Schiller-Denkmal

Schiller-Denkmal stands on Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt, directly in front of the concert hall. The accessible monument honours Friedrich Schiller, the poet, philosopher and historian.

Reinhold Begas created the work during the nineteenth-century transition from late classicism towards neo-Baroque. A cube-shaped pedestal supports Schiller as a young man wearing a laurel crown. Four semicircular basins surround the base, each decorated with a lion-head water spout. Four allegorical figures represent lyric poetry, tragedy, history and philosophy. The monument emerged from celebrations of Schiller’s centenary and reached the square after wartime delays.

Lyric Poetry carries a harp with a swan’s head, while Tragedy holds a mask. History presents tablets bearing names including Goethe and Kant, and Philosophy holds a scroll with the words “Know Thyself.” The sculpture was removed during the Nazi era and restored in the nineteen-eighties. Together, the figures turn a Berlin square into a compact portrait of Schiller’s fields of work.