Robber wheel
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The robber's wheel is a metal sculpture designed in 1990 by the set designer Bert Neumann for the Volksbühne Berlin and made in 1994 by the Swiss sculptor Rainer Haussmann . The metal wheel with a height of around four meters is intended to make references to a crook's teeth and was set up on a green area in front of the theater on the occasion of a production of Friedrich Schiller's Die Räuber, under the responsibility of the Volksbühne director Frank Castorf . The State of Berlin bought the sculpture in the mid-1990s for around 11,000 euros and left it permanently on the public space. A stylized illustration of the robber's wheel was used as a central design element in the Volksbühne's publications until 2017 .
The robber wheel attracted attention in the context of a controversy over the successor to Frank Castorf, who will be replaced by Chris Dercon in 2017 . Chief dramaturge Carl Hegemann announced in March 2017 that the sculptor would have the sculpture dismantled when Castorf left. The dismantling is not only the wish of Haussmann, but also that of Castorf and "many employees" of the Volksbühne. The bike was dismantled into three parts and transported on a low-loader to Avignon, where Castorf staged in the summer of 2017. The admissibility of dismantling by Castorf under property law and copyright law was controversial; there was no protection under monument law. The dismantled and rust-covered robber's wheel has been stored in Berlin-Treptow since autumn 2017 .
After a comprehensive renovation on behalf of the Berlin cultural administration at a cost of around 25,000 euros in the workshop of the metal company Haber & Brandner in Berlin-Oberschöneweide, the sculpture was set up again on September 24, 2018 at the traditional Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Above all, the stability was improved, the "feet" were newly welded.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung : Designer has his “robber wheel” dismantled. News from March 21, 2017.
- ↑ Matthias Heine: The bike has to go! Welt.de from March 26, 2017.
- ↑ Stefan Alberti, Uwe Rada: Do they have their bikes off? , taz .de of March 23, 2017.
- ↑ Rüdiger Schaper: Castorf employees want to dismantle wheel sculpture. In: Tagesspiegel .de of March 17, 2017.
- ^ Rüdiger Schaper: Does Castorf want to kidnap the Volksbühnen wheel? Tagesspiegel.de of May 13, 2017.
- ↑ Hannes Soltau: No monument protection for a running bike. Tagesspiegel.de of March 23, 2017.
- ↑ Felix Hackenbruch The robber's wheel returns to the Volksbühne on September 12, 2018 [1]
