Fountain of Wishes

The Fountain of Wishes is a bronze statue of a urinating policeman in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. Often called the Pinkelnder Polizist or Osnabrücks Manneken Pis, the figure stands in the middle of the city on the Hase river beside the Çanakkale Bridge. Across the street on Schillerstraße the Haarmannsbrunnen fountain can be seen. The work was made for the COLOSSAL art project marking the 2,000th anniversary of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 2009. Artist Fernando Sánchez Castillo produced four sculptures for the project, and this one was placed first on the Conrad-Bäumer Bridge before being moved in 2012 to its present spot. The bronze weighs three tonnes and had to be lifted by crane while the river level was lowered briefly. A red mushroom button under a sign reminds visitors they are responsible for their own actions. Pressing the button makes the statue’s stream shoot towards the pad, encouraging playfulness while delivering its message. In winter the water feature is turned off.