Chicken thief
Hühnerdieb is a fountain memorial by the Berlin sculptor Hermann Joachim Pagels , which was unveiled at the Aachen chicken market at Christmas 1913 . It consists of a bronze figure of a chicken thief, which was mounted on a fountain shell made of limestone. The figure shows the moment in which the thief is astonished to have stolen a cock instead of the chicken, which crows and thus betrays him. The scene embodied in the figure, however, is without a historical model.
History of the well
Pagels originally made a 70 centimeter high wooden model of the fountain figure in 1911 because he wanted to make and sell several copies. His first offer of the figure at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition remained without a response. Only one prospective buyer from England found an exclusive copy for his private collection. The artist, on the other hand, had a public space in mind because of the three-dimensional effect of the figure. That is why he made the design in bronze with the octagonal basin made of Bavarian shell limestone as a fountain monument including water supply and again offered the chicken thief at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1913. There it was acquired by the then Mayor of Aachen, Philipp Veltman, with funds from the Adele Cockerill Foundation and, to the surprise of the population, had the monument unveiled on Christmas Day 1913.
The figure was melted down during World War II in 1943 . Only the wreath of the water-donating chick figures remained, which was stored as a precaution and so survived the bombing of Easter 1944, in which the fountain bowl was completely destroyed.
Because the then 72-year-old Pagels still had the plaster model of the original figure, he was able to make another cast of the fountain figure in 1950, which was supported by donations from the Aachen Carnival Committee , the Aachener Nachrichten and the Aachener Volkszeitung , other Aachen companies and Aachen citizens from the City was acquired. The fountain was rebuilt and inaugurated on November 8, 1953 at its old location.
The fountain is one of the architectural monuments of the city of Aachen.
A copy of the fountain figure stands in the park of the Köpenick Palace in Berlin-Köpenick . The porcelain manufacturer Allach sold a 27 centimeter high porcelain version as model no. 126 .
See also
literature
- Peter Hermann Loosen: From old Aachen. Historical sketches or Aachen history in stories. 3rd expanded edition. Aquensia-Klette-Verlag, Aachen 1978, pp. 50-53.
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of architectural monuments in the area of the city of Aachen (in the version of the 13th supplement) (PDF; 129 kB), March 15, 2008
- ↑ Chicken thief , Allach porcelain
Web links
- Aachen-Kraemerstrasse.de Der Hühnerdieb , accessed on August 15, 2008
- Portrait on Denkmalplatz.de
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 '32.8 " N , 6 ° 5' 4.4" E