Statues - Hither & Thither

 

Description

Upper section

1

2

3

4

1. Handel und Industrie / Trade and Industry. Personification of trade - a woman with the kerikaion (Hermes' staff) - and the personification of Industry - with leather apron - holding a cartouche with Beuth's name and dates: P.C.W. BEUTH | geb. xxviii dec. mdcclxxxi | gest. xxvii sept. mdcccliii
2. Verschwisterung der Kunst und Industrie / Close union of art and industry - Two women, with in the background objects of art and industry.
3. Die Zöglinge des Gewerkeinstituts, denen der Genius sein Licht gibt / The pupils of the Commercial Institute, to whom the genius gave light - Two students and a woman with two torches.
4. Die Arbeit von der Wissenschaft unterwiesen / Work is instructed by Science - symbol of science is a representation of the Pythagorean theorem, that of industry a cog-wheel.

The relief frieze

Front

Gropius, Wedding, boy, Stutzer, Brix, Nottebohm, von Pommer-Esche, Severin and Schubarth

• Weberei / Weaving. Two men are inspecting the cloth at a Jacquard Weaving Loom - they are (left) Carl Gropius (1781-1854), Producer of silk, and gold and silver fabrics, and (right) Wedding (1798-1872), Fabrikencommissionsrath. Stutzer, a foreman of the Institute checks the machine. A boy fills the quill shuttle with a new quill.
• Das Gewerbeinsitut / The Commercial Institute. In the right part four men are listening to a fifth in the Gewerbeinstitut in the Hackesche Palace. The speaker is Ernst Ludwig Schubarth (1797-1868), professor of chemistry. Stitting at the table are (left) von Pommer-Esche (1803-1870), Beuth's successor at the Gewerbeinstitut, and (right) J.F. Severin (1762-1861), 'Fabriken-Commissionsrath' (right). Standing are (left) Brix (1798-1840), 'Oberingenieur des Telegrafenamtes', teacher for applied mathematics at the Gewerbeinstitut and the Bauschule; and (right) Friedrich Nottebohm (1808-1875), director of the Gewerbeinstitut.

Right

Wöhlert, Freund, student, Borsig, Egells and two students of fellows

• A foundry, with Johann Friedrich Ludwig Wöhlert (1797-1877, Wikipedia), constructor of steam engines, and Julius Freund. The three other persons are students or fellows of Beuth's Gewerbeinstitut. (This part was on a German stamp at the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Borsig's death).
• A forge: August Borsig (1804-1854, Wikipedia) holds a staff-like forging in his bare hands and Franz Anton Egells (1788-1854, Wikipedia) using the hammer on the forging.
  

Back

Woman, Girl, Dannenberger, Hummel, small boy, Alexander von Humboldt and three students operating the printing machine

• Kattundruck / Calico Printing. A Calico printing machine, where the calico printer Johann Friedrich Dannenberger (1786-1873) and mechanical engineer Johann Caspar Hummel (1774-1850) are working.
• Schnellpressenbuchdruck / Offset Printing Press. The printing office, where kosmos | entwurf | einer physischen | weltbeschreibung is printed. Alexander von Humboldt enters to check the first proofs.
  

Left

Mother with two children, Drake, Kiss, boy, Daguerre, Goethe, Schinkel, Rauch and Eytelwein

• Photographie / Photography. Louis Daguerre (1787-1851, Wikipedia) makes a photo of a mother and two daughters - a motive similar to a Caritas-group Drake had made earlier. In the background the sculptors Drake and Kiss are looking at this modern technique to make an image identical with nature.
• Herausgabe der Vorlagen für Fabrikanten und Handwerker / Publication of templates for manufacturers and artisans. Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1787-1851, Wikipedia) sits at a desk with Johann Eytelwein (1764-1849) standing in front of him. Behind them stands the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch (1777-1857, Wikipedia), who is looking at Goethe pointing at his quote: denn die natur ist aller meister meister | sei zeigt uns erst den geist der geister.

Brix, Nottebohm, von Pommer-Esche, Severin and Schubarth	Alexander von Humboldt	Printing machine
Boy filling the quill shuttle	Drake and Kiss (background)	Daguerre

Signature

Annotation

Schinkelplatz

During the Second World War, the Schinkelplatz and the surrounding buildings suffered severe damage. Schinkel's statue was toppled from its pedestal, the monuments of Beuth and Thaer had suffered bullet and splinter damage. By 1949, the four caryatids from the base of Schinkel's statue and five reliefs of Thaer's statue were stolen. The Academy of Arts was demolished 1962 to make place for the new Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the German Democratic Republic (1966). The statues were placed in the Humboldt university and other locations in town. The ministry building was demolished in 1995/96 and the reconstruction of the Schinkelplatz started. Schinkel's statue returned in 1996, Beuth's in 1999 and a copy of the statue of Thaer in 2000 (the original is in the agricultural faculty of the Humboldt University). Landscaping was finished in 2008. There are plans to rebuild the Bauakademie - now you see scaffolding with a large image of the facade.

• Wikipedia, Schinkelplatz.
• Luise-Berlin, Hans Hauser, Denkmalrücken am Schinkelplatz.

Sculptors

• Friedrich Drake (Bad Pyrmont 1805-Berlin 1882), German sculptor (Wikipedia).
  
• August Kiß (Paprotzan bei Pleß 1802 - Berlin 1865), German sculptor (Wikipedia).

Sources & Information

• Bildhauerei in Berlin, Skulpturen in Mitte.
• Die Grenzboten: Zeitschrift für Politik und Literatur 25 (1866), Die Berliner Bildhauerschule, p. 238.
• Helmut Reihlen, Christian Peter Wilhelm Beuth (Köln, 1992), p. 63-71.
• Das Denkmal Beuth's in Berlin, Illustrirte Zeitung, No. 935, 1 June 1861, p. 375-377.

Tags

Locatie (N 52°30'59" - E 13°23'55") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

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