CC BY 4.0
Miniature model
Model of the Rotteck Memorial, um 1848
About the object
Following the death of the celebrated scholar and politician, donations were gathered from across the country for a memorial designed by the Frankfurt sculpturer Zwerger. It was first erected on Rathausplatz in 1848 but was already moved from there in 1852. Since then, it has changed its location many times.
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Soon after Karl von Rotteck's death on 26 November 1840, a committee began collecting donations throughout Germany for a monument. In 1844, the Freiburg municipal council approved the erection of a monument on the Franziskanerplatz (today's Town Hall Square) in front of the university’s Kollegienhaus at the time (now the new town hall). Rotteck was a professor at Freiburg University before becoming a member of the First Chamber of the Badische Parliament in Karlsruhe, where he soon became one of the leading minds in liberal politics. The famous court sculptor, Ludwig von Schwanthaler from Munich was commissioned to make this bust, but was forced to turn down the commission at the behest of King Ludwig I. The commission was transferred to Johann Nepomuk Zwerger from Frankfurt, who completed the bust in 1847. However, the monument had to wait to be erected until October 1848 following the first phase of the revolution.