Year of construction:
Original: 1660-1668
Recast: 1896-1902
Design:
Original: Christopf Ritter, Georg Schweigger, Jeremias Eißler, Johann Wolrab
Recast: Friedrich Wanderer
Implementation:
Original: Christopf Ritter, Georg Schweigger, Jeremias Eißler, Johann Wolrab
Recast: Ernst Lenz
Standort:
Depiction:
On a cone-shaped bronze pillar rising from the center of the fountain basin stands a bronze statue of the Roman god Neptune, approximately one and a half times larger than life-size.
The posture and expression of the crowned Neptune statue give it an antique look.
The figure appears to be frozen in mid-movement, which is dramatically emphasized and staged by the trident pointing diagonally downward.
The central risalit is flanked by two Nereids (sea nymphs riding winged horses with flippers) and two nymphs with oars.
The horses are very reminiscent of the Triton horses of the Trevi Fountain in their movement, posture, and head shape.
The Nereids and Nymphs are very different and designed with very individual facial expressions. Schweigger is said to have modeled all of the figures after living models.
The ensemble is surrounded by groups of cherubs riding dragons, dolphins, and sea lions.
History:
In 1650, two years after the end of the Thirty Years' War and on the occasion of the conclusion of the Peace of Nuremberg, a plan was conceived to erect a fountain sculpture in a central location as a peace monument and a sign of the dawn of a new, more hopeful era.
As a monument to the Peace of Nuremberg and a memorial to the Thirty Years' War, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III commissioned the construction of the Peace Monument in Nuremberg in the same year, which was to be symbolically cast from melted cannons.
As a typical architectural fountain on Nuremberg's main market square, the Neptune Fountain was intended not only to commemorate the peace treaty, but also to represent the importance of the city. In many Italian cities, but also in Salzburg and Augsburg, large figurative fountains had already been built before the Thirty Years' War, which served as typological models.
Artists worked on the design of the Baroque fountain until 1656. In 1660, a model approximately nine meters high was completed, which served as the basis for the final casting templates. After all the castings had been completed, the imperial city of Nuremberg lacked the financial resources to erect the fountain and put it into operation.
The fountain was initially stored temporarily. In 1702, after the death of Jeremias Eißler, the last artist involved, the fountain was assembled and provisionally erected without water flowing. It was never installed on the main market square.
In 1797, the city sold the Neptune Fountain for the equivalent of around €500,000 today to Tsar Paul I, who had it shipped to St. Petersburg at his own expense and installed in the Peterhof Palace in a significantly altered composition.
In 1881, art historian Friedrich Wanderer campaigned for the "recovery of what had been lost." In 1895, the Imperial Foreign Ministry negotiated the repurchase of the fountain, which Tsar Alexander III rejected.
With the permission of the Russian Tsar, plaster mold maker Ludwig Leichmann took impressions of the original figures in Peterhof in 1896.
The Neptune Fountain we see today is therefore a replica made from a cast.
Commercial councillor Ludwig Gerngros, acting as patron, covered the costs of a second casting and the construction of the fountain on condition that it be erected at its originally planned location, the main market square.
On October 22, 1902, the fountain was inaugurated slightly south of the central axis of the Frauenkirche portal as a spatial counterpoint to the "Schöner Brunnen" (Beautiful Fountain).
The Neptune Fountain was considered an outstanding attraction, which was listed in contemporary Nuremberg travel guides. The high quality of craftsmanship of the cast, which is in no way inferior to the original, is still praised today.
During the Nazi era, the donor plaque was initially removed (1933) at the instigation of Julius Streicher, the Franconian Gauleiter and publisher of the anti-Semitic hate publication "Der Stürmer", because Gerngros had been a German of Jewish faith.
The fountain (referred to by the Nazis as the "Judenbrunnen" or "Jewish fountain") obstructed the marches and rallies for the Reich Party Congresses, which until 1935 were still held on the main market square.
After initial resistance, the fountain was removed in the summer of 1934 on the orders of Adolf Hitler. In 1937, the fountain was moved to Marienplatz (now Willy-Brandt-Platz) outside the old town, directly in front of the Gauhaus of the NSDAP.
In 1960, the group of figures on the fountain, which stood in the way of traffic planning on what was then Marienplatz (now Willy-Brandt-Platz), was dismantled and moved to its current location in 1962, where it was placed in an existing concrete basin in the city park. The original fountain basin was put into storage.
Various initiatives have repeatedly called for the fountain to be returned to its original location on the main market square, but these calls have been rejected each time by the Nuremberg City Council.
The fountain's dedication as a symbol of peace and international understanding has been largely forgotten.
Reference:
Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Neptunbrunnen_(Nürnberg)
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