Taubenbrunnen (Cologne)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pigeon fountain
Overall view from above (back)
Overall view from above (back)
place Cologne
country Germany Germany
use Jewellery
construction time 1953
architect Ewald Mataré (sculptor)
Technical specifications
height 0.45 m
diameter 2.20 m
Floor space 20 (plate with mosaic) m²
Building material Basalt, iron, mosaic stones
Coordinates
location Coordinates: 50 ° 56 '28.4 "  N , 6 ° 57' 22.9"  E 50 ° 56 '28.4 "  N , 6 ° 57' 22.9"  E

The Taubenbrunnen is a fountain sculpture designed by Ewald Mataré and erected in 1953 in the Cologne district of Altstadt-Nord , located directly in front of the west side of Cologne Cathedral or the Domplatte .

Origin and inauguration

The sculptor Ewald Mataré designed the fountain as early as 1950 as a drinking place for the “cathedral pigeons” on the station forecourt. It was the first newly built fountain in Cologne after the Second World War and the city's first abstract fountain. It was financed by a foundation of the Bank für Gemeinwirtschaft in Cologne, which ultimately also had an influence on the final location: in front of the bank building on Domplatz (today Domforum ) , which was completed in 1953 .

The total cost of pigeons fountain were 16,730 DM ; the metalwork was carried out by the Franz Schwarz foundry in Düsseldorf.

At the end of July 1953 the foundation stone was laid and an "unknown pigeon" (made of marzipan) was sunk into the ground. At the inauguration on August 4th - a “small folk festival”, a “compellingly unholy celebration”, or in Mataré's words: “a lovely little cheerful affair” - people from culture, politics and banking were present, including a. Mayor Robert Görlinger , Josef Haubrich and Hermann Schnitzler . In the base of the fountain, a document signed by all those present was sunk, which Mataré read: "[...] that in this rushing, rushed time of the doves nesting on the towers of our cathedral, [...]" will be remembered. The artist recalled in his diary:

“A musician played the first verse of ' La Paloma' , then the shell was removed from the mosaic floor, and when the first water had filled the small basin in three small jets and now spiraled in the large bowl, the second and third sounded Verse, while a bottle of Steinhäger went from mouth to mouth, maybe 50 people were standing around the fountain. [...]. "

- Ewald Mataré : Diaries

According to several reports, no pigeons - at that time primarily understood as a symbol of peace - had appeared at the celebration.

Location and history

Location on Kardinal-Höffner-Platz, seen from the Domforum. Right the cathedral plate
Video

Historically, the location of the fountain was called either Unter Fettenhennen or “in front of the Domkloster  3 house” (= today's Cathedral Forum ); sometimes the term Am Domkloster or Domplatz is also found .

Since the area between Unter Fettenhennen and Trankgasse in front of the Domplattentreppe was given its own name in 2008, the address has been Kardinal-Höffner-Platz .

Originally the fountain was intended for the station forecourt, but was then set up on the edge of the cathedral forecourt, as the square in front of the station - according to an entry in Ewald Mataré's diary - does not belong to the city but to the railway. The chosen location then corresponds to the wishes of the founder, the Bank für Gemeinwirtschaft. Mataré continues:

“The objection that the pigeons won't find their way there so easily because they are constantly being fed in front of the station was ignored. Well, it will show. The dogs now have at least one drinking basin, this is the small and precisely the 3 thin rays, and if no pigeons should come, then certainly the sparrows, also the people, as I heard, cool their foreheads there with moistened handkerchiefs during these hot days . "

- Ewald Mataré

At that time the cathedral forecourt was still completely at street level, so that the cathedral portals could only be reached via a staircase that was closer to the cathedral than it is today. Since the construction of the Domplatte and the Domparkhaus underneath in 1970, the fountain has been directly in front of the stairs. Because of this, and because of the 10 m high concrete copy of the finial , which is only a few meters away , the deliberately reserved fountain fades into the background and is overlooked by many passers-by.

In the discussion about “clearing out” the urban space - increasingly from 2012 - the pigeon fountain played a role insofar as the dominance of the objects in its immediate vicinity was criticized - not only the finial replica, but also that through “50  bollards , [ ...] four different lamps, [...] garbage cans "resulting" conglomerate "at this point. Moving the finial to another location should be a first step towards making the fountain visible again. The city administration postponed the decision on this until the planned renovation of the cathedral area.

description

Pigeon fountain from the front

In an oval, 540 × 400 cm large mosaic field, which is bordered on two sides by a 45 cm high fence made of bent iron bars, there is a circular iron basin approx.2.20 m in diameter with a watercourse leading to the center in a spiral. At the rear of the fountain, a small circular basin is embedded in the mosaic border, adjoining the central metal basin, in the middle of which the water dispenser rises.

Water dispenser

The metal water dispenser, about the same height as the enclosure, sits on a square basalt block. This has the shape of an inverted square truncated pyramid that merges into a square cuboid at the top. From there the water flows from three small outlets or spouts into the spiral watercourse and on to the drain in the center of the fountain. The top cover of the water dispenser forms a metal lid that recedes behind the water outlets.

Mosaic pattern

The mosaic field is made up of equilateral tile triangles in four different colors - blue, white, gray, black. They are arranged so that the lighter colors optically form hexagons. The mosaic field is framed by a border of white and blue triangles. The strictly geometric mosaic pattern forms a contrast to the soft, round shapes of the watercourse and railing.

To the left of the fountain is a plaque embedded in the ground with the following inscription:

EWALD MATARÉ
1887 - 1965

PIGEON FOUNTAIN
1953

Bank for Community Economy, Cologne 1953

The inscription GEGOSSEN BEI FRANZ SCHWARZ DUESSELDORF 1953 is attached to the back of the water dispenser. There is a metal sign "No drinking water" on the top of the water dispenser.

Artistic classification

Details of the design

Ewald Mataré worked again as a professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy since 1946 , after he had been dismissed from his teaching post as a so-called “degenerate artist” during the Nazi era . During this time, however, he did work for church clients, including in Cologne. In 1947 he designed the new doors for the south portal of Cologne Cathedral, in 1955 the Stefan Lochner fountain in the courtyard of the Museum of Applied Art, and in 1956 the doors of the new Gürzenich .

The aesthetics of the pigeon fountain in its “expressive simplicity” fits seamlessly into Mataré's works from this period. Round shapes and a subdued and subtle aesthetic, such as that characterized the 1950s, can on the one hand be seen as a contrast to the Bauhaus style, on the other hand they are also typical of the delicate and small-scale decors of this time, which deliberately contrasted the monumentality during the time of the National Socialism formed.

The art historian Gerhard Kolberg ranks the fountain in the artist's love for animals and points to the symbolism of the dove as a symbol of peace in the devastated Cologne. The art historian Anke von Heyl rates the pigeon fountain as a “true masterpiece of aesthetic design” and emphasizes the special aesthetics of the snail-shaped watercourse, the shape of which can be found in the volutes of the surrounding railing.

Further reviews from more recent times emphasize the delicacy and subtlety of the fountain sculpture or its "unparalleled elegance". The former Cologne monument conservator Hiltrud Kier , who is responsible for its protection, calls it "intimate".

Conservation and monument protection

Typical mosaic damage (2017)

In May 1989 the pigeon fountain was added to the monuments list of the city of Cologne under the number 4976 .

Parts of the mosaic tiles in the pigeon fountain regularly come loose and have to be repaired. In previous repairs, the mosaic was renewed without blue stones - not according to the original pattern. Since 2006 there has been an agreement between the office of the city ​​curator and the Cologne cathedral building administration , according to which the city provides the material and a craftsman from the cathedral building works regularly carries out necessary repairs. Like Mataré, the stonemason Markus Schroer again used a red mortar for the joints and gradually reconstructed the original pattern.

reception

The writer Hans Bender dedicated one of his four-line poems to the Taubenbrunnen (Taubenbrunnen in front of Cologne Cathedral), in which he sketched the observation that the pigeons quench their thirst not in the well designed for them, but in the neighboring puddles.

Since 1960 the city administration of Cologne began to act against the increasing pigeon populations at the cathedral and other places in the city. In a heated debate ten years after the construction of the pigeon fountain between animal rights activists, private pigeon breeders, the city administration and the health department about the method of pigeon control, which was received as a prussic acid campaign beyond the city limits , the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger commented : “A monument for the gassed animals we already have: the pigeon fountain in front of the cathedral. "

literature

  • Gerhard Kolberg, Karin Schuller-Procopovici, Peter Nestler : Sculpture in Cologne. 20th century images in the cityscape. Museum Ludwig, Cologne 1988.
  • Sabine Maja Schilling: Ewald Mataré: The plastic work. Wienand Verlag, Cologne 1994, ISBN 978-3-87909-167-6 .

Web links

Commons : Taubenbrunnen (Cologne)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ewald Mataré: Diaries . Hegner, 1973, ISBN 978-3-7764-0205-6 , pp. 267 .
  2. ^ A b Yvonne Plum, Thomas Plum: The Cologne Old Town Guide . A tour through a lively district. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7616-1353-9 ( texts of the out-of-print book at cologneweb.com ).
  3. ^ Sabine Maja Schilling: Ewald Mataré, the plastic work . 2nd Edition. Wienand, Cologne 1994, ISBN 978-3-87909-167-6 , pp. 235 .
  4. ↑ nr: The pigeon fountain by Ewald Mataré . In: Cologne Archive . tape 3 , K03055. Archive publishing house.
  5. ↑ a b c pigeon fountain. In: Cologne cultural heritage. Rheinisches Bildarchiv Cologne, accessed on January 8, 2017 .
  6. ^ Culture group in the Federal Association of German Industry: Annual ring . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1965, p. 328 .
  7. ↑ a b Anna folding rear: good, old Cologne. Matarés pigeon fountain under the cathedral towers . In: From makeshift to the art of prosperity. Art in the Rhineland in the post-war period . DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7701-1165-6 , p. 47-48 .
  8. ↑ a b c d e Sabine Maja Schilling: Ewald Mataré, the plastic work . 2nd Edition. Wienand, Cologne 1994, ISBN 978-3-87909-167-6 , pp. 235 .
  9. ↑ a b spinx: With La Paloma and Schabau: "Water march" . Taubenbrunnen at the cathedral handed over to the care of the city - "... hope that the pigeons too ..." In: Kölnische Rundschau . (Local). Cologne August 5, 1953, p. 1 .
  10. ^ Sabine Maja Schilling: Ewald Mataré, the plastic work . 2nd Edition. Wienand, Cologne 1994, ISBN 978-3-87909-167-6 , pp. 235 .
  11. ↑ el: Will the pigeons come? Matarés pigeon fountain was inaugurated on Tuesday evening. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . (Across Cologne), No. 180 . Cologne August 5, 1953, p. 9 .
  12. ^ A b c Gerhard Kolberg, Karin Schuller-Procopovici, Peter Nestler: Sculpture in Cologne . 20th century images in the cityscape. Ed .: Museum Ludwig. Cologne 1988.
  13. ↑ a b Complete list of monuments in Cologne as of May 22, 2015. City of Cologne, City Conservator, May 22, 2015, accessed on January 8, 2017 .
  14. ^ Cologne gets a Kardinal-Höffner-Platz. In: koelner-dom.de. May 5, 2008, accessed January 8, 2017 .
  15. ↑ A new structure plan for the grid square. A project by Markus Ambach and Kay von Keitz as part of the Cologne City Laboratory on behalf of the City of Cologne. In: The urban congress. 2012, p. 18 , accessed on January 8, 2017 (January 1 to June 30, 2012).
  16. ↑ Uta Winterhager: “The problem is not art, but its current context”. Markus Ambach on the urban congress in Cologne. In: bauwelt.de. 2012, accessed January 8, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Susanne Happe: Location issue solved. The finial in front of Cologne Cathedral is allowed to stay. In: Kölnische Rundschau rundschau-online.de. December 22, 2015, accessed January 8, 2017 .
  18. ↑ a b c Anke von Heyl: Around the cathedral. In: kulturtussi.de. January 11, 2013, accessed January 8, 2017 .
  19. ^ Gerhard Kolberg: The sculptor Ewald Mataré in Cologne . In: Communications of the Rhenish Association for Homeland Care and Landscape Protection . No. 3/1987 . Rheinland-Verlag, 1987, ISSN  0342-1805 , p. 187-188 .
  20. ↑ Public space - space for the future (part 1 / recording). Recording of the Monday conversation of the BDA Cologne, on September 25, 2000 in the Domforum. In: koelnarchitektur.de. September 25, 2000, accessed January 8, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Melanie Weidemüller: It has to do with you. (No longer available online.) In: stadtrevue.de. June 2011, archived from the original on January 8, 2017 ; accessed on January 8, 2017 . 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.stadtrevue.de
  22. ^ Hiltrud Kier: Architecture and Art. Cologne. In: Reclam's city guide . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-15-018564-3 , p. 162 .
  23. ^ Barbara Schock-Werner: 46th cathedral report . From October 2004 to September 2005. In: Zentral-Dombau-Verein zu Köln (Hrsg.): Kölner Domblatt. tape 70 . Verlag Kölner Dom, Cologne 2005, ISBN 978-3-922442-60-8 , p. 34 .
  24. ^ Hans Bender: Pigeon fountain in front of the Cologne Cathedral . In: In my way. Poems in four lines . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-446-23869-5 , pp. 11 .
  25. ↑ Nina Grunenberg: The least evil: Prussic acid. In: THE TIME. April 19, 1963. Retrieved January 13, 2017 .
  26. ^ NG: The Cologne Pigeon War. Second part: The malice of the city administration. In: THE TIME. May 3, 1963. Retrieved January 13, 2017 .
  27. ↑ Jürgen Becker : fields, margins, surroundings . Suhrkamp Verlag, 1983, ISBN 978-3-518-04468-1 , p. 44 .