech on the 40th anniversary of the end of the war is engraved on the base: “But those who close their eyes to the past become blind to the present.”
