Roswitha and Horst Bender stood before the Hall of Fame at Gelnhausen train station, moved by the sight of eight new large-format inscriptions. Their son's name, Marcel Bender, was immortalized in bright colors and elaborately shaded letters – a tribute to a man who, like no other, helped transform graffiti in the Gelnhausen area into a recognized art form. In March 2024, he passed away at the age of 44. The fresh inscriptions at the train station show that he has not been forgotten.
These artworks were created in mid-July during a jam, a gathering of the scene that brought together ten spray artists from the Main-Kinzig district, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, and Wiesbaden. Jakob Reinhard initiated the event together with Lars Bubenheim, both of whom had known Marcel Bender for a long time. "Marcel gave the starting signal for the scene in the Gelnhausen area and ensured that individual sprayers, who had previously operated more as solo actors, were brought into contact with each other," Reinhard explained.
He created meeting points and launched joint projects. Jakob Reinhard participated in many of these, including the design of the train station underpass. For the jam, the artist from Jossgrund came specially from his current residence in Stockholm to Gelnhausen. "All ten artists who participated in this jam knew Marcel. He meant a lot to them," he said.
This is also evidenced by the messages they left between the large name inscriptions on the Hall of Fame. "Rest in Colour" is written there, "Phoenix from the Ashes," or simply "Yo! Marcel." Between two images, a dragonfly can be seen rising upward. Next to it is a man with a hood shown from behind – it is Marcel Bender himself.
His parents are grateful for the works. "They show how significant he was, how much his colleagues appreciated him and his work," said the artist's father. "It would have made him very happy."
The location of the jam could not have been more fitting. In 2013, the exterior wall of the Gebr. Horst rubber factory on the Linsengericht side of the train station was declared the first legal graffiti wall in the Main-Kinzig district. From the beginning, Marcel Bender had strongly advocated for the so-called Hall of Fame together with initiator Christoph Brandl.
Under Bender's guidance, the first images were created, similar to later works at the ruins of the former Joh department store. For years, Bender advocated for the establishment of legal surfaces – as places where not only art was created, but also encounters, exchanges, and youth development took place.
Marcel Bender was born in December 1979. Already in his youth, he discovered his passion for writing, the artistic spraying of letters. The sprayer scene offered him a space for his creativity beyond social constraints – and an artistic playground. After training as a metalworker in Biebergemünd and initial professional detours – including work as a sound technician – he decided to study social pedagogy.
His artistic work always accompanied him. From 2020, he became self-employed with the project "Farbkopf" (Color Head). He organized workshops for children, worked with schools, kindergartens, and other institutions, and completed numerous commissioned works – from Bad Orb to Frankfurt.
His most successful works are considered to be the train station underpass in Gelnhausen and the transformer house in Haitz, which delights with a microcosm of insects and nature motifs. The other transformer houses he painted for the district utilities are also impressive.
A special project was the design of a Volkswagen Golf, which he painted in the style of Hundertwasser on the Obermarkt in Gelnhausen. It is an event that his father particularly likes to remember.
Marcel Bender was the pioneer of legal graffiti art in the region. He organized events such as the "Lack & Lines Jam," supported young artists, and negotiated with municipalities and companies. He realized a project for Lufthansa in Frankfurt and designed a wall surface for the Bieberer swimming pool.
One of his last projects – the planned design of an area of the south stand in Dortmund's BVB stadium – he could no longer realize. It was a commission that meant particularly much to him – also because his father himself once played in BVB's youth team.
That more than 300 people came to his funeral in 2024 shows, as do the new works at the Hall of Fame, the traces that Marcel Bender left behind – not only on concrete, but in the lives of many people in the region. The colorful memorial at the Gelnhausen train station serves as a lasting testament to an artist who transformed illegal street art into a celebrated form of community expression, bringing together artists, youth, and local authorities in a shared appreciation for creative urban art.
