Originally, the bronze statue was the winner in an open competition sponsored by a German-American society to honor three prominent German editors: Carl Schurz, Emil Preetorius, and Carl Daenzer. The winning entrant was submitted by Wilhelm Wandschneider. When the model of the final statue was first submitted, there was concern about the figure's nudity. As a matter of fact, some wanted a different entrant to replace it. One of the movers and shakers requested that she be depicted clothed. The sculpturer refused, saying that "Den she would not be naked!" It was erected in 1914.
It seemed that the good citizens should have held out for a different allegorical figure: The Semi-Clothed Truth. Actually, seeing Truth depicted in a transparent nightie should have sufficed.
An additional part of the story unfolded when the United States went to war with Germany in 1917. Some St. Louis citizens tried to get the bronze statue melted down and used for bullets to fight the Kaiser. The Women's Christian Temperance Union Unchristian-like and intemperantly pushed for this to be done.
Fortunately, the statue was unaffected.
Therefore, if you have a desire to see the Truth, you know where to go. Nowadays truth-encounters are about as rare as seeing pileated woodpeckers.
8 comments:
That is a collossally ugly statue!
Surely it would be subject to statue breast-fondling, or even fit it out with an oversized bra? Statues of this type scream for some form of playful response.
an awkward pose, for sure!
I think the statue looks Ok, female wise. Here we have an underwater statue of a mermaid and her hips are very narrow. To me it ruins the whole thing. PS and her nipples are very shiny.
If you want to feel better about this statue, I can send you some pictures of phenomenally ugly statues I saw in Germany.
I grew up about 6 blocks from this statue but don't really remember it. How did you find this?
Nice boobies.
A statue that's very ripe for satire, if they had much of that years ago.
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