#berlinsights.de today:
I passed by ‚Grosser Tiergarten‘, biking along colourful plants and roses well prepared for 2024 summer season. Searching for ‘WHO IS THE GREAT LADY CARRYING AN ARTICHOKE?’, I asked myself why the statue does not have any indication, so I searched the Internet. This is what I found:
Morgenpost (Sofia Marschow@2018) identified the Flora sculpture at Great Tiergarten as an object of hiking, as many statues seem to do. This seems what happened to Flora nearby the Great Star (German: Grosser Stern): the sculpture was put on a big base, jointly with a ‘Putto’ just like many such statues throughout Tiergarten, the 210 hectar-wide garden near Brandenburg Gate.
Under former elector of Brandenburg, animals were put and Tiergarten was created as hunting grounds for the Prussian elite. What later merged into an urban park for the people is what remains today. Obviously, the Flora sculpture had moved several times in-between, representing the antique mythology of the late 18th century. The statue stands for a Goddess of blossom and youth, yet it is also one of the oldest preserved sculptures of unknown descent, made of sandstone and granite. Earlier postcards around the year 1900 show the sculpture at Flora place amidst a rich baroque garden of those days.
While emperor Wilhelm II fostered his Roman idols, Flora was shifted, sooner or later, on a lawn at Hofjägerallee for several years. Having survived numerous damages throughout times, Flora was finally rescued in-house during the 1970s, and rejuvenated to return to Rosengarten in 1977. Refurbished once more in the early 2000s, today’s Flora is again the goddess of blossoms, her 200-year-old wisdom spreads unspectacular harmony and eternal security, somewhat mystical.
