''Wächter'' (, ''Guards'' or ''Guardians'', also singular) is a series of large outdoor iron sculptures by Anatol Herzfeld, a student of

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

who was both a traffic policeman and an artist, with a recurring theme. The sculptures are located at various places in Germany. One of them watches over a positive change in the environment, another is a monument to policemen killed in the line of duty.

Background

Anatol Herzfeld was born in

Insterburg Chernyakhovsk (russian: Черняхо́вск) – known prior to 1946 by its German name of (Old Prussian: Instrāpils, lt, Įsrutis; pl, Wystruć) – is a town in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, where it is the administrative center of ...

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label= Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1 ...

(now

Chernyakhovsk Chernyakhovsk (russian: Черняхо́вск) – known prior to 1946 by its German name of (Old Prussian: Instrāpils, lt, Įsrutis; pl, Wystruć) – is a town in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, where it is the administrative center of ...

, Russia) on 21 January 1931. During World War II, he and his family escaped to the Rhineland, where he first was a blacksmith and then a policeman. Teaching traffic rules to school children using puppets was one of his specialties. He studied sculpture at the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Jetelov� ...

with

from 1964 to 1972. As an artist, he was known as Anatol. In 1982, he settled on the Museum Island of Hombroich near

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

, running a studio in a former barn. In a radio feature about Anatol, the function of the ''Wächter'' has been described as watching, defending and enlightening. Anatol is quoted:

Sculptures

Several of Anatol's monumental outdoor sculptures are called ''Wächter'' (''Guards'' or ''Guardians''), early ones also ''Eisenmänner'' (''Iron Men''): * ''Eisenmänner / Wächter'' (1993), Museum Insel Hombroich, Neuss * ''Wächter der Goitzsche'' (2000),

Bitterfeld Bitterfeld () is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 July 2007 it has been part of the town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen. It is situated approximately 25 km south of Dessau, and 30 km northeast of Halle ( ...

* ''Die Wächter der Kinder'' (2002),

Viersen Viersen (; li, Veeëse) is the capital of the district of Viersen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Viersen is situated approximately 8 km north-west of Mönchengladbach, 15 km south-west of Krefeld and 20 km east o ...

* ''Wächter'', Neuss, inner court of the town hall * ''Wächter'' (2010/2011), Selm-Bork

''Wächter der Goitzsche''

''Wächter der Goitzsche'' (''Guards of the Goitzsche'') is the title of a group of up to ten large figures by Anatol. The group is one of 14 art installations at the Landschaftspark Goitzsche in

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

, and is located on the western shore of the . The park was renaturalised from a former

brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

mining area, and the ''Wächter'' watch over the process.

''Die Wächter der Kinder''

''Die Wächter der Kinder'' (''The Guardians of the Children'') is a group of iron figures located at the Casinogarten park in

''Wächter''

''Wächter'' (''Guard'') is an iron sculpture of one large figure with surrounding

glacial erratic A glacial erratic is glacially deposited rock differing from the type of rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundr ...

s (''Findlinge''), placed in 2011 at the Landespolizeischule in Selm-Bork, a training and convention centre for the police, as a monument for police officers from

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhab ...

who were killed in the line of duty.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wachter (Anatol) 1993 sculptures 2000 sculptures 2002 sculptures 2011 sculptures Iron sculptures Outdoor sculptures in Germany Monuments and memorials in Germany