Bridge Man (Dresden)
The bridge man is a relief figure made of sandstone on Dresden's Augustus Bridge and, due to its popularity, is one of the city's landmarks .
Lore
The relief figure of sandstone is located in the countryside pillars on the Old Town side of the Dresdner Augustus Bridge on Terrassenufer . According to tradition, it is supposed to represent the Italian Matteo Foccio (around 1265, popularly: "Matz Fotze"), who, also according to tradition, was the builder of the first stone bridge in Dresden in the 13th century : It is a tradition if only because the construction of the early medieval Augustus Bridge began about a hundred years earlier with the walling up of the first pillars. Such a figure on the bridge is only detectable from the early 18th century.
The figure looks down the river and, according to Grasse (1874), shows the master builder “in a crouching position with arms braced and a hat pulled deep into his eyes”. Other interpretations assume that the male is sitting on a chair or cuboid, which would mark him as a foreman as one of the four large construction huts of his time. He wears clothes from the 14th century: a fitted skirt with buttons and a collar, harem pants with boots and a cap. The curly hair is shoulder length.
In 1813 the bridge was blown up and the figure was buried in the process. Christian Gottlieb Kühn created a replica of the figure for the new bridge in 1814. The damaged original was only found in the rubble half a year after it had already been fitted into the bridge. It was walled in under the base of the bridge ramp near the Italian village above the Kaitzbach, which flows into the Elbe as a sluice , and was badly weathered as a result. Later, the owner of Helbigs Restaurant, which was demolished in 1911, had a copy made, which was walled in next to the weathered original and provided with a weather roof. Both images were difficult to see and even from the bridge could only be seen with a telescope.
The bridge sculpture was restored in the course of the new construction of the bridge from 1907 to 1910. In 1967 it was recreated in its current form. A copy of the (then) little bridge man can be seen at house Kotzschweg 12 in the Loschwitz district of Dresden . The house once belonged to the architect Hermann Klette (1847–1909). The bridge man testifies to his involvement in the (then) new construction of the Augustus Bridge, which was necessary due to the traffic conditions.
Proverbial use
From the Baroque period until the 19th century, the little bridge man was popularly called "Matz-Fotze" after the Germanized name of the (assumed) builder. A "Matz Fotz von Dresden" appears in the farce Hanswurst's wedding of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe .
The expression bridge man was also proverbially used in the Dresden-speaking area to denote a duckmouse , as can be found in a letter from Gaetano Chiaveri to an official. Other idioms in Dresden such as “Make a bridge man”, “Visit the bridge man” or “To be called by the bridge man” were still used in the 19th century to describe the urgently needed trip to the toilet.
Usage today
The Little Bridge Man is the namesake of the series of events called The Little Bridge Man in Dresden's Kulturpalast , which has taken place annually since 1973. This series ended in 2012 because the Kulturpalast Dresden was completely renovated. In the summer of 2016, the stage figure was renewed with its series of events and is now performed in the Dresden Boulevard Theater.
literature
- Wilhelm Schäfer: The bridge man or the Dresden "Matz-Fotze" on the old Elbe bridge. In: Wilhelm Schäfer: German city landmarks. Their origin, history and interpretation. Volume 1. Weber, Leipzig 1858, pp. 68-76 .
- Folke Stimmel et al .: Stadtlexikon Dresden A-Z . 2nd Edition. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1998, ISBN 3-364-00304-1 , p. 79.
Web links
- Depiction of the first and second little bridge man ( memento from October 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ From the bridge man to Dresden. In: Johann Georg Theodor Grasse (Ed.): The treasure trove of the Kingdom of Saxony. Volume 1. 2., improved and greatly increased edition. Schönfeld, Dresden 1874, pp. 88-89 ( digitized on Wikisource).
- ↑ a b Schäfer: The bridge man or the Dresden "Matz-Fotze" at the old Elbe bridge. 1858, p. 70 .
- ↑ Schäfer: The bridge man or the Dresden "Matz-Fotze" at the old Elbe bridge. 1858, p. 71 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 15.5 ″ N , 13 ° 44 ′ 19.7 ″ E