Teterow pike fountain
The Teterower Hechtbrunnen is an ornamental fountain built in 1914 on the market square in Teterow and a popular landmark of the city. It was designed by the sculptor Wilhelm Wandschneider .
prehistory
After the disappearance of the public utility wells in the 19th and 20th centuries, the desire arose to decorate squares with monuments or ornamental wells, as was the case in Teterow in 1912 as part of the renewal of the market. As a concrete reference to the city, the implementation of a history of the bourgeoisie in Teterow offered itself . So it was agreed in the magistrate to make the pike saga the topic.
The pike saga
The town fisherman once caught a big pike. In order to keep it fresh until the approaching king's shot, the city fathers decided to put the pike back into the lake with a bell around its neck. The bell would keep ringing and the fish would be easy to find. So it happened. The fisherman drove out with his boat, put the pike and the bell into the water and, to be on the safe side, cut a notch in his fishing boat - exactly at the point where he let the fish into the water.
Project progress
On March 16, 1912, the magistrate published an “appeal for donating a market fountain to the city of Teterow”.
“According to the decision of the council and citizens' committee, the market square of our city should be covered with the best Swedish cobblestones. As a result, the square will be given a new, beautiful and, we hope, appropriate garment for generations to come. It is to be expected that the better pavement will also revitalize the heavy traffic at this center of our city. Every week, the wagons that bring animals to the piglet market gather there on Wednesdays and the visitors to the weekly market on Saturdays. Trucks from town and country pull past here every hour or stop briefly at the market. How often have people and animals wanted a cool drink of water at this point? How often did horses stand there thirsty in the blazing sun while the drivers refresh themselves in the taverns? Our ancestors correctly recognized the need to keep water available for humans and animals at this point. Who doesn't know the old legend of our market fountain, which used to donate refreshment here? Later generations have filled in the old well that stood in the middle of the market and which prevented traffic. Let us now make up for this mistake and we all help to ensure that the market flows again for everyone.
A market fountain, as we imagine it to be, has to be simple, dignified and permanent in such a way that it is a jewel for the square and a joy for every Teterower while fulfilling its charitable purpose, without restricting the traffic in any way. It is therefore thought of building it in the southeast corner of the market and attaching the animal on or to it, which has become the symbol of our city, and of which every Teterower is proud in healthy Low German humor, our pike with the bell. "
The well plan, which was made public, was enthusiastically received by the population. More than 1,200 marks in donations were quickly collected. This encouraged the magistrate to consider an artistic design. In October 1913, the Grand Ducal Cabinet received reports on the project in order to inform the Grand Duke about it.
Artists like the architect Paul Korff from Laage, the sculptors August Bauer from Düsseldorf, Georg Marschall from Charlottenburg, Curt Stoeving from Berlin, Hermann Howe from Nuremberg, the architects W. Timm from Stralsund, Paul Tilse from Wismar, Ernst Müller registered as applicants & Richard Brodersen from Charlottenburg and finally sculptor Wilhelm Wandschneider.
To cover the estimated costs of 6,000 marks one turned to u. a. On the advice of the sculptor Wandschneider to the department store entrepreneur Auguste Lehmann, who was born in Teterow and lives in Chicago, who promised 2,000 marks as soon as the other 4,000 marks were available. The collection lists show 153 names. The project was thus secured.
Beside the architect Korff, the sculptor Wandschneider was the most famous artist in Mecklenburg. In 1911 he created the Fritz Reuter Memorial in Stavenhagen . Designs by the sculptor Bauer and Wandschneider, who ultimately received the order, were shortlisted. In October 1913, the city fathers tried to reduce the estimated 6,600 marks to 6,000 marks. The artist hesitated at first, especially since high-quality bronze and porphyry were intended for the execution , but then agreed. He won over his friend, writer and publisher Paul Warncke , to write an inscription. In Warncke's first version, which was later slightly adapted regionally orthographically, it says with reference to the Hechtsage:
" Wake up Lüd sünd klauk, un wake sin daesig, un wake, the sin was aewnäsig; lat't be spijöken, Kinnings, lat't! Die Klock hett lüdd't, de hect is fat't! "
(Some people are smart, some are stupid, and some are snooty; let them scoff, children let them be! The bell has rung, the pike is caught!)
Discrepancies with the artist, among other things because of the boy's complete nudity, were resolved by the fact that Wandschneider covered his nakedness with the huge pike's tail.
The fountain was unveiled at a folk festival in the presence of its initiators and the sculptor Wandschneider on May 17, 1914. A pike that was let swim in the fountain pool made for amusement. In the run-up to the 3rd Teterower Heimatfest in 1992, the fountain was extensively restored.
description
The fountain, which was not built centrally on the market square, but offset near the town hall, consists of a larger water basin with a diameter of almost three meters, standing on a central base, from which a second, smaller water basin rises with the surrounding Low German inscription. In the middle of it is a small column on which the "pike boy" stands on a hemisphere. At the lower edge of the hemisphere, water gushes into the upper basin in several places to flow over its edge into the lower one. The foundation was laid by the local master mason Richard Kohlert, the stone work was done by the Berlin company “P. Wimmel & Co. - Königl. Hofsteinmetzmeister “. The foundry is not known.
The “pike boy”, referred to in the Wandschneider design as the “little Hercules” the life size of a two-year-old, apparently effortlessly carries a big pike on his shoulders. The fact that the artist was modeled on a grandson is not true, however; his first grandson was only born in 1924.
Replicas
In 1981 the city of Teterow approved the honorary citizen Horst Klinkmann to have a copy of the figure of the "Pike Boy" made on the condition that no direct impression was made, so that a unique specimen remains. Following the application, a plaster model was made. A bronze casting initially failed due to the material bottlenecks in the GDR and was only realized in 1990 in a Berlin foundry. This authorized casting ended up in Kampen , the Netherlands, and has stood there since 1991 as a foundation of Willem Kolff , Klinkmann's professional mentor. Another cast of the figure that appeared in the art trade and was acquired by a citizen of Teterow is unauthorized. In the meantime, more or less successful replicas in different sizes and materials are in circulation.
literature
- On the history of the Teterow market fountain or the donation of a market fountain for the city of Teterow , Teterow municipal archive, May 1993
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 53 ° 46 ′ 24.8 " N , 12 ° 34 ′ 31.1" E