Stephanienbrunnen (Karlsruhe)
The Stephanienbrunnen (also: Stephaniebrunnen, fountain on Stephanplatz, Monumentalbrunnen, Stephanplatzbrunnen, Stephansbrunnen etc.) is a fountain on Stephanplatz in Karlsruhe .
history
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Karlsruhe city administration decided to support young artists and appointed a commission of painters, sculptors and architects. In 1901 they decided to equip Stephanplatz with a fountain. In 1903, the architect Hermann Billing , who was a member of the artists' commission, was commissioned to create a monumental fountain for this location without prior competition. Billing planned a well basin in the middle of which the figure of a spring nymph should be. This bronze figure was designed by the young sculptor Hermann Binz (1876–1946).
The portrayal of the naked nymph met with resistance from the city council. Thereupon, in a modification of their plans, Billing and Binz placed the spring nymph decentrally on a flat base and without the originally planned canopy in the basin, which has a diameter of about ten meters. 14 pillars were placed around the well to support a ring-shaped entablature. On the inside of these pillars, faces were attached as gargoyles, which keep the spring nymph in view. Binz worked out the facial features as caricatures of well-known Karlsruhe personalities - in particular, he selected opponents of the fountain project who had rejected the naked nymph figure.
The construction of the well was completed in 1905. Large sections of the population initially reacted indignantly to the plant.
Between 1999 and 2001, the neighboring main post office was converted into the Postgalerie shopping center and Stephanplatz was redesigned; In the course of this work, the fountain was restored and reconstructed.
Portrayed people
- Karl Schnetzler , Lord Mayor
- Viktor Roman , painter
- Karl Ruf , photographer
- Otto Eichrodt , painter, as a faun
- Ludwig Dill , painter
- Wilhelm Trübner , painter
- Hans Thoma , painter
- Friedrich Fehr , painter
- Otto Büttner, city councilor and businessman
- Reinhard Baumeister , architect
- Hermann Baumeister , painter
- Ludwig Käppele, city councilor and master butcher
- Hermann Binz
- Hermann Billing
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ City of Karlsruhe: Stephanie fountain
Coordinates: 49 ° 0 '29.7 " N , 8 ° 23' 39.3" E