Schiller Monument (Stuttgart 1913)
The Schiller Monument in front of the Great House of the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart was designed by the Stuttgart sculptor Adolf von Donndorf , executed in marble by Richard Schönfeld and installed in 1913. The statue shows an idealized Schiller picture, according to Donndorf's intention "the immortal Schiller, [...] descending from Olympus with the golden Leyer ."
Another Schiller monument by Bertel Thorvaldsen from 1839 stands on Schillerplatz in Stuttgart .
location
The Schiller Monument is located in front of the transition between the Great House and the administrative building of the State Theater in the Upper Palace Garden in Stuttgart. It stands next to a high plane tree on the edge of a long lawn that extends towards the Little House. Schiller turns his back on the Little House and looks past the entrance to the Big House.
In a small space in a triangle in front of the houses of the state theaters, three sculptures from different artistic directions are arranged. A few steps away from Adolf von Donndorf's classical Schiller monument, closer to the small house, is the fountain of fate of his son Karl Donndorf , a work of Art Nouveau . A little further away, the abstract steel sculpture Ikarus by Wander Bertoni (the "Heiligsblechle") glistens in the sun in front of the Little House .
Site plan of the sculptures in front of the state theaters
Icarus
Well of Fate
Schiller Monument
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description
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Artist | Adolf von Donndorf |
| execution | Richard Schönfeld |
| Client | Wilhelm Spemann |
| Material statue / base |
Marble / granite |
| Dimensions statue / base |
380 cm / 134 × 155 × 140 cm |
| Inscription plinth in front |
Friedrich Schiller |
| Inscription plinth on the right |
A. Donndorf f. 1909 |
| Inscription at the back of the base |
Donated by Geh. Kommerzienrat Wilhelm Spemann 1912 |
| Emergence | 1905-1909 |
| Lineup | 1913 |
base
Schiller's marble statue stands on a thick square plate ( plinth ) that rests on an almost cube-shaped granite base. The base is unusually low for a colossal statue (a third of the height of the figure) and set into the ground at ground level, so that the viewer hardly has to lift his eyes to see Schiller's face. In Ludwig von Hofer's Ludwigsburg Schiller Monument from 1882, the pedestal is about the same height as the Schiller figure, so that the viewer has to look up at Schiller. The Schiller figure from Bertel Thorvaldsen's Schiller Monument from 1838 , which is located on Schillerplatz in Stuttgart, is even further removed from the viewer's gaze. The pedestal, which is as high as the figure, but much more massive, also rests on an expansive five-step staircase ten meters long.
It can be assumed that the base of Donndorf's monument, like the installation site, was a makeshift, because it was not Donndorf's intention to make the monument so “close to the people” that the viewer could almost shake hands with Schiller. One should also look up to Donndorf's Schiller, for him it was “the immortal Schiller, [...] descending from Olympus with the golden Leyer . He must appear proud and lonely. "
head
The towering, double life-size statue shows an idealized Schiller who boldly looks into the distance with a clear view. Donndorf, like Hofer before him, avoided the sometimes malicious criticism that Thorwaldsen's Schillerkopf had met with. Critics' displeasure was "especially aroused by the poet's posture with the bowed head and the expression on his face lost in thought." The full face with the sharply curved, narrow nose, the thinker's fold at the root of the nose and the energetic chin and mouth area as well as the long bare neck underline the impression of determined strength and the internalization of a thinker. The head is framed by a shoulder-length curly hair flowing downwards ("Schillerlocken") crowned by a laurel wreath, in ancient times the symbol of the poet who was crowned in the poet contest (" poeta laureatus ").
Donndorf had been familiar with Schiller's head since he worked on Ernst Rietschel's Goethe-Schiller monument in Weimar , when he cast Johann Heinrich Dannecker's bust of Schiller, which was created between 1796 and 1806. With Donndorf, Schiller's face appears “fuller and more mature than with Dannecker's”, and a comparison with Schiller's death mask suggests that Donndorf used this when designing the head.
body
Donndorf depicts his ideal Schiller in antique clothing, with a Roman tunic (undergarment) and the toga thrown over it , which is draped around the body with artistic folds and leaves the right forearm free. The free leg supports Schiller on a small stone block, as if he would lower stride from Olympus. Thorvald's and Hofer's Schiller figures wear the clothes that were common in Schiller's time and over them a floor-length, toga-like cape.
In his hands, as ancient poet attributes, Schiller carried a large lyre and a scroll, both of which are no longer preserved (see Schiller's hand ). The statues by Thorvaldsen and Hofer hold book and pen in their hands as contemporary attributes.
history
Clay model of Adolf von Donndorf's Schiller draped with cloth in his studio in Stuttgart, 1905.
Exhibition of the statue before the final installation, between 1907 and 1913.
Ludwig von Hofer's statue of Schiller in Ludwigsburg, 1882.
Plaster model of Bertel Thorvaldsen's Stuttgart Schiller statue, 1835.
prehistory
When Adolf von Donndorf created his statue of Schiller at the turn of the century, classicism was already fading, as was the monument mania of the 19th century. In 1839, the “first memorable Schiller monument in Germany” was erected in Stuttgart by Bertel Thorvaldsen . Ludwig von Hofer's statue of Schiller, which was modeled in 1850, was only erected in Ludwigsburg in 1882 , as there was no space in Stuttgart for a second Schiller monument. Donndorf already had experience with a Schiller monument , because decades earlier he had worked on Ernst Rietschel's Weimar Goethe-Schiller monument from 1857, for which he made an impression of Johann Heinrich Dannecker's Schiller bust.
In 1905, the Stuttgart publisher Wilhelm Spemann commissioned his friend Adolf Donndorf to create a statue of Schiller in the centenary of Friedrich Schiller's death. The seventy-year-old Donndorf initially executed the statue in clay within a few weeks, as there was not enough time until the anniversary for a plaster cast. For Donndorf, the assignment was “a matter close to the heart”, and it was his goal to “[depict] the immortal Schiller, very ancient, with the golden Leyer descending from Olympus, background starry sky, infinite space”.
The Schiller statue was to be set up for the Schiller Festival on May 9, 1905 in the ballroom of the Stuttgart Liederhalle . Nothing came of that, however, and Donndorf exhibited the figure in his studio at the art school. “Due to the shortage of time, he only modeled the body and head of the statue in clay, leaving out the drapery, which required a detailed study of the folds. At the exhibition it was replaced by a garment made of fine fabric, which Donndorf himself draped around the figure. ”The statue's laurel wreath, lyre and sandals were gilded (black in the picture), and a starry sky was stretched out behind the statue.
Colossal statue
Wilhelm Spemann now commissioned Adolf von Donndorf to execute the Schiller statue as a colossal statue in double life size (height: 380 cm) in marble. Incidentally, Spemann had the (futile) hope that general interest in the statue would revive on Schiller's 150th birthday in 1909. At the beginning of May 1906 Donndorf had the clay model, which he had made in its original size, cast in plaster. Due to his advanced age, he left the marble design to the Stuttgart sculptor Richard Schönfeld. Despite the approval of King Wilhelm II of Württemberg, the planned installation in the large house of the royal theater, which was under construction, was disrupted by the architect of the theater Max Littmann . “The reason for this rejection was certainly also the fact that the statue by no means corresponded to the prevailing zeitgeist; the monument cult of the middle of the century was no longer shared. ”After much back and forth, a place between the big and small house was chosen.
After the Second World War, the monument was moved a few meters in the direction of the Great House. At the current location, where it is easily overlooked, the monument ekes out a Cinderella. This continues the fate of the unloved statue, which had found a place with great difficulty. In the Donndorf Museum in Weimar, which opened on July 30, 1907, the plaster cast of the Stuttgart Schiller statue was placed between two other plaster casts from Donndorf until the museum was destroyed in 1945: the Luther statue from the Luther monument in Eisenach and the Bismarck statue from the Bismarck monument in Saarbrücken .
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Luther (Eisenach), Schiller (Stuttgart), Bismarck (Saarbrücken), photos: from 1907. |
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reception
"Donndorf firmly rejected all new ideas and trends in art [...]" and "stuck to his realism based on classicism." This may have been one of the reasons why Donndorf's friend Wilhelm Spemann had a hard time to accommodate the Schiller statue in public space. Max Littmann , the architect of the royal theater, refused to erect the statue in the Great House: “The reason for this rejection was certainly also the fact that the statue by no means corresponded to the prevailing zeitgeist; the monument cult of the middle of the century was no longer shared. "
The art historian Ulrike Fuchs judges in her monograph on Adolf von Donndorf:
- “The deified poet walks up the steps to Olympus in tunic and toga. The beautiful lines of the antique drapery and the deliberately noble design show that classicism has become an artificial language. With dress and style, the poet's conception of genius returns who, stripped of temporality, has found his kingdom in the eternal. Isn't an educational ideal evoked here that was already fading when the monument was created? "
The cultural journalist Irene Ferchl wrote in her book Stuttgart in 2000 . Literary milestones in the book city :
- The Schiller statue “shows the poet in antique garb, the laurel on his head, a scroll in the right hand, a lyre in the left - symbolizing poetry and drama. This classical figure documents a completely different image of Schiller than Bertel Thorvaldsen's monument on Schillerplatz, and certainly not the young, wild author of the robbers ! "
Donndorf's Schiller statue was hardly noticed by art critics, in contrast to Thorvaldsen's statue. As a work by an international artist, it naturally attracted much more attention. The fact that Thorvaldsen's statue was the first significant Schiller statue at all and also that it was placed in the center of a square and not at a corner location like Donndorf's statue also contributed to this.
Schiller's hand
Intact Schiller statue, 1907.
Schiller without lyre, 2005.
Schiller with an amputated right forearm, 2014.
Since mid-2014, Schiller has been missing his right hand, in which he was carrying a scroll, and part of his forearm, so that only a stump of an arm could be seen. The local press had noticed this in part and headlined, among other things: “Friedrich Schiller is missing an arm. Marble statue in the palace garden damaged ”. A police spokesman could not say “whether it was willful destruction or just the collateral damage of a high-spirited climbing tour”. In 2017 Schiller's writing arm was restored.
The poet's left hand originally held a lyre , of which only a handle remained, so that a superficial observer might think that Schiller was holding the model of a building in his hand. The lyre seems to have been lost for many years. It was also not restored as part of the restoration of Schiller's writing arm in 2017.
literature
General
- Ulrike Fuchs: The sculptor Adolf Donndorf. Life and work. Stuttgart 1986, pages 55–56, illustrations: pages 26, 57, catalog raisonné number 15: pages 112–113.
- Hans-Ernst Mittig (editor); Volker Plagemann (editor): Monuments in the 19th century. Interpretation and Criticism. Munich 1972, pages 155-156, 387 (number 45).
- Johannes Proelß : Adolf Donndorfs colossal figure Schiller. In: Over land and sea. Deutsche Illustrirte Zeitung 1910, number 17, page 439.
- Wilhelm Spemann. In: Wilhelm Schulte: Westphalian heads. 300 life pictures of important Westphalians. Munster 1984.
- Gustav Wais : The Schiller City Stuttgart. A representation of the Schiller sites in Stuttgart. Stuttgart 1955, page 74.
Auxiliary literature
- Irene Ferchl : Stuttgart. Literary milestones in the city of books. Stuttgart 2000, page 38.
- Bärbel Küster (editor); Wolfram Janzer (photos): Sculptures of the 20th Century in Stuttgart , Heidelberg 2006, pages 61–63 (Ikarus by Wander Bertoni).
- Patricia Peschel: The Stuttgart court sculptor Johann Ludwig von Hofer (1801 - 1887), work monograph. Stuttgart 2009, pages 116-136, 274-277 (Schiller monument by Ludwig von Hofer in Ludwigsburg, Schiller monument by Bertel Thorvaldsen in Stuttgart).
Web links
- The Schiller Monument in the Upper Palace Garden, in front of the Great House, is missing an arm : Gablenberger-Klaus-Blog .
- Historical photo of the monument in inventory E 18 III of the Ludwigsburg State Archives .
- List of Schiller monuments .
Footnotes
- ↑ #Fuchs 1986 , page 55th
- ↑ # Küster 2006 .
- ↑ f. = fecit = created by.
- ↑ Go. Kommerzienrat = Secret Kommerzienrat.
- ↑ #Fuchs 1986 , page 55th
- ↑ #Peschel 2009 , page 125.
- ↑ #Fuchs 1986 , page 56th
- ^ #Wais 1955.1 , page 76.
- ↑ #Peschel 2009 , page 126.
- ↑ #Fuchs 1986 , page 55th
- ↑ #Fuchs 1986 , page 55th
- ↑ #Fuchs 1986 , page 56th
- ↑ #Fuchs 1986 , page 112th
- ↑ Post website from Weimar .
- ↑ #Fuchs 1986 , page 24, 26, # Proelß 1910 .
- ↑ #Fuchs 1986 , pp. 22-23.
- ↑ #Fuchs 1986 , page 56th
- ↑ #Mitte 1972 , page 155.
- ↑ #Ferchl 2000 .
- ↑ Schwäbisches Tagblatt ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2014 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. from July 23, 2014.
Coordinates: 48 ° 46 ′ 48 ″ N , 9 ° 11 ′ 3 ″ E