Alexander von Humboldt Monument (Berlin)

Monument to Alexander von Humboldt

The Alexander von Humboldt monument in Berlin is a marble memorial in honor of Alexander von Humboldt . Together with the Wilhelm von Humboldt monument, it flanks the Unter den Linden entrance to the main building of the Humboldt University in Berlin .

history

In 1876 the university announced a competition for two monuments by the two brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt , to which five artists were invited, including Reinhold Begas . For Wilhelm von Humboldt, however, a design by the uninvited sculptor Martin Paul Otto prevailed. Begas had to orientate himself on this design for the Alexander monument, although his competition entry had planned a completely different composition.

The monument was ceremoniously unveiled on May 28, 1883.

In 1985 a plaster cast was made with the aim of making a marble duplicate. The plaster copy was restored in 2005 by the Staatliche Gipsformerei and has been in the Institute for Geography on the Adlershof campus since May 2006 .

description

The monument is around five meters high and shows the world traveler and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, larger than life, sitting on a chair that has only been hinted at. An exotic plant in his right hand and a globe on his left allude to his research trips . The statue sits on a 3.20 meter high pedestal, which Martin Paul Otto decorated with allegorical representations of the natural sciences .

The front side of the base bears the inscription donated by the University of Havana in 1939:

AL SEGUNDO DESCUBRIDOR DE CUBA LA UNIVERSIDAD DE LA HABANA 1939

"To the second discoverer of Cuba The University of Havana 1939"

The monument is registered as an architectural monument with the number 09060120 in the Berlin State Monument List.

useful information

Postage stamp from the Deutsche Post (1960)

• Karl Begas , Reinhold's younger brother, made a bust of Alexander von Humboldt for monument group 31 in Siegesallee .
• The statue is shown on the special stamp 150 years of the Humboldt University in Berlin of the Deutsche Post from 1960 . The stamp with a face value of 20 pfennigs was designed by Engelbert Schoner and had a print run of 8,000,000 copies.

See also

• List of cultural monuments in Berlin-Mitte / Dorotheenstadt

literature

• FZ: Monuments to Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt in Berlin. In: Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung No. 22 of June 2, 1883, Berlin 1883, p. 191. ( online ).
• Klaus-Dietrich Gandert: From Prinzenpalais to Humboldt University , Berlin 1985, pp. 165–168.
• Hans-Jürgen Mende, Kurt Wernicke (Hrsg.): Berliner Bezirkslexikon - middle. Edition Luisenstadt, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89542-111-1 , p. 85.
• Landesdenkmalamt Berlin (Ed.): Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany . Monuments in Berlin. Mitte district. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2003, ISBN 3-935590-80-6 , pp. 265-266.
• Andreas W. Daum: Nation, nature research and monument. Humboldt monuments in Germany and the USA, in: The art of history. Historiography, Aesthetics, Narration , ed. v. Martin Baumeister et al. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-36384-3 , pp. 99-124.

Web links

Commons : Monument Alexander von Humboldt (Berlin)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry in the Berlin State Monument List with further information
• Marble stone tours - the monuments around the main building of the Humboldt University (PDF; 848 kB) p. 3–6

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Landesdenkmalamt Berlin: Denkmaltopographie , 2000, pp. 265–266.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Landesdenkmalamt Berlin: Monument topography , 2000, note 165.
3. ↑ Marble stone tours - The monuments around the main building of the Humboldt University. (PDF; 848 kB) Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, p. 6 , accessed on July 13, 2014 . 
4. ↑ Landesdenkmalamt Berlin: Denkmaltopographie , 2000, p. 266 u. Note 165.
5. ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '3.6 "  N , 13 ° 23" 38.7 "  E