Night watchman fountain (Stuttgart)
The night watchman fountain in Stuttgart was built to commemorate the Stuttgart night watchmen , who watched over the night's sleep until 1862. The fountain was built in 1900 according to the plans of the architect Heinrich Halmhuber in Marktbreiter Kornstein and equipped with bronze sculptures by the sculptor Adolf Fremd . In 1998 the well was renovated. It is in operation from around mid-May to mid-September.
location
The night watchman's fountain has stood on the corner of Leonhardsplatz and Pfarrstrasse in Stuttgart since the early 1960s. It rises in the middle of a paved square measuring around 20 × 20 meters, which is shielded from the street by bollards . The fountain is 40 meters away from the crucifixion group , which is placed in front of the choir of the Leonhardskirche .
description
The almost 5 meter high night watchman's fountain is designed in the German neo-Renaissance style. The fountain stem rises on a base plate in the form of the fountain outline, flanked by two cube-shaped fountain troughs. A stone bench connected to the substructure at the front invites you to relax, and a dog trough is attached to the rear. The fountain stick consists of the life-size bronze figure of the night watchman, a compressed, twisted column and a cube-shaped base.
The fountain column ends in an Ionic capital with now heavily weathered owls and bats at the corners. Above the capital is the bronze figure of the night watchman in a cloak with a hand lantern, halberd , horn and dog. The night watchman's lantern was the first source of electrical light in the public streets of Stuttgart.
On the base of the well stock to the left and right of the column lie two fish-tailed, nude bronze water nymphs, who lean against the column with their backs turned away. Between the nymphs on the front side is the Stuttgart city coat of arms crowned with a wall crown with the jumping horse, the "Stuttgarter Rössle", on the back the Württemberg coat of arms with the three lying stag poles. The coat of arms is surrounded by a lush fruit hanging that the nymphs hold in their hands. On both sides of the pedestal, the bronze spouts with animal head spouts rise from a faun mask, supported on a wrought-iron console support.
The dog trough at the back of the fountain, designed as a dolphin fountain, is framed by a wrought iron grating with rose tendrils. A fat dolphin squeezes into a semicircular niche and spits the water into the semicircular basin in front.
Back with dog drinker.
Night watchman statue with capital.
Night watchman fountain, 1901.
reception
The Architektonische Rundschau ruled in 1901 about the newly erected monument:
- “On the side of the choir of St. Leonhard's Church, in a corner of the square of the same name, whose picturesque and architectural appearance, despite all the simplicity of the surrounding buildings, is one of the best that Stuttgart has to offer in old cityscapes, a small, poetic one has recently risen A fountain erected by a sensitive artist's hand, which is composed in a seldom successful manner on the square in question and whose main character is intended to keep alive the memory of the formerly most popular, now legendary figure of earlier communities, the night watchman. "
In 1971, a commemorative publication commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Mayor of Stuttgart Arnulf Klett stated:
- “On Leonhardsplatz [after the destruction of World War II] the stone crucifix in front of the choir of the Leonhardskirche was preserved, and a hundred paces away stood the night watchman's fountain, a symbol of Altstuttgart's long-lost indolence, a memorial to that inveterate regulars' table cultivated in the 'Bohnenviertel' was not able to get around either by calling the night watchman or by stool tax. "
Hotel night watchman
The Hotel Nachtwächter is located at Brennerstrasse 8, 100 meters northeast of the night watchman fountain. On the first floor there is a tavern sign with the words "Night watchman" on the facade. appropriate. The shield bears the life-size profile figure of a night watchman in a cloak with hand lantern, halberd and horn. The figure stands in front of a street lamp, the lamp of which with the bent lamppost tilts over the night watchman. The night watchman was also immortalized in the name “Cannstatter Nachtwächter eV” of the Cannstatter Fasnet Friends.
Hotel night watchman in Stuttgart, pub sign.
Ratsstüble in Bad Cannstatt, night watchman relief.
Cannstatt night watchman
In Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, above the entrance door to the Ratsstüble at Marktstrasse 41, there is a colored relief in a semicircular niche. It shows the half-length portrait of a wrinkled man with a mustache, an old night watchman with a cloak, helmet, halberd, hand lantern and a golden bunch of keys. The Cannstatter Fasnet friends immortalized the night watchman in their club name Cannstatter Nachtwächter e. V.
literature
- Architectural review, 1901, issue 9, plate 65.
- Hermann G. Haufler: Impressions from a contemporary. "Ebbes meh ...". Lord Mayor of a rubble city. In: Twenty-five years of the Lord Mayor: Festschrift for Dr. Arnulf Klett. Stuttgart: Klett, 1971, page 12.
- Inge Petzold: Water for utility and ornament. Stuttgart fountain and water features. Motives, design, history, fortunes. Stuttgart: Edition Stuttgarter Buchkultur published by Weise's Hofbuchhandlung Verlag, 1989, page 84.
Web links
Footnotes
Coordinates: 48 ° 46 '24.3 " N , 9 ° 10' 52.6" E