Bärenbrunnen (Berlin)

The Bärenbrunnen is a fountain in Berlin’s Mitte district, standing on Werderscher Markt before the Friedrichswerdersche Kirche. It shows a family of brown bears, the city’s heraldic animal, carved in stone. The original was made in the late 1920s by Hugo Lederer from Rochlitzer Porphyrtuff. War damage in 1945 destroyed the sculpture, and in 1958 Walter Sutkowski recreated it exactly at the same spot. Every part of the fountain is cut from red stone to match the neighbouring Bauakademie. An octagonal base 60 centimetres high and 3.5 metres wide supports four pairs of cubs playing around its sides. A mother bear watches over them from a second octagonal pedestal 70 centimetres tall. Small jets rise from basins set between the cubs. The rebuilt fountain carries a plaque on its plinth that tells the story of its destruction and rebirth. Kannelled fluting decorates the pedestal walls, and the figures stand at heights of 60 centimetres for the cubs and about 1.25 metres for the mother bear.