Boros Géza: Statue Park - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)
The terminal wall
was killed by a shrapnel grenade. Official propaganda twisted the case to present it as though the Germans had shot him from behind. Erected at the point where the roads fork out to Budaörs and to Lake Balaton, the statue fell victim to the people's wrath and it was so severely damaged that it had to be resculpted in 1958. When the campaign of removing sculptures was mounted in 1991, it was these two statues (especially the one featuring Ostapenko, which was considered to be of higher artistic quality) which generated the most heated argument. Those who would have left the statues in their respective places argued that whatever political significance they might have had in the past had largely faded away, and in their changed function they served as welcoming signposts on the outskirts of Budapest. It was also brought up that the two envoys were indeed killed in action during the liberation of Budapest, in a mission whose objective was to spare the capital from being reduced to rubble by artillery fire. As a compromise solution of sorts, the Assembly of Budapest voted for removal of the statues, whose sites, however, were to be marked with two memorial plaques (a resolution later forgotten about). To replace the missing Ostapenko monument, car-dealers operating in the area suggested that a statue of St. Christopher be erected on the remaining pedestal. Designs for a huge chromium-steel statue holding a cross aloft and surrounded by the logos of the sponsoring car-dealers were in fact made by Imre Varga. However, the plan fell through and the pedestal itself was demolished. The two statues had for decades been standing in their respective places bidding welcome and farewell to those driving by. They have retained part of this function in the Statue Park, where it is their job to say good-bye to visitors. The terminal wall Having passed by the two military envoys, the pathway has just a few more metres to go before it runs up dead against an unarticulated brick wall. Its builders having completely ignored the sloping terrain, the wall runs in a straight line drawn by a ruler as it were, its horizontal rigidity giving a tilting effect to the surrounding terrain. The meeting point of path and wall was deliberately left unmarked by any kind of sign, whether plaque, niche or inscription. All the terminal wall has to communicate is that it is over. The wall ends our walk in the past with one radical gesture; the arrow-straight line has thus proved to be no more than a blind alley - there is nothing to do but turn back. 52
