Mother Kinzig (german: Mutter Kinzig) is a 1861 cast iron

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

in the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

city of

Kehl Kehl (; gsw, label= Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic, Kaal) is a town in southwestern Germany in the Ortenaukreis, Baden-Württemberg. It is on the river Rhine, directly opposite the French city of Strasbourg, with which it shares some munic ...

. It represents a "beautiful, dreamy, and sexy", "marvelously pretty" nude woman, who has been called "the most beautiful girl of Kehl".

Description

''Mother Kinzig'' is a

personification Personification occurs when a thing or abstraction is represented as a person, in literature or art, as a type of anthropomorphic metaphor. The type of personification discussed here excludes passing literary effects such as "Shadows hold their b ...

of the river Kinzig, a tributary of the Rhine. An idealized, broad-shouldered woman with long, flowing hair and a crown of cones, she is depicted as stepping down from a tree stump while pouring water from a hydria. The statue is approximately life-sized.

History

The statue was originally placed opposite a representation of ''" Father Rhine"'' on the high

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

portal on the German side of the railway bridge across the Rhine between Kehl and

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, France, inaugurated in April 1861. On the French side, an equivalent pair of statues depicted ''Père Rhin'' and ''Mère

Ill ILL may refer to: * ''I Love Lucy'', a landmark American television sitcom * Illorsuit Heliport (location identifier: ILL), a heliport in Illorsuit, Greenland * Institut Laue–Langevin, an internationally financed scientific facility * Interlibrar ...

''. ''Mother Kinzig'' is the work of the Neoclassical sculptor (1815–1881); her counterpart ''Father Rhine'' was the work of Hans Baur. With the destruction of the bridge on 22 July 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, the statues fell into the Rhine. They were replaced by new versions on the new bridge, which was built in 1874 and completely destroyed during World War II. While the original ''Father Rhine'' was never recovered, the original ''Mother Kinzig'' was retrieved in 1897. The pairing of a male statue representing the river Rhine with a female statue representing one of its tributaries was something of a local tradition in the 19th century. The two pairs on the railway bridge are lost, but a third pair,

s of ''Rhenus and Mosella'', can still be seen today in Strasbourg's Neustadt (see gallery below).

Current presentation

Since 1905, the statue of Mother Kinzig adorns the memorial commemorating the Franco-Prussian war on Kehls's central square, Marktplatz (Market Square). Behind her is a free space where the former city hall of Kehl used to stand (the current city hall, a 1817 building, is in use as such since 1910).

Gallery

Kehl am Rhein monument guerre 1870-71.jpg, Mother Kinzig ''in situ'' Mutter Kinzig am Kriegerdenkmal (3326833292).jpg, The hydria and the tree stump 5, rue du Maréchal Joffre, Strasbourg, 2019, statues allégoriques Rhin et Moselle.jpg, For comparison: ''Father Rhine and Mother Mosella'', by Alfred Marzolff (1898)

References

External links

{{Commonscat, Mutter Kinzig
Monument commémoratif allemand 1870, dit Mutter Kinzig
on the website of the Archives of Bas-Rhin (in French and German) 1861 works Sculptures in Baden-Württemberg Personifications of rivers Cast-iron sculptures Nude sculptures in Germany Neoclassical sculptures Statues in Germany