Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth

History of the work

On the edge of the Bremgarten cemetery facing Weyermannsstrasse, next to the toilet block, stands a stone sculpture made in 1991 by the Lucerne sculptor Franco Annoni. Its title, 'Rede Herr, dein Diener hört' (Speak, Lord, your servant hears), takes up a sentence from the Bible: in the story of the calling of Samuel in the first book of Samuel, the young Samuel answers God's call with almost the same words in Luther's translation. The sources say nothing about the commission or the dimensions.

Annoni was born in Lucerne on 11 June 1924 and died there on 5 August 1992, so the Bern sculpture was made a year before his death. According to Wikipedia he attended the Lucerne school of applied arts for two years and then trained as a stone sculptor. From 1949 he studied at the Accademia di Brera in Milan and worked with Marino Marini, and in 1950 at the Grande Chaumière academy in Paris, where he taught as an assistant from 1951. From 1974 to 1985 he was professor of sculpture at the school of applied arts in St. Gallen.

After a phase of abstract works in the early 1960s, Annoni returned to figurative sculpture. Wikipedia describes him as one of the important sculptors of sacred art in central Switzerland. His best-known work in Lucerne is the large sculpture 'Joie de vivre' on the General-Guisan-Quai. From 1963 until his death he sat on the cemetery commission of the city of Lucerne; he is buried in the Friedental cemetery.

The Bremgarten cemetery opened on 29 December 1864 as a replacement for the Monbijou cemetery and, at around 16 hectares, is the second largest in the city. On Weyermannsstrasse stands the crematorium of 1907/08, built by the Bernese cremation cooperative and listed as worthy of protection in the building inventory. Because many concessions for family graves are expiring and more people are buried without a gravestone, the cemetery is, according to Wikipedia, gradually turning into a park.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikimedia Commons: Steinskulptur Rede Herr, dein Diener hört (Franco Annoni 1991) · Wikipedia (de): Franco Annoni · Wikipedia (de): Bremgartenfriedhof · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Weyermannsstrasse 1, Krematorium · Bibel (Luther 1912): 1. Samuel 3