Why is the fox looking down so spellbound? Because he wants to see his reflection in the fountain bowl? Because a real-life fox stares down the rabbit hole with similarly pricked ears? Or because he is hoping these days on a raised stele post that his tapering pillar and water basin will finally be freed from the tent-shaped winter casing?
The fox fountain in the Cecilien Gardens in Schöneberg is not only popular with children. The adult residents also like to discuss the unusual line of sight of the slender creature.s And because they know that children love the fountain water not least – for baking sand cakes on the playground next door – they have the gate between the two-tiered fountain octagon and locked the sandbox with a chain lock. The short way was simply too convenient – which regularly led to the well being clogged with sand and molds.
Max Esser, the creator of the Fox Fountain, was a student of August Gaul, who created the Hirschbrunnen in Schöneberg’s Rudolph-Wilde-Park in the same year, 1912. Here, too, the game is enthroned on top of a column, elegantly gilded, but not nearly as elegant as the verdigris bronze fox. It’s one of Esser’s few public works – maybe that’s why the fox is looking down. Is he offended, does he feel misjudged? Hello, is nobody looking up to me? Well, the sculptor later made it onto the National Socialists’ list of God-gifted people.
The fox stele was not erected until after the First World War, when the beautiful 1920s housing estate of the Ceciliengarten, with Art Nouveau elements, was built. The green area between the houses is shared by the fox with a fountain, rose beds and two bronze statues by Georg Kolbe, the lolling “Morgen” and the “Evening” figure with tiredly dropped hands.
At the southern end of the Cecilien Gardens, not far from the studio gatehouse where the painter Hans Baluschek originally lived, there is a reference to a historic Fuchs-Klau on an information board on the history of the settlement. Hans, you stole the fox? No, it happened later, in 1945 the fox was suddenly gone. Thanks to a police search, he found himself in a garbage can in a colony of colonies in Neukölln. The fountain was then reactivated in 1961. Since then, the fox has stood on his pillar again and taken care of himself.
Every Sunday, the “Berlin Truffle” series presents works of art in public space.
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Source: Tagesspiegel
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