Goethe Monument

The Goethe Monument on the eastern edge of the Großer Tiergarten in Berlin honors the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Made of Carrara marble, the work was created by Fritz Schaper in the Neo-Baroque style between 1876 and 1880. It is considered one of the most important works of the Berlin school of sculpture. The 6-meter-tall monument stands on Ebertstraße between the Brandenburg Gate and Lennéstraße, directly across from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Visitors can admire the roughly 2.72-meter-tall statue of the poet atop a round pedestal. The tiered base bears three allegorical groups of figures that symbolize different aspects of Goethe's work: a muse with a lyre and Eros for lyric poetry; a seated woman with writing implements and a genius holding a downward-pointing torch for dramatic poetry; and a woman reading for scientific research.

The monument's history has been marked by changing fortunes. After suffering minor war damage and undergoing a first restoration in the early 1960s, the original was moved to the Lapidarium on the Landwehr Canal in 1982 to protect the marble from weathering. A concrete copy replaced it from 1987 on, but it too was damaged. Since the air quality in the Tiergarten had improved significantly, the better-preserved original returned to its original location after a comprehensive restoration between 2009 and 2012.