Friedrich Meinecke (20 May 1873 – 25 July 1913) was a German sculptor. Born in Winsen,

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, he worked as in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

.Michael Klant: ''Vergessene Bildhauer'' (''Forgotten Sculptors'') In: ''Skulptur in Freiburg'' (''Sculptures in Freiburg''), volume 2: ''Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts im öffentlichen Raum'' (''19th Century Art in Public Space''). Publishing House Modo, Freiburg 2000, , pp. 164–172, in particular p. 172

Gutenberg Group

The Gutenberg Group from around 1905 in the facade of the building of the former newspaper Freiburger Zeitung is one of the earliest works of Friedrich Meinecke which is still preserved today.

Monkey Fountain

The Monkey Fountain is a fountain on the outside wall of a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

in the historic center of Freiburg which was built in 1905 to replace an older

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

fountain in the same place. The bank built the fountain with the financial support of the city as a public water supply fountain. Friedrich Meinecke's sculpture depicts a monkey biting an apple. Water flows from the mouth of the monkey into a semicircular bowl and from there into one of Freiburg's streamlets. Symbolically, the monkey represents a man who ''must bite the sour apple'' (as they say in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

for being forced to do something unpleasant, i.e. having to bite the bullet) and pay the debts of another after carelessly having given bail.

Bacchus Fountain

The

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...

Fountain in Freiburg's suburb Herdern dates back to 1909. The sculpture of the boy on this fountain, created with

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

artificial stone Artificial stone is a name for various synthetic stone products produced from the 18th century onward. Uses include statuary, architectural details, fencing and rails, building construction, civil engineering work, and industrial applications su ...

, has also been interpreted as

Silenus In Greek mythology, Silenus (; , ) was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus. He is typically older than the satyrs of the Dionysian retinue ('' thiasos''), and sometimes considerably older, in which case he may be referred to as a Pa ...

.Rosemarie Beck, Roland Meinig: ''Brunnen in Freiburg'' (''Fountains in Freiburg''), Publishing House Rombach, Freiburg 1991, , p. 96

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meinecke, Friedrich History of Freiburg im Breisgau 19th-century German sculptors German male sculptors 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists 1873 births 1913 deaths