Neptune Basin (Potsdam)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neptune basin
View of the Neptune Basin, before 1945
View of the Neptune Basin, before 1945
place Potsdam
country Germany Germany
use Fountain
construction time 1746-1751
sculptor Johann August Nahl , Johann Peter Benkert and Johann Gottlieb Heymüller
Architectural style Baroque
Technical specifications
height 3 m
diameter 18 m
Floor space 50 m²
Building material Sandstone
Coordinates
location Coordinates: 52 ° 23 '34.6 "  N , 13 ° 3' 35.1"  E 52 ° 23 '34.6 "  N , 13 ° 3' 35.1"  E

The Neptunbassin is a fountain in the pleasure garden of Potsdam . It was created 1746–1751 on behalf of Frederick II under the direction of Johann August Nahl in the Baroque style based on the model of the Apollo basin in the palace gardens of Versailles . The group of figures "Neptune's Triumph" represented Neptune and Amphitrite on a chariot pulled by hippocamps , surrounded by tritons and nereids . Between 1945 and 1960 the Neptune basin was completely destroyed and partially restored on the occasion of the Federal Garden Show 2001 .

history

Detail of the Neptune group, before 1945

The gardens of the Potsdam City Palace were redesigned as a pleasure garden after 1664 in connection with the reconstruction of the palace by the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm. His successor Friedrich I had the basin embellished by master builder Jean de Bodt from 1704-09 and connected to the Havel. Friedrich II had the pleasure garden artistically beautified again. In 1746 Friedrich II commissioned the sculptor Johann August Nahl the Elder to design the Neptune basin in the pleasure garden. The Apollo basin in the palace gardens of Versailles served as a model. Nahl created the main design, but entrusted the execution to the sculptors Johann Peter Benkert and Johann Gottlieb Heymüller . The sculptural work by Benckert and Heymüller was completed in January 1748.

The Neptune Fountain consisted of a large chariot, where the sea god Neptune (with trident) and his wife the sea goddess Amphitrite (or Thetis ) were. The carriage was pulled by two horses, six tritons with fish tails and conch horns and two nereids riding on dolphins surrounded the carriage with the sea god and the sea goddess. In the course of history the group was changed several times (1763, 1788–1792, 1846/1847, 1934).

During GDR times, from 1950 to 1960, the pool was filled in and the figures damaged in World War II destroyed by the VEB Steinmetz training company on behalf of the GDR. But it is also known that Potsdam's individual sculpture parts of the Potsdam Neptune Fountain were saved from destruction by the GDR.

In 2001, the Lower Monument Protection Authority uncovered the filled-in basin on the occasion of the Federal Horticultural Show and restored it. At the same time, on the initiative of the then director of the neighboring Mercure Hotel , Rudolph Freiherr von Ketteler, the Rotary Club Potsdam founded a support company to restore the Neptune group. In 2003 a triton figure was found in a garden in Kleinmachnow, and in 2004 the head of the triton leading the triumphal procession was found in a garden in Bergholz-Rehbrücke. In 2006 the Potsdam artists Raiko Epperlein and Rainer Fürstenberg installed a model made of steel, light and water, which reproduces the missing parts of the Neptune group in the pool.

In 2011, Ketteler and Gundula Christl from the Lower Monument Protection Authority contacted the population: “The mere fact that there are still parts counts for us. We plead, we ask, we call on those who still house the remains of the ensemble to help us. ”They assured that no one had to part with the individual pieces that were recovered. It would be about measuring the rescued individual pieces. A measuring tape or a cast of the original is sufficient because the dimensions cannot be clearly determined, despite recordings that have been handed down.

gallery

  • Apollo basin in the palace gardens of Versailles

  • Neptune basin on an engraving by Johann Poppel , 1852

  • View of the Neptune Basin, before 1945

  • Neptune group earlier

  • Neptune group today

literature

  • Hans Berg: Potsdam's lost center. Märkischer Verlag, Wilhelmshorst 1999.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Ludwig Manger: Heinrich Ludewig Manger's Königl. Preuss. Ober-Hof-Baurath and garden inspectors Building history of Potsdam: especially under the government of King Frederick the Second . Friedrich Nicolai, Berlin / Stettin 1789, pp. 60–63. archive.org
  2. ^ Hans-Joachim Giersberg: The residence of Frederick the Great In: The Potsdam city palace . P. 67.
  3. ^ Hans Huth: The City Palace in Potsdam . Ed .: Administration of State Palaces and Gardens. Leonhard Preiss Verlag, Berlin 1933, p. 9a.
  4. ↑ The return of the demigod . Potsdam Latest News from May 16, 2014.
  5. ↑ Katrin Starke: Potsdam gets its Neptune fountain back . Berliner Morgenpost . January 17, 2011. Retrieved May 16, 2018.