Statues - Hither & Thither |
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Halberstadt
Lkr. Harz Sachsen-Anhalt Hinter dem Richthause / Fischmarkt |
Die VerführungThe Temptation |
Bernd Göbel
1996/98 |
Sculpture of the devil sitting on a stele with his legs wrapped around it. He stretches his arms crossed and hands the viewer two things. In the left hand lies a cup, in the right a church model. His face is friendly, and only the small devil horns on the forehead reveal that the eternal gambler is looking for his comrades here.
The sculpture is an interpretation of an old legend about the building of the Halberstadt Cathedral: When the Cathedral was being built, Lucifer came along and asked the master builder what they were building. "It's going to be a tavern," was the answer. That made the devil very happy and moved on. When he later returned he found that the new building didn't look like a tavern. He climned on the tower of the cathedral and spat poison and bile at the builders. "You lied," he shouted down, "this will be a church and not a tavern." The devil wanted to throw a rock onto the nave and smash it in pieces when the master builder called out: "The tavern is still coming, and indeed right next door." The stone slipped out of the devil's hands and fell next to the church, where it still lies and bears the name Lügenstein (Lying stone).
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On the column is the text fo the legend:
des teufels höffnung / er habe das WIRTSHAUS mitgebaut /
erfüllt sich nicht (auch teufel irren d.v.) / alles wollte er nieder-
reissen / aber es kam zum HANDEL / die dombauer errichteten.
neben dem dom einen domkeller / wohl zu beider freude /
nachts halt der teufel den bau zu errichten / schnell wuchs der DOM /
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