The Postplatz has probably the most beautiful fountain in the city: the Mussel Minna. Here you can have a wonderful rest after a shopping trip and enjoy the view of the art fountain.
After the first post office was completed in 1855 and the courthouse in 1865, the former cattle market was levelled and planted with trees. The Chief President of the Province of Silesia, Baron von Puttkammer, later Prussian Minister of the Interior, supported the people of Görlitz in their efforts to build an artificial fountain to beautify the square. Obviously, it was thanks to his intercession that the state of Prussia covered most of the costs.
Robert Toberentz, a sculptor from Wroclaw, produced the designs and models and the sculptors Ochs (father and son) carried out the work in marble.
The bronze figure was cast in the Lauchhammer art foundry. The fountain was inaugurated on 12 November 1887.
It was described as the most beautiful fountain in Silesia. Four larger-than-life figures, two male and two female, sit around a multi-tiered pedestal made of Carrara marble. As hunters, nymphs, fishermen and mermaids, they are supposed to represent strength, mutability, utility and romance. On the pedestal stood a bronze female figure, probably embodying nature, holding a shell over her head.
The people of Görlitz affectionately called this figure Mussel Minna. Water was only allowed to flow from the shell on special occasions. This was done to protect the delicate marble figures, as falling water causes irreparable damage to the valuable material. The water gushed from the masks located between the figures, from small fountains in the basin and from the beaks of four swans, which were probably made of cast zinc.
Several times the surroundings of the Mussel Minna underwent changes, but it was not until 1937, with the rerouting of the tram tracks, that the ornate paving around the fountain basin disappeared. A wide strip of grass was sown and from then on prevented people from approaching the work of art. Like many monuments and church bells, the "Minna" was taken away in July 1942 to be melted down for the armaments industry.
In 1967, the pedestal was again given a crowning - a marble bowl. The longing of the people of Görlitz for their Mussel Minna was never expired, and so in 1987 the Dresden sculptor Friedemann Klos was instructed to create a new casting model based on historical photos. The bronze casting of the new "Minna" was again undertaken by the Lauchhammer art foundry, and since 1 May 1994 the replica of the original fountain figure has stood on the pedestal and crowns the architectural ensemble of the Postplatz.
Wetter
