Ehekarussell

Lurid bronze fountain charting the course of marriage from courtship to death

The Ehekarussell (Marriage Carousel) is a large bronze fountain near the White Tower that traces the arc of marriage from courtship through domestic conflict to death. The sculptor Jürgen Weber divided the cycle into six sections, each rendered in explicit and often grotesque detail: young lovers intertwine at the top; later panels show domestic violence, infidelity, and mutual misery; at the base, a couple is consumed by the jaws of a monster. It is disturbing, funny, and unlike anything else in German public sculpture.

The fountain stands at the corner of Lorenzer Straße and Breite Gasse and is easy to find; you'll know it when you see it. Worth a long look.

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A story
The fountain was commissioned in 1984 to mark the 500th anniversary of Hans Sachs, the great Nuremberg cobbler-poet, whose poem about marriage provided the theme. The sculptor Jürgen Weber created something far darker than the city expected: the erotic and grotesque figures provoked enormous controversy and the fountain became a Nuremberg talking point for years.

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