Climbing bronze figures is actually a childlike, completely innocent pleasure. You only have to take a stroll through Munich’s Hellabrunn Zoo to see that sometimes the biggest crowds of visitors are not at the lion enclosure or in the petting enclosure. But with all the metal animal figures that are set up on the site: the ibexes in front of the entrance, a seal in the polar world, a gorilla in front of the great ape house…
Children crowd around the statues and climb up, shouting exuberantly. Some elegantly, others with difficulty. There seems to be no greater pleasure for four-, seven-, and ten-year-olds than sitting on the shoulders of the bronze elephant and having their parents or grandparents take their picture. Maybe because the characters stay still and don’t hide in their caves, unlike the real animals. The metal skins have long since been sharpened to a shine.
At some point during puberty the urge to wrap around a bronze seal’s neck disappears. Most people abandon the statues altogether, some still drive over the bronze lion in front of the Munich Residence because it is supposed to bring good luck. This is also a harmless tradition or quirk, depending on your point of view.
The case is different in Verona and Dublin: There, there is no other way to put it, even if they are ultimately objects, female characters are regularly sexually harassed. In the Irish capital, the bronze Molly Malone, who is sung about in a well-known folk song and has been honored with a monument since 1988, has to put up with someone constantly groping her breasts or even kissing them. The city council is now examining how it can protect Molly Malone from these attacks.
In Verona, a statue of Juliet Capulet, known as Shakespeare’s tragic figure, even had to be replaced ten years ago because it was so damaged – now the copy also has a hole in the right breast. Those who do this believe that touching Julia should bring happiness in love. So while in Ireland they try to protect Molly, in Verona they always introduce a new Julia to visitors when the old one is worn out. One may criticize the latter. But what would be the alternative? Just put up old German Bismarck statues?
Stefan Fischer is not a fan of hero worship.
(Photo: Bernd Schifferdecker (illustration))