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

Anatol Herzfeld Anatol Herzfeld (born Karl-Heinz Herzfeld; 21 January 1931 – 10 May 2019) was a German sculptor and mixed-media artist, and also a policeman. A student of Joseph Beuys, he primarily used wood, iron and stone as materials. As an artist, he simpl ...

, a student of

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( ; ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and Aesthetics, art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism and sociology. With Heinrich Böll, , Caroline Tisdall, Rober ...

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 (; German language, German: Insterburg) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, and the administrative center of Chernyakhovsky District. Located at the confluence of the Instruch and Angrap ...

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

(now

Chernyakhovsk Chernyakhovsk (; German: Insterburg) is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, and the administrative center of Chernyakhovsky District. Located at the confluence of the Instruch and Angrapa rivers, which unite to become the Pregolya river bel ...

, 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, Blinky Palermo, Ma ...

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 is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, 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 Hall ...

* ''Die Wächter der Kinder'' (2002),

Viersen Viersen (; ) is the capital of the Viersen (district), 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 ...

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

Selm Selm () is a town in the district of Unna, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approximately 20 kilometers north of Dortmund and 25 kilometers west of Hamm. Geography The town belongs to the southern part of the Münsterland ...

-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 ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

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

brown coal Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, Combustion, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered ...

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 a glacially deposited rock (geology), rock differing from the type of country rock (geology), rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by gla ...

s (''Findlinge''), placed in 2011 at the Landespolizeischule in

-Bork, a training and convention centre for the police, as a monument for police officers from

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

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