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Schiller in Central Park

  • Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
  • Date of dedication: 1859
  • Sculptor: C.L. Richter
  • Medium & size: Bronze bust, over lifesize.
  • Location: Central Park, west and slightly north of the bandshell, just north of Beethoven.
Richter, Schiller, 1859. Central Park. Photo copyright © 2019 Dianne L. Durante

The very first sculpture erected in Central Park was of a man who never set foot in America, and whose face few visitors to the Park will recognize. Friedrich Schiller was born in 1759 in Germany. In his dramas, the main characters hold their values – such as honor, liberty, love – so passionately that they are willing to fight and die for them. Even those in the audience who didn’t value what Schiller’s heroes valued were drawn into his stories and inspired by the dedication and integrity of his characters.

Photo: Wikipedia
Photo: H.-P. Haack / Wikipedia

Schiller’s nineteenth-century fan club included Beethoven, who used Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” as the text for the final movement of the Ninth Symphony. Donizetti and Rossini each based an opera on a Schiller play (Maria Stuarda and William Tell). Verdi based no fewer than four operas on Schiller’s works (Don Carlos, Luisa Miller, I Masnadieri, Giovanna d’Arco). During his lifetime and today, no German playwright was more famous than Schiller.

Scene from Rossini’s William Tell

But what’s a sculpture of Schiller doing in Central Park?

Little Germany in New York

By 1855, only Berlin and Vienna had larger German populations than New York City. Many of the thriving population of immigrants lived in Kleindeutschland on the Lower East Side, where traces of them still remain.

German-American Shooting Society Clubhouse at 12 St Mark’s Place (1885) with inscription “Einigkeit macht stark” (“Unity makes strength”). Image: Schreibkraft / Wikipedia

Many German immigrants had fled their homeland for political reasons, but they remained proud of their cultural heritage. So in 1859 German-Americans celebrated the centennial of Schiller’s birth at the Great Hall in Cooper Union (one of the largest public venues in New York) with a day of speeches by William Cullen Bryant and other prominent figures. In Central Park, Schiller’s fans dedicated this bust.

Schiller in the Ramble. Clarence Cook, A Description of the New York Central Park, 1869.

It was the very first sculpture placed in the brand new Central Park – and Olmsted and Vaux did not want it there. Sculptures altered the pastoral vibe they were trying to create. Ordered by the Board of Commissioners to choose a site for the sculpture, Olmsted tucked it away in the Ramble. Only in 1955 was it moved to its present site, near Schiller’s compatriot Beethoven.

Schiller in the Ramble, Central Park (undated). Photo: Library of Congress

More

  • For more on Central Park at this time, see my Central Park: The Early Years.
  • In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon in print and Kindle formats. More here.
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