The Schiller monument in the Mitte district of Berlin stands in a central position on the Gendarmenmarkt, in front of the free staircase to the former royal playhouse, today's concert hall Berlin. The group of sculptures in honor of the poet Friedrich Schiller was created by Reinhold Begas, a prominent representative of the Berlin sculpture school in the 19th century. The monument was inaugurated in 1871, between 1936 and 1984 it was disassembled and outsourced. Since its reorganization in 1988, it has been a listed building. A bronze cast of the monument figure has been located in the Wedding district in the park named after Schiller since 1942.
All over Germany, celebrations were intended for the 100th birthday
of Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) on November 10, 1859. However, the
Berlin police chief Constantin von Zedlitz-Neukirch-eleven years after
the revolution of 1848-had a planned road parade for fear for fear of
unrest. On the other hand, Prince Regent Wilhelm (the "Kartätschenprinz"
from 1848 and later Kaiser Wilhelm I) donated 10,000 thaler for a
Schiller monument. The Berlin magistrate also provided 10,000 thaler, a
collection of the population resulted in another 12,680 thaler.
Since the early 1860s, the city council has been dealing with the
question of the form of the poet in several sessions, the project
"Places beautification matter" for the then Gensd’armes market was
raised from baptism. The three best -known German poets - Goethe,
Schiller and Lessing - should be honored with a monument.
A
Schiller comitée was founded for the Schillerenschung.
On the day
of the Schiller anniversary, a solemn foundation stone for the planned
monument in front of the Schauspielhaus took place. A draft was not yet
available at this point. The Berlin magistrate only wrote a competition
in 1861 in which 25 artists took part. An academic jury with the
participation of Adolf Menzel evaluated the proposals individually by
means of an expert opinion. The completion and ceremonial unveiling of
the monument was planned for 1869, on the 110th birthday of the poet.
At the beginning of 1864, the final decision - for Reinhold Begas,
was made against his toughest competitor Rudolf Siemering. In Berlin,
this was a first significant sign of the transition of late classicist
style forms in the succession of Christian Daniel Rauch on the formal
language of the neo -baroque, particularly in fabricity. For Begas, this
monument was the first major order of his career at the request of the
monument committee. As a result, he received orders for numerous
monumental sculptures. For the work on the Schiller monument, he had a
modern, hall-like studio built in Stülerstraße 4 in Stülerstraße 4 in
Stülerstraße 4 in Stülerstraße 4 in Berlin Tiergartenviertel. Due to the
Franco-German War in 1870/1871, the planned disclosure was delayed, it
finally took place on November 10, 1871, i.e. on the 112nd birthday of
Schiller.
The Schiller celebrations and corresponding
applications of a Friedrich Wilhelmstadt district association led to the
decision of the city council of describing the area of the
Gendarmenmarkt between Jägerstrasse and Taubenstrasse (from the end of
1871) as "Schillerplatz". The traffic and horticultural redesign and an
enlightenment of Schillerplatz were decided in March 1889 as a result of
the list of the monument.
Soon there was criticism from Berliners
and visitors that the “conservation of the monuments taken over by the
city left some things to be desired. In particular, it is the Schiller
monument that seems to be neglected in this regard. ”For example,
further beautification measures of the square (including the
construction of two large fountain fountains) and cleaning of the
monument were carried out by means of a sum of around 155,000 marks by
1895. .
The name Schillerplatz was lifted in 1936 after the
monument was removed and extensive renovation work on the area.
The poet's statue made of white marble stands in the middle of four
semicircular fountain shells on a post -agent of the basic shape of a
cube. This in turn has its place on a hexagonal increased pedestal, to
which five stages lead up.
The poet's figure shows a laurel
-contrasted young man in a confident attitude. The model for the head of
the statue was the Schillerbüste of the sculptor Johann Heinrich von
Dannecker, which was created in 1794, who was friends with the poet. The
foot of the monument is provided with wells and lion heads in the form
of water diverse, from which thin water jet has flocked since the public
inauguration of the monument. In 1902 the city administration brought
the fountain up and running again.
Four allegorical figures are
placed on the edge of the shells, with which the main creative areas of
the poet are symbolized: the poetry with a swan dairy on the left; The
tragedy on the right, originally provided with the attributes of dagger
and mask, only the mask is still available; The philosophy at the back,
in the hand a scroll with the ancient Greek text "Recognize yourself";
In the back the story, on their writing boards, alongside Schiller, the
names of Lessing, Kant, Goethe and other celebrities are recorded. In
addition to inscriptions that refer to Schiller, the post office carries
two small flat reliefs; They show how Schiller gets a lyre from the
muses and is introduced to the great poets of earlier times.
During the National Socialism period, the Gendarmenmarkt was
converted into a marching area. Instead of the horticultural jewelry
systems, large step plates were laid, the Schiller monument should be
reorganized in the Schillerpark. However, it fell over during
dismantling and was massively damaged. In a current newspaper report it
says: "In particular, when examining the damage, the damage has proven
to be so difficult that a permanent durable repair is no longer
possible." Above all, the foot plate was broken and the coat was
damaged, so that the statics no longer right. The plan for a realignment
in Schillerpark had to be given up, the parts were temporarily placed in
a shed in Treptow. As a resurrection, the figure should be re -poured
into bronze and then received the planned replacement location. The copy
made of bronze was poured out of the material of the removed Rathenau
fountain in 1941 and built in the southern part of the Schiller Park in
the Wedding district of today's Mitte district. (The monument to Emil
and Walther Rathenau, which has stood in the Volkspark Rehberge since
1930, had the National Socialists removed from its location in 1934 for
"ideological" reasons and melt in 1941.)
The restored marble
original of the Schiller statue without a stair podium and without a
fountain was in the Lietzenseepark since 1951, i.e. in the western
sectors of the city shared after the Second World War. The heavily
damaged allegorical figures of the monument were temporarily stored in
the Friedrichsfelde zoo in East Berlin. An east-west agreement on the
cultural exchange of May 6, 1986 was the prerequisite for the merging of
all preserved individual parts in East Berlin. In December 1988, the
partly reconstructed, partly restored monument was re -established at
the original town on the Gendarmenmarkt. However, the fountain function
was not restored.
When the Gendarmenmarkt was "revised" in autumn
2006, a comprehensive restoration of the Schiller monument had become
inevitable. The entire ensemble had to be freed from pollution, small
defects were supplemented and closed. The cast iron jewelry grille has
been rusted and added with a new coat of paint.