Fairytale fountain in the Volkspark Friedrichshain
| Fairytale fountain | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| place | Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, Friedrichshain district |
| country |
 Germany
|
| use | Jewellery |
| construction time | 1913 Completely refurbished at the beginning of the 21st century. |
| architect | Ludwig Hoffmann and three sculptors |
| Architectural style | Neo-baroque |
| Technical specifications | |
| Floor space | 15480 m² |
| Floors | 4th |
| Building material | Sandstone and shell limestone |
| Coordinates | |
| location | Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '41 " N , 13 ° 25' 37" E 52 ° 31 '41 " N , 13 ° 25' 37" E |
The Märchenbrunnen in Volkspark Friedrichshain is a fountain and garden on the western tip of Volkspark Friedrichshain in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain . The architect Ludwig Hoffmann (1852–1932) and the sculptors Ignatius Taschner (1871–1913), Georg Wrba (1872–1939) and Josef Rauch (1867–1921) designed it as an entrance area that was highlighted by gardening and architectural art and inviting visitors to the park. The facility was opened on June 15, 1913 and has an extension of 90 meters wide x 172 meters deep. It is a listed building .
layout
Overall system
The design for the system comes from the architect and long-time Berlin city planner Ludwig Hoffmann . The main component of the ensemble is a 34 meter × 54 meter large fountain in the neo-baroque style . A water basin laid out in four shallow cascades contains one larger and nine small fountains, plus seven water-spouting frogs, one of which is highlighted as the frog prince . The basin is closed off to the east by semicircular arcades , with stone bowls in nine of their openings, each decorated with two dog heads. A short distance behind the arcades is a smaller, circular fountain with a fountain, the dolphin fountain , named after the imaginative gargoyles on its edge.
The facility is located at an acute angle between Friedenstraße and Straße am Friedrichshain with the point towards the Königstor .
Ludwig Hoffmann staged nature and art so masterfully that the visitor is lured into the park.
From the lively intersection at Königstor, you go through the wrought-iron leaf gate onto a narrow path delimited by beech hedges. Then this path becomes wider and opens onto the wide fountain square, where a show of water games and fairy-tale characters fascinates, widely framed by hedges, bushes and trees. The arcade wall summarizes the details of the fountain square as an architectural highlight. As a fairytale castle, however, it does not simply form the spectacular backdrop of the scenery, but rather invites visitors to visit the park through the large window-like arched openings and the passageways on both sides. You can also get to the fountain from Friedenstraße and Am Friedrichshain on side hedges.
Hoffmann was primarily inspired for this production by the early baroque gardens of the Mondragone and Aldobrandini villas in Frascati . His study trips while working on the fairy tale fountain in 1907 and again in 1908 to Rome , Tivoli , Frascati and Florence had a direct impact on the design of the facility. The Hoffmann biographer Dörte Döhl points out that there he experienced “the architecture in the context of the terraced gardens”, had studied the “Ionic capitals of the pilasters and the crowning balustrade of the water theater in Frascati”, and she states: “Especially with of Villa Aldobrandini [...] architecture and water features are related to the high slope of the terrain. This was not the case in Friedrichshain ... Since Hoffmann could not create a steep cascade, he moved this typical element of the Italian water features in front of the architecture and thus created a new reference to it. "
Sculptures
Ludwig Hoffmann attached particular importance to the plastic jewelry on his numerous buildings. Since he found that this aspect of architecture was traditionally inadequately represented in northern Germany - and especially in Berlin - he worked in many cases with three sculptors from southern Germany: Ignatius Taschner , Georg Wrba and Josef Rauch . They also created the extensive picture program for the fairy tale fountain, a total of 106 figurative or purely decorative stone sculptures . Taschner created the central motifs, ten sculptures on the edge of the fountain, with which he interpreted nine well-known fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm : Hansel and Gretel (with two sculptures based on the lesser-known second version of the fairy tale from 1819; rescued children carried on their way home by a helpful duck across a separating body of water), Puss in Boots , Hans in Luck , The Seven Ravens , Cinderella , Little Red Riding Hood , Little Brother and Sister , Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty .
The art historian Ursel Berger emphasizes that "Taschner's groups (cat. No. 299–306) are themselves the most essential structural elements of the fountain system". "They are set up on low plinths on the edge of the large well basin and emphasize its gradation."
Important for the overall effect of the figure program are the comparable proportions of the independent figure groups and the similar composition of groups facing each other on the southern and northern edge of the fountain.
Taschner's daughters Maja (Sleeping Beauty) and Antonie (little sister) sat as models for fairy tale characters.
One of the seven Snow White dwarfs bears the unmistakable facial features of the painter Adolph Menzel . It was seen as a silent protest against an instruction with which the artist was denied an honoring memorial after his death. To the displeasure of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Menzel had presented the harsh conditions of the industrial working world without make-up. However, this interpretation is doubtful because, on the other hand, Wilhelm II highly valued Menzel's work on Prussian history and even arranged a state funeral for the painter, in which the emperor himself took part.
Wrba received the order for four Hermes , which are set up in narrow, hedge-lined paths to the side of the fairy tale fountain: ( ogre , giant daughter, Rübezahl and Frau Holle ) , for six children's groups in niches at the dolphin fountain and for various decorative elements. The 14 marble sculptures of lying huntable animals on the arcades were made by Rauch .
history
Pre- and building history
Ludwig Hoffmann commented on the layout of the fairy tale fountain with the words "Because of its character in the populous northeast, the Friedrichshain does not need to do without the ennobling art." Construction had been planned on this site since 1893. When Hoffmann took office as town planning officer in 1896, he found the plans for a richly decorated, splendid architecture typical of the time, which the decisive town art commission had already determined to carry out. Hoffmann rejected these designs and instead developed the idea of a fairy tale fountain after seeing numerous children playing there while visiting the property. The first draft version was presented in 1901 at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition . The emperor welcomed the plan but wanted some changes.
Years of disputes began about the emperor's powers on the one hand (he could have the police chief approve or reject anything that was to be erected in squares or streets in Berlin) and on the other hand, between the city committees (they were solely responsible for buildings on parking lots). Hoffmann finally managed to avoid direct confrontation with the emperor, but had to put up with criticism in the liberal press and from parts of the city council because of his indulgence . In the meantime he revised the design, moving more and more away from the ostentatious architecture, by which his first design was still influenced, towards a more naive design. Horse groups were still provided for in the 1907 contract with Taschner . Instead, Taschner created the funny frogs and turtles. Concrete construction contracts could only be placed in 1907. According to Hoffmann, the total costs including garden, path and park work amounted to 960,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 5.21 million euros). On June 15, 1913, the 25th anniversary of Wilhelm II's accession to the throne, the complex was opened to the public.
The Vorwärts , the central organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , wrote on the day before the inauguration: “When the cover falls on Sunday, the fairy tale groups will appear as a reminder to the workers that the task of making absolutism a fairy tale scheme is still waiting for them. "
The Vorwärts reported four days after the inauguration about the reaction of the population: “The Märchenbrunnen is enjoying a tremendous visit, as was to be expected, but it has never been observed on this scale in an urban monumental complex [...] The success in Friedrichshain was the only sympathetic in the past jubilation of the anniversary days, because it can be seen as genuinely artistic [...] the admiration of all circles for the fairy tale fountain is honest. Only women who come from far away with their strollers experience disappointments. You will not be allowed into the monument complex, so that in the last few days a true castle of prams had been driven up here [...] "
Destruction and restoration
The Märchenbrunnen and the Volkspark Friedrichshain as a whole suffered severe damage in 1945 as a result of fighting towards the end of the Second World War . After the war ended, most of the sculptures disappeared. It was not until 1950 that they reappeared behind a high wall in a vegetable garden in the Friedrichshain district, many of them badly damaged. In 1950/1951, the Berlin magistrate had the fountain and its technical systems restored. Instead of the original fairytale sculptures, coarser copies were made and the surrounding gardens were redesigned in a simplified manner.
On July 1, 1951, the then Lord Mayor Friedrich Ebert returned the fairy tale fountain to the public.
For five decades, the fairy tale figures of the 1950s were the fountain figures that the children knew and loved, just as the generations before that loved and love the original Taschner figures or who later loved and love the faithful replicas.
Further steps for the restoration and reconstruction of the destroyed figures followed in 1972/1973 and 1982/1983.
The side garden areas were redesigned in the 1970s. There were lawn and shrub beds, an arcade and new paths with attached seating. The leaf gate at the western entrance, which was forged based on the original, was moved closer to the fountain and widened.
After German reunification , in the period after 1990, vandalism became a permanent problem. Destroyed and carefully dismantled figures as well as graffiti on many parts of the architecture defaced the overall picture.
Entire groups of figures were pushed from the plinth into the fountain and burst into many individual parts, such as in 1995 The Seven Ravens . In October 2000, the fairy tale fountain was cordoned off and restored. Freshly renovated figures had already been put up, when on October 25th, employees of the Green Space Office found four groups of figures (Hans im Glück , Little Brothers and Sisters , Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella) in the fountain basin. Total loss! In the period that followed, the groups of figures were restored, but not placed at the fountain.
Since the end of the 2010s, the figures from the 1950s have been standing in the workshop courtyard of the Green Space Office opposite the open-air stage in the park.
In the period 2006–2007, the extensive, listed building was carried out according to Hoffmann's model. 90 percent of the costs of around 1.3 million euros were borne by the state of Berlin, the federal government and the European Union , the remainder being borne by sponsors from the private sector. The first construction phase was opened to the public on May 24, 2007, and the entire facility has been accessible again since July 2007. A fence and the nightly access barrier for the area of the fairy tale fountain are intended to prevent future vandalism.
Taschner's fairy tale characters were reproduced as early as 2002-2004 at Naturstein Krause in Hohen Neuendorf . In the Ignatius-Taschner-Gymnasium in Dachau , smaller bronze copies of the fountain figures had been preserved, so that enlarged aerated concrete copies could be made from them, which formed the models for the new stone figures.
- The fairy tale characters on the edge of the fountain
little brother and little sister
Cinderella
Hans in hapiness
Puss in Boots
The seven Ravens
Little Red Riding Hood
Snow White with the "Menzel dwarf"
sleeping Beauty
Hansel from Hansel and Gretel
Gretel from Hansel and Gretel
Repairs
In October 2018, the district office switched off the water system before the winter season because a circulation pump from 1983 had become defective. In the spring of 2019, the Wilo company from Hof delivered a new pump for 740,000 euros that was installed in the pump house. The new pump went into operation around July 20, 2019.
literature
- Georg Dehio (Ed.) Et al. : Handbook of German Art Monuments Berlin. Munich, Berlin 2000, p. 206. ISBN 3-422-03071-9 .
- Ludwig Hoffmann: The fairy tale fountain in Friedrichshain in Berlin . In: Fr. Schultze (Ed.): Central sheet of the building administration . 33rd year, no. 53 . Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin July 5, 1913, p. 342–347 ( digitized version [accessed on August 22, 2020] with map and nine other images).
- Jan Feustel: Walks in Friedrichshain. Haude and Spener, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-7759-0357-7 , p. 16 ff.
- Ludwig Hoffmann: Memoirs of an Architect. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-7861-1388-2 , pp. 154 ff, 224 ff.
- Bernd Heimberger : Where Menzel is placed as a dwarf with Snow White . Article in the trade union newspaper Tribüne on June 30, 1983.
- Günter Koch: The fairy tale fountain - gems of the big city . Article in the Berliner Zeitung of October 22, 1981 and a letter from the reader dated November 26, 1981: 'Menzel in disguise' - now do a search .
- Hans Martin: The new fairy tale fountain in Berlin . In: The garden art . Vol. 15, No. 22 . German Society for Garden Art, 1913, p. 340-344 .
- Rolf Pfeiffer: At the fountain in front of the Königstore . Article in the magazine Die Wochenpost from 1982.
- The fairy tale fountain in Friedrichshain zu Berlin , Berlin undated (1914), folder with 50 panels based on photographs of nature by E. v. Brauchitsch, introduction by Dr. Max Osborn.
- Institute for Monument Preservation (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments of the GDR. Capital Berlin-I . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1984, p. 434 ff .
- Bruno Fischer: The fairytale fountain in the city of Berlin . In: Berliner Architekturwelt . 16th year, no. 5 . Verlag Ernst Wasmuth AG, Berlin 2014, p. 203–214 ( digitized version [accessed August 22, 2020]).
- Norbert Götz, Ursel Berger (ed.): Ignatius Taschner. An artist's life between Art Nouveau and Neoclassicism . Klinkhardt & Biermann, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7814-0321-1 , pp. 248-255.
- Dörte Döhl: Ludwig Hoffmann. Building for Berlin 1996-1924. Ernst Wasmuth, 2004, ISBN 3 8030 0629 5 .
- Alfred Bogen: Come with me to the fairy tale fountain !. In: Willi Gensch, Dr. Hans Liesigk, Hans Michaelis (editor): The East of Berlin. Berliner Handelsdruckerei, Berlin 1930, pp. 180–184.
- Heike Abraham: The Friedrichshain. The history of a Berlin park from 1840 to the present. Series: Miniatures on the history, culture and preservation of Berlin monuments, number 27. Berlin district boards of the societies for local history and preservation of monuments in the Kulturbund der DDR, Berlin 1988.
Web links
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List with further information
- Fairy tale fountain in the district lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
- Märchenbrunnen on berlin.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Compare the description of Ludwig Hoffmann in Memoirs of an Architect, Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1983, pp. 224–226 and that of Alfred Bogen “Come with me to the fairy tale fountain!” , In: Willi Gensch, Hans Liesigk, Hans Michaelis (editor) : East Berlin. Berliner Handelsdruckerei, Berlin 1930, pp. 180–184.
- ^ Dörte Döhl: Ludwig Hoffmann. Building for Berlin 1996–1924. Ernst Wasmuth, 2004, ISBN 3-8030-0629-5 , pp. 95-96.
- ↑ Norbert Götz, Ursel Berger (ed.): Ignatius Taschner. An artist's life between Art Nouveau and Neoclassicism . Klinkhardt & Biermann, Munich 1992, p. 251, ISBN 3-7814-0321-1 .
- ↑ Norbert Götz, Ursel Berger (ed.): Ignatius Taschner. An artist's life between Art Nouveau and Neoclassicism . Klinkhardt & Biermann, Munich 1992, p. 253, ISBN 3-7814-0321-1 .
- ↑ Kiez-Klub in the Rainbow House - establishment of the youth development Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (Ed.): The new fairy tale fountain. The city detectives make a discovery. In: Kiez-Blatt from May 2003, pp. 2–4.
- ↑ Ludwig Hoffmann: Memoirs of an Architect pp. 154 ff., 224 ff. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1996. ISBN 3-7861-1388-2 .
- ↑ Norbert Götz, Ursel Berger (ed.): Ignatius Taschner. An artist's life between Art Nouveau and Neoclassicism . Klinkhardt & Biermann, Munich 1992, p. 250, ISBN 3-7814-0321-1 .
- ^ In: Vorwärts , June 19, 1913
- ↑ Heike Abraham: The Friedrichshain. The history of a Berlin park from 1840 to the present. Series: Miniatures on the history, culture and preservation of Berlin monuments, number 27. Berlin district boards of the societies for local history and preservation of monuments in the Kulturbund der DDR, Berlin 1988, p. 31 and 78 (photos).
- ^ Märchenbrunnen Landesdenkmalamt Berlin
- ^ Kiez-Klub im Regenbogenhaus - Establishment of the youth development program Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (Ed.): Destruction and new construction in Friedrichshain. In: Kiez-Blatt , September 1995, pp. 4-5.
- ^ Kiez-Klub im Regenbogenhaus - Establishment of the youth development program Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (Ed.): The city detectives ask: Can the fairy tale fountain still be saved? In: Kiez-Blatt from January 2003, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Kiez-Klub im Regenbogenhaus - Establishment of the youth development program Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (Ed.): Can the fairy tale fountain still be saved? The city detectives have found their first characters. In: Kiez-Blatt from March 2003, pp. 4–5.
- ↑ Timeline of the State Monuments Office Berlin
- ↑ Kiez-Klub im Regenbogenhaus - Establishment of the youth development program Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (Ed.): What to do with the fairy tale characters? In: Kiez-Blatt from November 2003, pp. 2–3.
- ↑ The main thing is that it cools! . In: Berliner Zeitung , July 26, 2019, p. 9.