Neptune Fountain (Nuremberg)

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The Neptune Fountain in Nuremberg City Park, 2010

The Neptune Fountain in Nuremberg , which since 1962 in Nuremberg city park stands is a replica by cast of 1797 after Russia sold Neptune fountain in Peterhof in St. Petersburg . The Neptune Fountain is considered to be the largest baroque fountain north of the Alps.

history

From the baroque period to the end of the 18th century

Neptune Fountain Engraving by Rößler before 1730

In 1650, two years after the end of the Thirty Years' War and on the occasion of the conclusion of the Nuremberg Peace Negotiations ( Nuremberg Execution Day ), which established the post-war order for Central Europe, the plan arose to place a fountain sculpture in a central location as a peace memorial (monumentum pacis) and a sign of the beginning of a new one more hopeful time to build. Cannons should be melted down for casting the well. As a typical architectural fountain on Nuremberg's main market , the Neptune fountain should not only remind of the peace treaty, but also represent the importance of the city. In many Italian cities, but also in Salzburg and Augsburg, large figure fountains were built before the Thirty Years' War, which typologically served as models. (The fact that the Fontana del Nettuno by della Bitta on the Piazza Navona in Rome may have served as a specific model is obvious in view of the astonishing similarities of the composition and Schweigger's connections to Italy, but this cannot be proven with certainty.)

Until 1656, the sculptor Georg Schweigger and the goldsmith Christoph Ritter designed the baroque fountain under the co-authorship of Jeremias Eißler and Johann Wolrab . In 1660 an approx. Nine meter high model was completed, based on which the final cast templates were created. After the completion of all cast parts of the Neptune Fountain on November 19, 1668, the imperial city, which was economically declining as a result of the Thirty Years War, lacked the financial means to set up and solve the technical problems of the water supply. (Insofar as various claims have been made that the installation of the fountain failed due to the technical possibilities at the time to supply sufficient water pressure, this does not appear credible, since ten years later the high fountain of the nearby Triton Fountain by means of a river water-driven pumping station and an elevated tank without documented technical problems were operated, which proves that the required technology would have been operational.)

The fountain was initially stored in the building yard (Peunthof). In 1702, after the death of Jeremias Eißler, the last artist involved, the fountain in the Peunthof was assembled and temporarily set up dry. It was no longer displayed on the main market.

In 1797 the city sold the Neptune Fountain for 66,000 guilders , today around 8 million euros, to Tsar Paul I , who had it shipped to Saint Petersburg at his own expense and set up in his summer residence, the Peterhof . Because it was used there as a park fountain, it was rearranged from the original concept in a clearly modified composition that was adapted to the sense of style of classicism, with a more spacious grouping of the individual figures and a modified central plinth.

From the early days to 1933

The Neptune Fountain on the Main Market Square, around 1905

In 1881, the art historian Prof. Friedrich Wanderer promoted the "recovery of what was lost". In 1895 the imperial foreign ministry negotiated a repurchase of the well, the Tsar Alexander III. refused. With the permission of the Russian tsar, who saw the duplication of the Friedensbrunnen with one copy each for Russia and Germany as a symbolic-political gesture of reconciliation, the plasterer Ludwig Leichmann took impressions of the original figures in Peterhof in 1896 at the instigation of the Lord Mayor of Nuremberg, Georg Ritter von Schuh .

Until 1902, a plaster model made from this was exhibited in the Katharinenkirche in Nuremberg. Kommerzienrat Ludwig Gerngros , who was therefore granted honorary citizenship on July 30, 1901, took over the costs of a second casting and the construction of the fountain as a patron under the express condition that the fountain be set up at the originally planned location, the main market. On October 22, 1902, the fountain was inaugurated a little south of the central line of flight on the Frauenkirchen portal as a spatial counterpoint to the 'beautiful fountain'. The base and the basin socket are based on drawings by Friedrich Wanderer, in line with the original baroque design as a city fountain based on copper engravings by Rößler and Delsenbach (1730).

The Neptune Fountain was considered an outstanding sight, which was listed in the contemporary Nuremberg travel guides. The high craftsmanship quality of the second casting, which is not inferior to the first casting, is still praised today. Before 1933 there was no criticism worth mentioning that the baroque fountain did not fit into the townscape, which at that time was still partly medieval.

In the Third Reich

During the National Socialist era , Julius Streicher , the Frankish Gauleiter and editor of the anti-Semitic inflammatory pamphlet Der Streicher , removed the donor board (1933), because Gerngros was a German of the Jewish faith. The fountain hindered the marches and rallies for the Nazi party rallies , which up until 1935 took place on the main market in particular. With the advanced argument (which had already been scientifically refuted at the time) that the baroque fountain, since that time also disparagingly referred to as a Gründerzeit copy, did not fit into the Gothic and Renaissance cityscape, the public was aware of the dismantling of the " Jewish fountain " of the NSDAP Main market prepared.

The Lord Mayor Willy Liebel , who spoke out against the removal of the Neptune Fountain in this matter, initially resisted Streicher's repeated demands. On April 6, 1934, a demand from Hitler , transmitted by Mayor Liebel, is recorded: " As the Lord Mayor announced, the Reich Chancellor recently spoke out in favor of the removal of the Neptune Fountain and requested it to be removed before this year's party conference ."

The demolition, which was formally resolved on April 18, 1934, was not announced until June 12, 1934. The justification for the dismantling , which was carried out with undisguised anti-Semitism , was that “ the Neptune Fountain undoubtedly disturbed the events at the Nazi Party Congress ”.

The fountain, which was removed in the summer of 1934, was moved three years later (1937) to Marienplatz (then Schlageterplatz, today Willy-Brandt-Platz) outside the old town, directly in front of the NSDAP Gauhaus. From 1942 to 1945 the first casting was again in Nuremberg. It had been taken down by the Wehrmacht as spoils of war in Peterhof, brought to Nuremberg and stored there in the panier bunker ; after the end of the war he was returned to the Soviet Union. Silicone casts on the first and second casts in Petersburg enabled the restoration of lost and destroyed parts of both fountain specimens.

After 1945

The original Neptune Fountain in Saint Petersburg, 2008
The cast of the Neptune Fountain in Nuremberg City Park, 2006

The obvious idea to move the fountain back to the main market after the end of the war and Nazi rule as part of the reconstruction was suppressed in the 1950s; Baureferent Schmeißner , already in the 1930s worked in a leading position in the responsible for the degradation Building Department, spoke in favor of, "to leave the Fountain of Neptune at Marienplatz" . In 1960, the group of figures from the second cast of the Neptune Fountain, which was in the way of the street planning on Marienplatz, was dismantled and, in 1962, after a controversial city council decision, moved to an existing concrete basin in the city park. The original well basin was stored. The move back to the main market was not up for discussion in 1960/62 - despite the clear and disregarded donor requirement to this day. The dedication of the fountain as a symbol of peace and international understanding has largely been forgotten.

The criticism of the handling of this important figure fountain persisted over the decades. In 1976 the friends of the old town demanded the transfer back to the old town. The fundamental decision of the city council from 1977 to erect the fountain on Jakobsplatz in the southern old town was first confirmed by the building committee on October 26, 1981 and then rejected by the city council on November 4, 1981. The last time the urban planning committee dealt with the question again on July 22, 2008, without any concrete result.

In 2010, a new discussion began to move the fountain from the city park outside the old town back to the original location determined by the donor, the main market. In October 2010 an association Neptunbrunnen zurück auf den Hauptmarkt e was founded out of the citizenship . V. , who is aiming to move back to the main market. In October 2012, a memorial stele was set up in the city park, which briefly explains the history of the fountain. There was renewed debate about the explanatory text, as the city administration's first text proposal initially concealed the anti-Semitic motives behind the dismantling of the well in 1934. The "Initiative for the Neptune Fountain on the Main Market" criticized the fact that on the main market, the original location of the fountain, there is still no reference to history or whereabouts.

description

Fountain architecture and figure program

Neptune figure

In accordance with Schweigger's original design idea, a bronze statue of the Roman god Neptune , which is about one and a half times larger than life, stands on a cone-like central projection made of bronze, rising up in the middle of the fountain basin . (As a modification to this, the Neptune statue of the first cast set up in Peterhof is significantly lower and on two cubic marble blocks placed one above the other.) The crowned Neptune statue has an antique-like appearance in terms of posture and expression and is still clearly stuck to the end of the Renaissance period . The figure is captured as if by chance at the moment of movement, which is underlined and staged almost dramatically by the trident pointing downwards at an angle.

The central projection is flanked by two nereids ( sea ​​riders on winged horses with flippers) and two nymphs with oars. (The movement, posture and head shape of the horses are strongly reminiscent of the triton horses created by Nicola Salvi for the Trevi Fountain in Rome from 1732 ). The nereids and nymphs are very different and designed with very individual facial expressions. Schweigger is said to have shaped all figures based on living models. (The nymphs were often interpreted as an allusion to the Rednitz and Pegnitz rivers , which flow through Nuremberg; since the Rednitz has only been in the Nuremberg area since the 19th century, but not since the time of the fountain's creation, this should be more of an interpretation the time the second casting was set up in 1902.)

Neptune fountain with a baroque fountain bowl on the main market, contemporary photography from 1902; in front (with cylinder) Ludwig Ritter von Gerngroß

The ensemble is surrounded by groups of putti , dolphins and a sea ​​lion riding a dragon .

The fountain system was designed as an architectural fountain in an urban context for an elevated baroque fountain basin with a stone basin frame and steps in front of it. The basin had the basic shape of an oval overlaid by a rectangle. The basin shell and the step template were created in 1901/02 based on templates from the Baroque period. The basin, which was thought to be temporarily lost, was found in a good state of preservation in 2010 in a sub-warehouse of the building construction office of the city of Nuremberg.

Not necessarily typical of the early Baroque era, the arrangement only uses figures and symbols from Greek mythology and allegories of water; the imagery of the fountain is largely devoid of Christian symbolism. It is thus also an expression and testimony to the more secularization of life in the then city republic, which was more than 130 years after the Reformation was implemented and under the strong influence of humanism ( Philipp Melanchthon ) in Nuremberg .

Current condition

The current arrangement of the figures in the city park differs from the original composition in that it has not been placed in the baroque fountain basin since 1962, but has been placed much lower in a circular flat basin that was already there.

literature

  • Ruth Bach-Damaskinos: Neptune Fountain . In: Michael Diefenbacher , Rudolf Endres (Hrsg.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg . 2nd, improved edition. W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 ( online ).
  • Helmut Beer: The Neptune Fountain - an almost never-ending story . NZ series: 200 years of Franconia in Bavaria. Nürnberger Zeitung No. 27 of February 2, 2006, p. 18
  • Anton Bosch Two Nuremberg Neptune Fountains make history . In Russia-German Contemporary History Volume 4, ISBN 3-9809613-2-X , there p. 14.
  • Helmut Häußler: Fountains, monuments and free sculptures in Nuremberg. An inventory. (...) Nuremberg 1977, ISBN 3-87191-036-8 , here: p. 18 ff.
  • Elke Masa: Free sculptures in Nuremberg. Sculpture, monuments and fountains in the public space of the city . Neustadt / Aisch 2000.
  • Ernst Mummenhoff: The Neptune Fountain in Nuremberg, its origin and history , Nuremberg 1902.
  • Erich Mulzer: Neptune's odyssey (history of the Neptune fountain). In: Nürnberger Altstadtberichte, Ed .: Altstadtfreunde Nürnberg e. V., issue 13 (1988)
  • Nürnberger Zeitung (NZ): Well offside. How Nuremberg dealt with a large plant. , NZ of February 18, 2003, p. 13.
  • Klaus Pechstein: The dolphin motif on Nuremberg fountain . In: Nürnberger Altstadtberichte, Ed .: Altstadtfreunde Nürnberg , No. 2, 1977
  • Friedrich Wanderer: The history of the Nuremberg Peunt Fountain , communications of the Association for the History of Nuremberg, Vol. 3, 1881 (see below web link)
  • Hans Robert Weihrauch: Georg Schweigger (1613–1690) and his Neptune fountain for Nuremberg , Anzeiger des Germanisches Nationalmuseums 1940–1953, Berlin, 1954, pp. 87–143

See also

Web links

Commons : Neptunbrunnen (Nuremberg)  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Claudia Maué, City Nurse of the City of Nuremberg: Since the molds were taken from the first casting, the art-historically correct designation is neither a copy nor a second cast, but a cast
  2. ↑ a b Dr. Anton Bosch: The Peace of Westphalia and the Neptune Fountain , Nuremberg / Munich 2004
  3. ↑ Calculated using the gold content of the guilder in 1797 and the current gold price (September 2010)
  4. ↑ Dr. Anton Bosch: Two Nuremberg Neptune Fountains make history , Nuremberg / Munich 2004
  5. ↑ management report of the city Nbg. 1902, p. 556 "
  6. ↑ Dr. Claudia Maué "Georg Schweigger", lecture in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum on October 6, 2001.
  7. ↑ Nuremberg City Archives C7 / I No. 5354 / May 19, 1933.
  8. ↑ Friedrich Haller von Hallerstein 'Memorandum in Matters of the Removal of the Neptune Fountain' on behalf of the Association for the History of the City of Nuremberg on April 24, 1934, presented scientific report on the history, originality, significance and urban development of the Neptune Fountain / Nuremberg City Archives C7 / I No. 5354 / sheet 23
  9. ↑ City Archives Nuremberg C7 / I No. 5354 / May 19, 1933, handwritten and signed marginal note by the Lord Mayor Willy Liebel: "Then you would have to remove the donated fountain and that will hardly be desirable! Reject! May 20, 33 Liebel"
  10. ↑ Nuremberg City Archives C7 / I No. 5354 / June 28, 1933 et al., Ibid.
  11. ↑ Nuremberg City Archives C7 / I No. 5354, file note from April 6, 1934 by the building department, drawn by Brugmann
  12. ↑ Minutes of the secret meeting of the city council on April 18, 1934 / Nuremberg City Archives C7 / I No. 5354 / p. 20
  13. ↑ File note from the municipal building construction office (Ref X b) of April 30, 1934: "(...) Precisely because the fountain is made by a Jew and so ostentatious in the middle of Adolf-Hitler-Platz (note renaming of the main market 1934–1945 ) it has to go away! - Nuremberg City Archives C7 / I No. 5354 / Bl. 26.
  14. ^ Franconian daily newspaper, party organ of the NSDAP, Nuremberg, June 12, 1934
  15. ↑ Short Minutes No. 22 Meeting of speakers from June 23, 1953, paragraph 34 / Nuremberg City Archives C29 No. 1574
  16. ↑ http://blog.nz-online.de/senf/2010/04/19/soll-der-neptunbrunnen-auf-den-hauptmarkt/
  17. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.neptunbrunnen.info
  18. ↑ http://www.nordbayern.de/keine-endlos-veranstaltung-1.225607/
  19. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blog.nz-online.de
  20. ↑ http://www.nordbayern.de/neptunbrunnen-irrfahrten-des-meeresgottes-1.2421511
  21. ↑ http://www.nordbayern.de/neptunbrunnen-bleibt-im-nurnberger-stadtpark-1.2424202
  22. ↑ "Nürnberger Zeitung" of October 23, 2010, p. 11  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.neptunbrunnen.info  

Coordinates: 49 ° 27 '52.2 "  N , 11 ° 5' 30.3"  E