Artwork Details
- Title
- Goethe
- Artist
- Heinrich Carl Johann Manger (1833 – 1891)
- Year
- 1890; installed 1891
- Location
- Horticulture Center grounds (Belmont Avenue and North Horticultural Drive, West Fairmount Park)
- Medium
- Bronze, on granite base
- Dimensions
- Height 8'6″ and 9' (bases 11′)
Artwork Description
This bronze sculpture was commissioned by the Canstatter Volksfest-Verein, a local German-American organization, and is a companion piece to Schiller by the same artist and located on the Horticulture Center grounds.
Both artworks honor Germany’s great men of letters, who were frequent collaborators and friends. The artist Manger studied briefly at the Dresden Academy in Germany but was largely self-taught.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), excelled in literature, drama, theology, and science. His greatest work, the dramatic tragedy Faust, was published in its entirety after his death.
Artwork Credits
Commissioned by the Canstatter Volksfest-Verein, a German-American organization
Owned by the City of Philadelphia
Artwork Media
Museum Without Walls
Voices:
LILIANE WEISSBERG is Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the co-author of Cultural Memory and the Construction of Identity (with Dan Ben-Amos).
HARDY VON AUENMUELLER is Chairman of the Board of The German Society of Pennsylvania, founded in 1764 to assist German immigrants. Today the organization furthers the understanding of German and German-American contributions to American history and culture.
HEINZ-UWE HAUS is an internationally renowned theater director who was born and educated in Germany. Haus now teaches at the University of Delaware. He is the author of Performing and Performance.
Producer: Jonathan Mitchell