Over a year ago, on 12 January 2023, the bronze statue by sculptor Gustav Seitz (1906-1969) left its old museum location in Fasanenstraße and has been waiting in the studios of the Hermann Noack fine art foundry to take its final place in Charlottenburg Palace Park.
On 22 August the time had finally come! Just in time for the Long Night of Museums, the Berlin-based company Scherhag-Steinmetzwerkstätten expertly positioned the almost 500 kg Kollwitz sculpture on the Franconian shell limestone plinth it had previously erected.
Like its counterpart on Kollwitzplatz in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, the museum’s bronze sculpture now stands as an open-air sculpture in front of the theatre building and shows visitors the way to the museum. Jan Kollwitz, the great-grandson of Käthe Kollwitz, was also impressed by the new home of Käthe Kollwitz during his recent visit to Berlin.
Our portrait figure of Gustav Seitz is the second casting, cast in the H. Noack fine art foundry, which was donated to the museum by Gustav Seitz’s widow, Luise Seitz, for the museum opening in May 1986. The first cast stands on Kollwitzplatz, formerly Wörther Platz, opposite the former home of Käthe Kollwitz in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district. Seitz created the sculpture at the end of the 1950s on behalf of the East Berlin magistrate. Back then, it was cast by the long-established foundry Seiler und Siebert.
The seated figure is over 2 metres high and shows an aged Käthe Kollwitz with a drawing portfolio on her left and a piece of coal in her right hand.
A detailed article on the exciting history of the bronze sculpture will soon be published in our multimedia guide.
