Maximilian Fountain
Maximilianbrunnen rises nearly five metres above the market square, a tall fountain crowned by a figure in armour. Leonhard Baumhauer of Tübingen created it in 1570, setting Emperor Maximilian the Second on top with a sceptre of stone. From that height the emperor looks over the square where people met, traded and drew water.
The politics behind the figure reach further back than 1570. Around 1180 the town received its market rights, and guild rights later became central to its independence as a free imperial city. The townspeople built the fountain to encourage the emperor to restore those rights, and in 1578 they were returned. Daily life ran through the basin as well: until 1900 it served as a watering place for animals.
Water defines the wider town too: 86 fountains stand across the municipal area, and 31 of them are fed by natural springs. Such abundance made fountains part of everyday public life, yet this one carries a particular story about rights and independence. Look up at the raised arm and the sceptre, a ceremony held still above a basin where animals drank for centuries.
- City
- Reutlingen
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Image: Reinicke & Rubin, MagdeburgPublic domain
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