Bristol Hannover Council

Dear friends in Bristol,

With this letter I will take you on a sightseeing tour to Hannover’s fountains. This is to maintain the Hannover-Bristol connection in these bad times. I hope you will enjoy the article and you will get an appetite to visit the fountains during your next stay in Hannover.

First I will introduce you fountains in Hannover’s City Centre, maybe you know them from a visit in Hannover.

Let’s start with the Leafs(Blätter)- or Cimiotti-Fountain. Emil Cimiotti created this bronze fountain with different leafs. The water comes out of four wells on the top of the fountain. The water is very important for Hannover’s doves and others birds, for they can get here fresh drinking water and they can take a bath in the summertime. Shoppers like to stay here for some minutes on the benches around the fountain before they resume their shopping tour.

The next object is named the Post-Fountain, situated near the railway station. Nearby was the telephone exchange where, in the past, telephone operators would make telephone connections by hand(!) or they send telegrams  all around the world – many years ago. The two figures, made out of chalk, symbolically show the two basic elements of telecommunication – sending and receiving. The figure with the carrier pigeon is sending the message and the open hands stands for receiving.

           

On the Steintorplatz we visit one of the most popular fountains – the “Gänseliesel”. Erected in 1898 he is one of the oldest fountains in Hannover. The Gänseliesel’s job was to tend the mother goose with her goslings. The water is running out of the mouths of four frogs.

 

The last two fountains were created by Kurt Lehmann, professor at Hannover University. Numerous sculptures of him were erected all around in Hannover.

The “Playing Children” are situated in the Grupenstraße near the Market Church. The sculpture shows his daughter Katharina and his son Hans-Peter, who was director of the Hannover Opera between 1980 and 2001.

The other fountain object is the “Girl in the Rain”, Rosmarinhof in the municipal district Calenberger Neustadt. The model for the sculpture was Lehmann’s daughter Susanne. The story of the idea for this sculpture was that Susanne one day came back home with a newspaper.  Because of the rain she protected her head with the newspaper and when her Daddy saw her he said “please, stay a little while with the newspaper on your head”. It was then that the girl knew her father had had another inspiration for a new sculpture.

This was the first part of our sightseeing tour. I would be very happy to get feedback for that, e-mail: hajo.grunze@psychoborg.org

Best wishes from Hannover,

Your tour guide Hajo

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