Berlin – Grandma sat as a model so that her grandson, the sculptor Reinhold Begas (1831–1911), could complete his work, the Schiller Monument for Berlin. His wife Margarethe did the same, as did two other ladies from the artist’s circle of acquaintances: the wife of the painter and writer Ludwig Pietsch as well as one who is no longer identifiable today and who was called “Fräulein Busse” in the contemporary press.
The monument on the Gendarmenmarkt includes five full sculptures: one by Friedrich Schiller on the plinth designed as a fountain and four symbolic plinth figures at each corner, which relate to his fields of work. When Schiller died in 1805, Begas had not yet been born and therefore did not know what the former looked like. The sculptor is therefore likely to have used existing portraits of the poet as sources of inspiration for the creation of his Schiller sculpture.
On the one hand, three of Schiller’s four areas of activity were closely linked to the idea of the muses in ancient mythology. The poet, on the other hand, had used certain substances and terms in his works (for example the poems “Hector’s Farewell”, “The Cranes of Ibycus”; the magazines “Die Horen”, “Musen-Almanach”) to illustrate how important antiquity was was for him. So what was more natural for Begas to base his design of the symbolic figures for the memorial on the ancient iconography of the three muses Klio (history), Melpomene (tragedy and funeral song) and Erato (poetry, especially love poetry) and a similar one for philosophy invent?
Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Manfred Brückels
story
Allegorical Figure 1: The sculpture that embodies the story holds a writing board with the names of Lessing, Kant and Goethe on the back.
Klio appears on his work with a labeled board (analogous to the usual open roll of books) and a stylus in his hands as well as next to other boards to his left. Melpomene has a mask with drooping corners of his mouth on his right as a traditional symbol. This originally included a now lost dagger in the left hand. Erato, on the other hand, is also traditionally represented with a nine-string lyre. In addition, instead of holding the arrow of eros in one hand, she herself is presented with a half-bare chest in a modernizing way, presumably to eroticize men looking at them.
Presumably as an allusion to the numerous works of important scholars, the philosophy appears with a scroll in hand, which is inscribed in ancient Greek with one of the legendary, allegedly carved sayings of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi: “Know yourself.”
Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Manfred Brückels
Poetry
Allegorical Figure 2: The sculptor Begas equipped the figure representing the lyric poetry with a gooseneck harp.
Since Schiller’s four creative areas are all female linguistically and the three muses are mythologically women, a corresponding representation was obligatory for the sculptor. Through his work and the exemplary contribution of the four women who are related and well-known to him, he has also set a monument for them to this day: his grandmother in the dignified senior figure of philosophy, his then 22-year-old wife in the young one, similar to her model with a curly, hair combed back (but here longer) coiffed figure of Klio, Frau Pietsch in the sculpture of Melpomene as a mature woman and “Fräulein Busse” in the youthful Erato.
When on November 10, 1871 at eleven o’clock on the occasion of Schiller’s 112th birthday, Begas’ work, the Schiller memorial on the Gendarmenmarkt, was inaugurated with a ceremony, the memorial museums were the only female beings on the fairground. Neither her godmothers nor any other woman were there.
The contemporary press repeatedly referred to Friedrich Schiller as the “poet of women”. He had written (in his poem “Dignity of Women”): “Honor women! They plait and weave heavenly roses into earthly life ”. A journalist from Berlin’s Figaro would have found it nice if Schiller had been “surrounded by a wreath of young girls who scattered flowers at his feet” when he unveiled his monument. But alas! How different was the reality!
Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Manfred Brückels
Philosophy
Allegorical Figure 3: The philosophy portrayed as a sullen-looking woman holds a scroll with the ancient Greek text “Know yourself” in her hand.
The men stood tightly packed on the two stands and the podiums on the festival area in front of the theater, which was surrounded by a wooden fence.After all, the Berlin magistrate and the Schiller Committee had only invited the following organizers: members of the Reichstag, city councilors and city councilors, other municipal officials, teachers, the board of directors of the Berlin branch of the German Schiller Foundation and 25 journalists. Since the city councilors and Kaiser Wilhelm I as the former Prussian Prince Regent each approved 10,000 thalers for the construction of the monument, and the Berlin population had donated 12,860 thalers, the inauguration ceremony was not only a local, but also a national matter.
The Minister of Commerce, the Minister of Education and the Minister of Justice, among others, were present as guests of honor. Only men were involved in the festival program: 13 male choirs sang on the outside staircase of the theater at the beginning “A strong castle is our God” by Martin Luther and at the end the “Ode to Joy” by Friedrich Schiller and Ludwig van Beethoven. The military bandmaster Johann Heinrich Saro and his band concluded the event with Giacomo Meyerbeer’s “Schiller March”. Meanwhile, Berlin fraternity members marched three times around the monument in wichs and in their hands with flags from the Academic Gymnastics Club and the Academic Liedertafel zu Berlin.
Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Manfred Brückels
tragedy
Allegorical Figure 4: The allegory of tragedy appears with a determined expression. Reinhold Begas originally gave it the attributes dagger and mask, only the mask is still there.
Between the pieces of music, Reinhold Begas, standing with his assistants in front of the memorial, handed over his work to the city of Berlin, represented by its Lord Mayor Karl Theodor Seydel, his deputy Heinrich Philipp Hedemann and some city councilors and city councilors. The town councilor Hermann Duncker then gave a speech about the importance of Schiller, the monument for him and its history. Then, with the sound of trumpets and the participation of Schiller’s grandson, the painter Ludwig Freiherr von Gleichen-Rußwurm, the monument was covered.
Cheers from the people
And “the marble picture appeared, transfigured by the rays of the sun, greeted by the cheers of the people and the sounds of music,” enthused the Germania newspaper. The organizers had put so much effort into the program, but also decorating the square with medallions with quotations from Schiller, as well as flags and pennants with the coats of arms of the German states on masts painted in black, white and red. Nevertheless, the event was not well received by many of the men who were present. Because the figure of the “poet of women” had to do without women!
An “openly displayed antipathy against the most beautiful and better half of humanity” called the second supplement of the Königlich privilegierten Berlinische Zeitung the lack of women at the inauguration of the Schiller monument. There was hardly an article that did not report on it and directly or indirectly quoted the magistrate. He had ordered that the numerous policemen who were on foot and on horseback to ensure order on and around the festival area should “absolutely reject” women from the celebration.
According to the Berliner Börsen-Zeitung, this also applies to women who have “caught a ticket from dad or the communal-administrating spouse”. It was probably such women who, according to the Staatsbürger-Zeitung, tried to get to the fairground despite the ban. “But the harsh ‘back!’ of the policeman who prevented them from entering with the broadside of his horse, they had to give way. ”The organizers kept the reason for the misogynistic decision secret, and they did not have to make exceptions to the ban on women: The members of the imperial family watched the Schiller celebration from the windows the bel étage of the Seehandel in Jägerstrasse.
Poet of women
So the rest of the population filled the windows and roofs of the streets around the Gendarmenmarkt as well as the booths of the two churches, and hundreds of curious men, including a few women, crowded around the fairground gate from all sides. It was only in the afternoon that all people were able to take a closer look at the monument. However, the negative reactions from the press to the ban on women were considerable. At least one found it extremely strange that despite Schiller’s character as a “poet of women” it had been pronounced and enforced.
“Pfoi!” Was the simple verdict of the Kladderadatsch for the same reason. The national newspaper found that the ban on women would have “made the view of the stands a little gray and dull”, because men would be “from a picturesque point of view only a very poor decoration of a public festival”. Similarly, the Royal Privileged Newspaper opined that the leading authorities had deprived themselves of the most beautiful, freely available festive decorations, “that which the beautiful and elegant women give to a public celebration by being as numerous as possible in the stands”.
Finally, evidently embarrassed by the attitude of the party organizers, the journalist Julius Rodenberg, on behalf of many of his peers in the Neue Freie Presse, asked the women: “Forgive us, you ladies! We are not to blame, we missed you very much! ”If someone had told the members of the Berlin magistrate and the Schiller Committee back then, when women did not even have the right to vote, that their city would one day have a mayor – Louise Schroeder and Franziska Giffey – they would probably also have said “Pfoi!”.
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