Märchenbrunnen

The Märchenbrunnen stands in the Schulenburgpark in Berlin’s Neukölln district. It is a protected ornamental fountain created by sculptor Ernst Moritz Geyger and installed in 1935. The park itself was laid out around 1913 and redesigned in the 1920s by garden director Ottokar Wagler. Today it is recognised as a garden monument. The fountain’s original name, Symbol des Waldesdomes, reflected its Jugendstil design with Gothic touches. The fountain’s history reflects political upheaval. Geyger received the commission in 1914, completed models by 1915, and cast bronze figures of a stag and hind with calf. After the First World War and the Spartakist takeover, the work was stored for years. In 1934 the Nazis installed it in the Schulenburgpark and renamed it the Märchenbrunnen after a propaganda event featuring children in costume. Bronze parts were melted down in the Second World War, leaving only the stone structure. A 1970 restoration replaced the lost animals with limestone sculptures by Katharina Szelinski-Singer. Visitors today see a low circular basin with an open pavilion at its centre. Eight decorated columns support a ring of slender turrets and once held water-pouring putti. On two outer pedestals stand Szelinski-Singer’s fairy-tale figures: a girl clinging to a rearing stag in the tale of Brüderchen und Schwesterchen, and a girl among birds sorting lentils for Aschenputtel. The surrounding park offers lawns and paths beneath mature trees, a quiet place for reflection beside the gently flowing water.