Everything You Never Knew You Wanted to Know About Berlin
Here are several photos of two famous sculptures from Viktoriapark in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
Out of six original and over 2-metre-tall hermas (sculptures with a head and torso as if growing out of a stone column) made by Berlin artists of great renown and unveiled in the park in 1898/1899, only three survived the last war.
Out of those three – presenting Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich Rückert (a poet and translator who knew 30 languages!) and Ludwig Uhland – two made it until today. Rückert´s herma was stolen at some unknown point in time before 1989. To prevent the equally sudden vanishing of the other two marble statues, the borough ordered their replicas made of cast aluminium and had them painted white for that extra “looks-real” touch.
The original works of Karl Pracht (he made von Kleist) and of Max Kruse (his was Uhland) were moved to the courtyard of the Leibniz-Schule (Leibniz Grammar and Secondary School) in Schleiermacherstrasse 23.
So here it is: Viktoriapark houses only replicas of the two hermas. And judging by the way they are being treated by some of the park visitors, hiding the originals was a pretty neat trick.