Fortunaportal
The Fortunaportal on the Alter Markt in Potsdam , opposite the Church of St. Nikolai , was designed by the Dutch architect Jean de Bodt in 1701 as the entrance gate to the Potsdam City Palace and in 1701 on the occasion of the self-coronation of Elector Friedrich III. inaugurated as King Friedrich I in Prussia. The establishment of the Fortunaportal has since been considered to be the beginning of classic Potsdam architecture.
After the building was damaged by bombs in 1945, the remains were blown up in 1960. In the 1990s, private funds were raised for its reconstruction, which began in 2000.
history
During the heaviest attack on Potsdam by British bombers on the night of April 14, 1945 (Potsdam bomb night), the palace and portal were badly damaged. When it was decided to demolish the city palace at the end of the 1950s, the then head of state and party leader Walter Ulbricht also decided to demolish the Fortuna portal. The entire ensemble was to be destroyed, as it did not correspond to the urban architecture of a new socialist city. Despite violent protests, this project was approved by the People's Chamber in November 1959. After a few decorative elements had been removed, the first of a total of 18 demolitions of the city palace (side wing demolished) began here. On January 18, 1960, Minerva's head was supposed to be blown up. The removal of the well-preserved sandstone figures was strictly forbidden; they should be destroyed as symbols of war. Very few original parts could be saved. The head of Minerva was finally found in the rubble of the other parts of the city palace that had been blown up and was later restored.
In 2001, after a total of two years of construction (the groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 8, 2000), the Fortunaportal was rebuilt on the Alter Markt as the first part of an ensemble around the future city palace. The reconstruction true to the original, for which a construction cost of approx. Three million euros was estimated, took place u. a. with a donation from the cement and concrete industry , and the TV presenter Günther Jauch, who lives in Potsdam, who supported an advertising initiative and waived most of his royalties in favor of the reconstruction . In contrast to the later decision to build the new state parliament building, whose construction concept is based only on the outside of the historic city palace, the Fortunaportal with its sculptures is a faithful reconstruction based on a historical model using historical photographs on the still existing foundation. The 27 meter high portal was - like the original - built from Saxon sandstone.
The dome of the portal is crowned with a statue of the goddess of luck Fortuna , which turns in the wind and gave the portal its name. It was made from thin copper sheet and then gilded. At the inauguration on October 12, 2002, the 2.15 meter high and around 5 quintals heavy figure. a. by Günther Jauch and Mayor Jann Jakobs , in the function of a time capsule, various documents are deposited for posterity. The keystones, which form the sculptural decoration on both sides of the archway, represent Minerva and Hercules . The common line of sight of the domes of the Nikolaikirche , the old town hall and the Fortunaportal with its high recognition value has been promoting the Brandenburg state capital since then and is often used as a background for supraregional reporting from the state of Brandenburg and as a backdrop for New Year's speeches by the Prime Minister.
The portal still only forms a torso , as it was not possible to reconstruct the eight missing large groups of sculptures at the same time due to the high technical and artistic standards required for the reconstruction, which is based on the specifications of the original. It was only during and after the construction of the replica of the castle that regional and national craftsmen carried out this work. The architectural jewelery is paid for exclusively through donations from the citizens, after the Brandenburg State Parliament approved the installation of the sculptural jewelery on the Potsdam City Palace in 2005 on the condition of private financing.
In March 2007, the first two newly made sculptures were lifted into place on the upper pedestal next to the dome. On August 27, 2014, a crane placed a third figure, known as the dragon trophy , on the southeast corner of the portal. It was carved into sandstone in the studio of the sculptor Eduardo Strauch after previous plaster modeling and contains all the original parts that were still found. In September 2018, a first group of eagles (market side on the left) was set up on the gallery level of the Fortunaportal.
Earlier appearance
The architecture and sculptures of the Fortunaportal form a unit. On the four pillars of the gallery floor, four sculptures originally framed the dome. The dome itself was also tied into four trophies. These sandstone work captured and loosened up the silhouette of the portal in a precisely calculated balance. The goddess Fortuna balanced above all of this, and the Prussian eagle stood on a ball in the lower level. Fortuna's cornucopia stands for state welfare. It is very likely that the four sculptures on the Fortunaportal were created by the artists Guillaume Hulot and René Charpentier (1680–1723).
The lower four groups of eagles were about 3.80 meters by 2.40 meters and originally weighed almost nine tons. At the beginning of the 18th century, they were the first free-standing monumental sculptures in the more recent architectural history of the Mark Brandenburg .
literature
Hans-Joachim Kuke: The Potsdam Fortunaportal between tradition and modernity . In: Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte . tape 55-56 , no. 1 , December 1, 2007, doi : 10.7767 / wjk.2007.5556.1.83 ( preview ).
Web links
- The Fortunaportal in Potsdam bassconnection-berlin.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Association of Potsdam City Palace. Retrieved February 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Sculptures will be displayed again on the Fortunaportal at www.welt.de, March 17, 2007; accessed on October 23, 2016.
- ↑ Placement of the third trophy on the Fortuna portal ( memento of October 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), on stadtschloss-potsdam.org; accessed on October 23, 2016.
- ↑ The process of placing the dragon figure on the Fortunaportal on www.youtube.com; accessed on October 23, 2016.
- ↑ Crane lifts a 70,000 euro figure onto the parliamentary roof. Retrieved October 18, 2018 (German).
Coordinates: 52 ° 23 '43.9 " N , 13 ° 3' 38.4" E