Frankfurt green armadillo

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Bronze sculpture of the green armadillo on the Robert Gernhardt Bridge over the Nidda in Frankfurt-Bonames
Bronze sculpture, front view
Information stele at the Wörthspitze with a reproduction of a drawing by Robert Gernhardt

The green armadillo , the official spelling of the green belt animal , is a comic figure and official figure of sympathy used by the city of Frankfurt am Main to advertise the city's nature, landscape and recreational area in the Frankfurt Green Belt . The figure was designed in 2001 by the Frankfurt writer, poet, painter and draftsman Robert Gernhardt . Since Gernhardt's death in 2006, official graphic representations of the green armadillo have been made by the Frankfurt artist and illustrator Philip Waechter .

The green armadillo was set up in several places as an artistic sculpture. It is also shown on steles, signs and signposts that offer information along the paths of the Frankfurt Green Belt. The figure was the trigger for the creation of the Frankfurt series of sculptures Komische Kunst in the Frankfurt Green Belt .

History of origin

Gernhardt created the figure of the green armadillo as a “cross between pig, newt and star”. Its fictional Latin generic name Dasipus franconia is an allusion to the mammal group of armadillos (Dasypoda, in the singular Dasypus ), here with the meaning " Franconian armadillo". The animal has the stylized head of a wild boar ("Wutz"), the body, legs and tail of a newt , the wings of a starling bird and is colored green throughout in Gernhardt's drawings. In addition to Gernhardt's first drawing, four more were added, which were collectively titled as the “Green Belt Tier Suite”. Reproductions of the drawings were published in a limited edition as a graphic folder with five art prints in DIN A2 format.

Gernhardt donated the drawings, including the rights of use, to the City of Frankfurt's Environment Agency, so that the fictional character, as a popular figure, would benefit the promotion of the environmental concept of Frankfurt's green belt. In return, a group of trees was dedicated to Gernhardt , the Gernhardt-Eschen on the Wörthspitze in Nied . You are standing where Gernhardt claims to have "sighted" and drawn the green armadillo for the first time on April 1, 2002. An information stele reminds of this event (see photo opposite).

marketing

Since the year it was created, the sympathetic figure has been used in a variety of ways to advertise the Frankfurt green belt. It appears on a specially set up website, appears on printed matter from the environmental agency and as a stuffed animal, limited to 1500 pieces, offered by the toy manufacturer Steiff . The stuffed animal is also used as a prize in competitions and quiz games organized by the city of Frankfurt for children and adolescents (Green Belt Tier Collective Pass and Green Belt Tier Diploma).

literature

  • Ruth Fühner (Ed.): Behind Frankfurt the sea - literary discoveries in the green belt . Societätsverlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2005. ISBN 3-7973-0925-2
  • City of Frankfurt am Main, Environment Agency, project group GrünGürtel (Ed.): Monsterspecht and fat caterpillar - comical art in the Frankfurt green belt. Frankfurt am Main, 2017. In it: The Green Belt Animal, p. 8 f.

Web links

Commons : Green Armadillo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Green Belt Animal by Philip Waechter . Article in: Monsterspecht and fat caterpillar - comical art in the Frankfurt green belt . Environment Agency of the City of Frankfurt am Main, Green Belt Project Group (ed.). Brochure 2017, p. 38 f.
  2. ↑ Article about an exhibition on the green armadillo Frankfurter Rundschau, October 23, 2009
  3. ↑ "[...] It's worth it! Said animal is so rare / As the result of the cross between Wuz, Molch and Star. ” - Robert Gernhardt: Poem Das GrünGürtel-Tier (2002), quoted from: Monsterspecht and Big Caterpillar - comical art in the Frankfurt Green Belt . Environment Agency of the City of Frankfurt am Main, Green Belt Project Group (ed.). Brochure 2017, p. 36
  4. ↑ GrünGürtel-Tier at par.frankfurt.de , the former website of the city of Frankfurt am Main
  5. ↑ GrünGürtel-Tier Suite at par.frankfurt.de , the former website of the city of Frankfurt am Main
  6. ↑ Environment Agency of the City of Frankfurt am Main, project group GrünGürtel (Ed.): Monsterspecht and Dicke Raupe - comical art in the Frankfurt green belt . Brochure 2017, p. 37
  7. ↑ Gernhardt-Eschen at par.frankfurt.de , the former website of the city of Frankfurt am Main
  8. ↑ Green belt animal made of fabric at par.frankfurt.de , the former website of the city of Frankfurt am Main
  9. ↑ GrünGürtel-Tier-Collective Pass and GrünGürtel-Tier-Diplom at par.frankfurt.de , the former website of the city of Frankfurt am Main